Crassula congesta pioneering a bare patch

This bare quartzitic patch is home to many Crassula congesta subsp. laticephala seedlings and young plants in April near Oudtshoorn. Sprouting in exposed conditions, they appear as if there need be no fear for their future.

Not all plants can weather such conditions. Small succulents of the semi-arid parts of South Africa are well represented among those that can. Many of them would do better if a few tall shrubs had cast some shadows on the parched earth.

Some reddish leaf discoloration heralds slower metabolism in summer, but life goes on among the resilient (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2010).