Schwantesia herrei

Schwantesia herrei plants are small, tufted leaf succulents seldom measure more than 10 cm across. Large bodies would require more resources than the forbidding land generally has on offer. A little stressed in picture, the leaves turned pink with wrinkles at the end of another hot summer. 

Flowers are yellow-golden, about 4 cm in diameter. Five fleshy, leaf-like sepals are partly visible below the corolla. The petals are oblong with rounded tips; slightly more in number than would complete one single whorl. An ample cluster of yellow anthered stamens occupy the flower centre, obscuring the five stigmas. The flowers only open shortly before sunset.

Flowering happens in autumn, before the rainy season. This flower was seen late in April.

The fruit capsule to follow has five locules with covering membranes; the seeds tiny and shiny.

The species distribution is in the far northwest of the Northern Cape near the Gariep River, also in southern Namibia near the River.

The habitat is montane shrubland and desert, the plants found in quartzitic crevices and on ridges. The species is not considered to be threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century (Williamson, 2010; iSpot; Smith, et al, 1998; http://redlist.sanbi.org).