Acanthopsis villosa

This small Acanthopsis villosa plant flowered triumphantly near Springbok in August. Three blue corolla lobes are large and round-tipped, the outer two smaller and less noticed on the sides of the corolla. The base of the one-lipped corolla is white.

The purplish anthers against the white background touch each other, close to the white style.

The narrow, lobed leaves bear long spines at the lobe tips. The pale leaf midrib bisects the dark green, shiny leaf blade.

There are about 14 species of Acanthopsis in South Africa, a couple of them with recorded subspecies. The recent increase from eight species in the genus happened after a study that split some species.

The genus is mainly associated with the arid winter rainfall part of South Africa in Namaqualand and the Richtersveld, as well as in Namibia (Leistner, (Ed.), 2000; iNaturalist).