Portulacaria pygmaea, the dwergspekboom

Portulacaria pygmaea stores its moisture for the dry, hot season in a broad caudex below the leaves and in the succulent leaves themselves.

The rootstock may be 10 cm wide on a mature plant. It consists of diverse, compacted plant material comprising some root, shoot, epicotyl (the region of a seedling stem above the stalks of the seed leaves or cotyledons of an embryo plant) and hypocotyl (the plant embryo part directly below the cotyledons), all persisting and clumped together to form the reservoir. The bark on the caudex is rough and dark.

The small lilac flowers of P. pygmaea are either male or female, the species dioecious (Williamson, 2010; iNaturalist; www.llifle.com).