Diascia hexensis

Diascia hexensis is commonly called twinspur as some other diascias are called as well, and in Afrikaans bokhorinkie (little antelope horn), as some other plants, including diascias are also called. D. hexensis is an annual reaching 22 cm in height.

The simple leaves grow in a cluster or rosette at ground level, while the stem leaves are opposite or alternate, becoming smaller higher up. The leaf petioles are up to 2 cm long. Leaf-shape is ovate to elliptic or obovate, rounded at the tip and tapering to the base. The green or sometimes partly dark red blades are fleshy and soft, the margins sometimes triangularly toothed, lobed or cleft. The leaves become about 2,5 cm long and 1 cm wide.

The species distribution is central in the Western Cape and inland from Ceres to the Little Karoo as well as the Karoo to slightly into the south of the Northern Cape. The photo was taken on the Minwater farm near Oudtshoorn.

The habitat is karoid scrub on flats and lower slopes where the soil is clayey. The species is not considered to be threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; iNaturalist; http://www.worldfloraonline.org; http://redlist.sanbi.org).