Wooleya farinosa short branches

The annual growth season brings branching but little stem length. The result is the dwarf Wooleya farinosa plant shape, a compact mound that copes with most things on the ground along Namaqualand’s coast.

When times (and places) are tough, resource conservation is at a premium. Living species, be they plants or animals, evolve by the early or late timing of death, before or after reproduction, i.e. evolution; not by thinking things through and choosing.

The young branches of this mesemb start off ash-grey to purplish, gradually turning grey-brown over time as the conditions test them. The main event in leaf life. What else is there to do in the land of some beetles, few tortoises, fewer hares, and the occasional land snail that wreak havoc by nibbling a vygie leaf?

For people, there comes that fleeting, quiet moment of looking around when visiting this kind of faraway place, wondering how it would feel to live here all one’s life, in whatever shape fate gave you.

Reality offers so many unexplored extensions (Cowling and Pierce, 1999; Smith, et al, 1998; iNaturalist; Wikipedia).