Huernia kirkii old, but hanging in

The flower of Huernia kirkii is pale cream to off-white on the outer surface of its corolla, the purple blotches on the inner surface showing through in the photo.

The lower part of the corolla tube has minute dark mottling on its outer surface. The five main corolla lobes exceed some of the secondary ones much in size in the photo. Some plants have hardly any signs of secondary lobes, others have large ones, sometimes of uneven size as in the flower of the photo. The closed buds of this plant are noteworthy: pale coloured and shapely, markedly pointed.

The old, somewhat dry stems of the plant in picture have prominent stem ridges, the teeth regular and pointed. The areas between the ridges are deeply sunken from age, a dry season or the effort of a belated flower (White and Sloane, 1937; www.succulents.co.za).