Craterocapsa tarsodes

Craterocapsa tarsodes, commonly known as a carpet bellflower, one of several kinds, is a mat-forming perennial. The prostrate, creeping and branching stems present rosettes of stiff lanceolate to oblanceolate leaves with tiny marginal teeth.

Clusters of pale blue or white bell-shaped flowers grow sessile and face upward, based upon a calyx with hard lobes. The five petals form a cup around the early disappearing stamens, spread around a style ending in a three-lobed stigma. The upper petal parts spread into a star-shape outside the corolla mouth, rounded in shape towards inconspicuously pointed tips. Flowers reach about 2 cm in diameter. They can be seen from late spring through summer.

The species distribution is in the east of South Africa, from the Eastern Cape, the Free State and KwaZulu-Natal to Mpumalanga and Limpopo, as well as Lesotho, Swaziland and Zimbabwe. 

The habitat is shallow soil, high altitude grassland, typically of Drakensberg rocky spots. The habitat population is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century (Manning, 2009; www.zimbabweflora.co.zw; http://redlist.sanbi.org).