Home
Leaves decussate, sessile, semiamplexicaul, shortly connate and each decurrent in two raised lines down the stem, rounded or obtuse at the apex, entire, the oldest ones red at the margin, fleshy, flat; basal ones 6-18(23·5) x 5·5-15 cm., subcircular or obovate to oblong-spathulate, contracted into a very short and broad subpetiolar base (up to 3 cm. broad), very dense, spreading; median leaves 3-5-9 x 3-3-5 cm., oblong to spathulate or suborbicular,:±: scattered, the uppermost ones smaller; lower internodes short (the shortest ones c. 2 mm. long), the median ones increasing to 16·5 cm.
Flowers erect, usually in many-flowered, dense, shortly pedunculate, upright, scorpioid, opposite, axillary cymes, forming a narrow to somewhat broad, continuous or interrupted thyrsoid inflorescence up to 32·5(43) x 6·5(14) cm. or rarely a panicle; internodes of the inflorescence 2-8, longer than the cymes in the interrupted inflorescences, shorter to subequalling them in the continuous ones; leaves of the flowering axis bract-like, oblong, shorter than the cymes; pedicels up to 10 mm. long.
Corolla 10-15(16) mm. long; tube 6-10 mm. long and ± 8 mm. in diameter at the middle, distinctly 4-angled, very contracted just below the limb, pale green, mealy; corolla-lobes 4·5-7 x 2·5-3 mm., oblong or ovate-triangular, obtuse to nearly acute, at first suberect, finally reflexed, pale yellow, pale pink, whitish or greenish, turning brownish-red when dry.
Single flowering stem arising from the dense rosette of leaves formed in previous year, curved at base, then erect and straight, terete or sub-4-angled, up to 2 cm. in diam. at base, finally leafless below and marked there by the very close scars of fallen leaves, leafy upwards.
Filaments 4 or 5 mm. long (at fruiting time), inserted ± at the j of corolla-tube; anthers c. 1·5 x 1·5 mm., with divergent thecae, reddish, exserted.
A stout biennial succulent, 0·5-2·5 m. tall, completely glabrous but covered with a white mealy layer falling off with the age.
Scales 1-2 x 2-2·5 mm., usually broader than long, subquadrate-cuneate, entire, emarginate or 3-lobed.
Calyx-tube 0·75-1·5 mm. long; sepals 3-6·5 x 2·25-4 mm., oblong to lanceolate, obtuse to acute.
Follicles 7-11-5 mm. long; styles 2·75-3·5 mm. long, exserted.
