Huernia kirkii N.E.Br.

Succulent forming clump to 0.5 m diam. Stems 30-150 mm long, 8-12 mm thick (excluding teeth), decumbent to spreading, brownish or grey-green; tubercles 3-4 mm long, broadly deltoid, spreading, laterally flattened and joined into 5 slightly wing-like angles along stem, tapering abruptly to small acute tooth. Inflorescence of 1-5 flowers developing in gradual succession from short peduncle up to 5 mm long, with attenuate bracts 2-3 mm long; pedicel 6-25 mm long, 1.5 mm thick, spreading then ascending to hold flower facing upwards; sepals 6-10 mm long, 1.5-2.0 mm broad at base, narrowly ovate-acuminate. Corolla 20-30 mm long, 30-50 mm diam., bicampanulate; outside smooth, cream irregularly (sometimes very finely) spotted with pink, with 4-5 raised longitudinal veins running down each lobe onto tube; inside cream spotted with red or maroon changing to solid blackish maroon in tube, papillate all over except below thickening in tube, papillae reaching max. length of 2 mm and densest towards mouth of tube then decreasing in length gradually onto lobes, dark maroon tipped with short bristle; tube up to 20 mm long, at most slightly swollen in base, often pentagonal; lobes 8-10 mm long, 11-15 mm broad at base, erect to slightly spreading, deltate, acuminate. Corona ±6 mm tall, 7.5 mm broad, without basal stipe; outer lobes spreading on base of tube and partly fused to it, divided into 5 broad ± truncate and emarginate lobes, dark maroon; inner lobes 4.0-4.5 mm long, cream spotted with pale maroon, with darker tips, adpressed to backs of anthers near bases then connivent-erect and becoming divergent above, below dorsiventrally flattened with inflated dorsal gibbosity at base, with distinctly swollen bristly apex.