Huernia thuretii

Huernia thuretii is a dwarf stem succulent.

It grows one to four flowers on hairless pedicels that emerge near the stem base or higher up. The flowers open in succession. They have small, hairless, lance-shaped sepals at the back. The corollas are mustard-coloured to yellow-ochre, the spots upon them red-brown to blood-red, as is the inside base of the tube. The corolla opens to 2,5 cm in diameter on a swollen tube of 6 mm long, although flower size differences have been noted.

The five pointed corolla lobes are smooth and spreading. Inside the flower, there is also an outer corona that has small divided lobes and tiny blackish tubercles and an inner corona with tiny, erect lobes, purple in colour.

The fruit is a follicle or pair of them, about 4 cm long.

The plant, not endemic to South Africa as it probably also occurs in Lesotho, is distributed in the Eastern Cape on north-facing slopes between Port Elizabeth and Peddie. The species is not considered to be threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century (White and Sloane, 1937; Gledhill, 1981; http://worldofsucculents.com; www.redlist.sanbi.org).