Biology:Anacampseros albidiflora

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Short description: Species of plant

Anacampseros albidiflora
Anacampseros albidiflora - Witteberge - Copy.jpg
Scientific classification edit
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Caryophyllales
Family: Anacampserotaceae
Genus: Anacampseros
Species:
A. albidiflora
Binomial name
Anacampseros albidiflora
Poelln.

Anacampseros albidiflora is a species of succulent plant native to the Great Karoo and Little Karoo regions of South Africa .[1]

Description

Stem detail
Flower detail (pink-flowered form)

The small (4 cm high), erect column-stems of this species are extremely hairy.

The tiny rounded leaves have slight downcurved tips. The long (up to 2 cm), white, curling hairs extend further out than its small (7x5mm), red-green, rounded (obovoid), densely-packed leaves, and cover them. (Unlike Anacampseros subnuda, its older leaves do not become bald.)

An. albidiflora has pale pink to white-ish flowers, each with roughly 25 stamens.

Similar related species

It is often confused with the related species, Anacampseros arachnoides - another hairy Anacampseros with a similar distribution (though favouring slightly moister habitats). However the leaves of An. arachnoides are ovoid, with tiny acuminate points, and are arranged in a 2/5 spiral.

The leaves of An. albidiflora are obovoid-rounded to truncate, and are arranged in a 3/8 spiral (similar to those of Anacampseros subnuda or Anacampseros filamentosa).[1]

Distribution

An. albidiflora occurs in the Little Karoo and Great Karoo regions of the Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa .

Of the region's other Anacampseros species, with which it co-occurs, An. albidiflora tends to favour the most arid habitats. In habitats which are more arid still, a member of a closely related genus, Avonia papyracea, becomes dominant; In slightly less arid habitats, Anacampseros arachnoides takes over.[1]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Dyer, R. Allen, The Genera of Southern African Flowering Plants. ISBN:0 621 02854 1, 1975

Wikidata ☰ Q17270070 entry