Gibbaeum nuciforme old leaves half buried

Gibbaeum nuciforme leaves may retract “defensively”, becoming half buried in the ground in dry times. Only the leaf-body tips then show the slits in their upper parts through which new leaf-pairs will emerge and replace them. Losing moisture and succulence during dry periods causes the fat leaf-bodies to shrink, becoming wrinkled, yellower and less green.

The small, dry fruit capsules have six neatly fitting, triangular valves on the top of each, borne next to the leaf-bodies and no taller than them.

The purple flowers that preceded the capsules were less than 1 cm in diameter, normally appearing late in winter or during spring. Their oblong to narrowly oblanceolate petals are often not straight, the tips rounded (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Smith, et al, 1998; iNaturalist).