Delosperma obtusum enjoying its own company

This small Delosperma obtusum plant appears frail but resilient. Not in any way cast in stone, it lives well for now, ensconced in a Drakensberg rock crevice. 

Two unusual features are present: The leaves are grey green and look as if covered in faint hairiness. The leaf-like sepal lobes are red brown. This sepal colouring seems to occur in some green-leaved plants of the species and also in D. lavisiae, a similar species. Smith, et al, show a photo of D. esterhuyseniae flowering white with slightly red sepals.

Deviance in people is all but attractive, often repulsive. In plants the opposite is often to be expected: excitement about a new form, eagerness to harvest seed or to transplant in a special place. Resist antisocial urges, at least in these circumstances (Pooley, 1998; Smith, et al, 1998; iNaturalist).