Pleiospilos compactus subsp. canus using protective services

This Pleiospilos compactus subsp. canus has befriended a big brother shrub that prevents it being trampled. The couple grows here in interesting, leaf-like shale rocky soil in the Kammanassie.

The fine-grained sedimentary rock is laminated, meaning that it formed from mud in many thin layers long ago, like the pages of a book. This rock is also fissile, meaning that it readily splits into thin pieces along the laminations.

These plants must like it here, as both appear to have been around for a long time. The succulent has young, pale, blue-green leaves, as well as others shaded in colours befitting the aged. Fruit capsules from earlier flowering persist among its leaf bases. The shrub has woody stems, bare low down and green with leaves higher up, indicating wellness (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; https://geology.com).