Pleiospilos bolusii leaves

Pleiospilos bolusii leaf bodies are short, angular and thickly succulent.

They grow in identical opposite pairs, connected at the base and spreading their tips as they mature. The new pair grows pressed against each other from the slit between the older pair. The old pair darkens gradually as it loses succulence and is replaced by the new, swelling, decussate pair.

Each stout leaf is strongly keeled on the upper part of its outer surface, rounded lower down and flat on the inside surface. The hairless leaf surfaces are rough from tiny tubercle-like dots scattered densely along the grey-green bodies.

Leaf margins and keels in picture are orange-yellow in their dots or tubercles. The generic name Pleiospilos tells about the leaves being full of dots: pleios (Greek) means full, spilos (also Greek) means dots (Frandsen, 2017; Smith, et al, 1998; Gledhill, 1981; Herre, 1971).