Khadia alticola

Khadia alticola is a compact leaf succulent growing horizontal rhizomes and branches from the thickened rootstock to form mats.

The equally paired, opposite leaves are short, stubby and basally fused. The leaves are keeled, triangular in cross-section in their upper parts and about 15 mm long. The leaf-tips are acutely pointed. Leaf colour is variable from dark to grey green, bright to dull green with fine dots.

Pale pink flowers, nearly white at the petal bases, grow solitary on long stalks. Five, sometimes six leaf-like sepals are present below the two to four whorls of petals. Stamens and staminodes, sometimes with barren anthers, form an erect cone in the early flowering stages.

Flowering happens in summer. The cone-shaped, woody fruit capsules have large valve rims and firm covering membranes.

The species distribution is in northwestern KwaZulu-Natal near Utrecht and in Mpumalanga on the Steenkampsberge near Belfast where the photo was taken.

The habitat is montane grassland at high elevations in quartzitic, sandy soil among rocks. While the species is rare, its population is considered to be stable in habitat early in the twenty first century (Frandsen, 2017; Smith, 1998; iNaturalist; http://redlist.sanbi.org).