Tylecodon similis

The even smaller than usual Tylecodon similis plant in picture is flowering in summer. Its green or red, deciduous leaves grown in winter are by now nowhere to be seen.

The creamy young and reddish old flower show exemplary productive activity in a bare, gravelly environment where many would not even lift a leaf, let alone set a seed.

Several members of the Tylecodon genus live in the northwest of South Africa. The trying, arid conditions may have forced speciation among them in the past. What the future holds, global warming that may hit hard in their part of the world, may be speculated upon. Known much later, but by whom?

(Several of the plants introduced in this Album are dealt with in more detail in their respective genus Albums.)