Haworthia mirabilis var. calcarea

Haworthia mirabilis is a complicated plant in identity terms. This one may be var. calcarea but also possibly H. rossouwii var. calcarea. SANBI lists 17 varieties of H. mirabilis but not var. calcarea.

That a plant scrutinised does exist is a fortunate truth. That it therefore must have a proper name isn’t always as clearcut. Hybrids resembling more than one species appear in nature and horticulture. There must be fewer nameless species on earth living on land than in the sea, but there will always be some, as long as there's life. Evolution is continuous after all. This one was bought from the nursery at the Karoo Desert National Botanical Garden at Worcester under the name given above.

The leaf-bases in the rosette in picture are yellow-green and opaque, their upper parts darkly translucent with three opaque veins continuing up, converging more or less below the tips. The margins have tiny, pale, spaced spines. There are keels also bearing spines near the tips.

Small lateral rosettes have formed near ground level, developing along the rosette perimeter, resulting in the clump typical of many mature Haworthia plants (Frandsen, 2017; Scott, 1985; iNaturalist; http://redlist.sanbi.org).