Orbea elegans, the latest species, maybe already extinct

Orbea elegans, the elegant orbea, is a recently discovered dwarf stem-succulent that is already thought to be possibly extinct. It must count among the most short-lived of taxons in the world of plant lovers since it was first described from a single plant in 2004.

Branched at the base, the plant forms a small clump of greenish stems, at least in cultivation. The attractive, erect stems become up to 7 cm tall. The prominent, pointed teeth spread and elongate. Stem mottling in several shades of green may acquire some purplish, at least in the dry winters of the plant’s habitat.

Numerous flowers may be borne consecutively in the inflorescence that emerges low down on a young stem. Narrow, tapering sepals can be seen on the bud to the left in picture. The decumbent pedicels are up to 2,5 cm long. The flowers may lie on the ground, their diameter about 2,7 cm. The corolla has five spreading, triangular lobes around a prominently raised annulus. The lobes are maroon-spotted in irregular rows on a wrinkled, whitish background, the large spots laterally elongated to elliptic. The annulus is more intensely maroon-marked than the lobes to nearly mono-coloured.

The outer corona is five-lobed, its lobes appearing rounded and maroon-spotted, filling much of the space low-down inside the annulus. The inner corona is raised in the centre, its five whitish lobes oblong and small.

The species distribution is very small in the southeastern foothills of the Blouberg in Limpopo, east of the Glen Alpine Dam.

The habitat is Soutpansberg montane bushveld where the plants may still grow in dry, rocky woodland at an elevation of about 1150 m, or not, as no known plants exist in the region at present. Overgrazing, flooding and dam construction may have brought extinction to the species as the plant is deemed to be critically endangered if not extinct in nature early in the twenty first century (Frandsen, 2017; http://redlist.sanbi.org).