Schlechteranthus

Schlechteranthus is a genus of dwarf leaf succulents in the Aizoaceae or mesemb family. Some of the species are commonly known in Afrikaans as vleisbosse (meat bushes). Compact in growth habit, the plants typically form mats or mounds, their branches densely leafy, mostly covering the internodes.

The simple, succulent leaves grow in opposite pairs, joined in their lower halves. Leaf bodies may be 5 mm long and wide. Upper leaf surfaces are flat, the backs keeled, usually with a tooth or two. The leaf tips end in tiny, pointed protrusions, or mucros. The smooth leaf surfaces are grey or grey-green, bluish or reddish, often glossy. There are often papillae over the leaf surface stomas.

The small, solitary flowers are short-stalked, a pair of bracts on each pedicel. The six sepals are unequal. The white, pink or purple petals grow in two or three whorls.

The stamens form a cone in the flower centre, surrounded by sterile staminodes. There are sometimes papillae on the filaments. A wavy ring of nectar glands is present in the flower base. The ovary is convex on top; the fruits growing on the insides of the outer walls. There are ten to twelve awl-shaped stigmas in a flower.

Flowering often happens in winter. Flowers open around noon and close at dusk.

The fruits have eight to twelve locules. The covering membranes are variable, the expanding keels parallel, diverging to pointed tips. Closing bodies are present. The pear-shaped seeds are flattened, rough and reddish yellow.

There are about 15 Schlechteranthus species, all in the west of South Africa, endemic to arid, winter rainfall region, mainly Namaqualand. The Polymita genus was merged into Schlechteranthus in a 2016 revision.

The plant in picture is Schlechteranthus albiflorus (Leistner, (Ed.), 2000; Smith, et al, 1998; Klak and Bruyns, 2016: Expansion of Schlechteranthus (Ruschioideae, Aizoaceae) to include Polymita, with a new species from Namaqualand, South Africa. SA Journal of Botany, 103(70 to 77)).