Notechidnopsis tessellata (Pillans) Lavranos & Bleck

Small succulent forming eventually a tangled mat up to 300 mm diam. Stems 30-150 mm long, 9-15 mm thick, prostrate to decumbent, sometimes slightly rhizomatous, green to purplish green; tubercles 1-2 mm long, 4-6-sided, flattish rising to obtuse tooth in middle, arranged into 6-8 very low obtuse rows along stems. Inflorescences 1-10 mainly in upper half of stem especially on new growth, each with 1-3(-5) flowers; pedicel 3-5 mm long, <1 mm thick, ascending to spreading and holding flower facing horizontally or upwards; sepals ±1.5 mm long, <1 mm broad at base, ovate-lanceolate, pale green. Corolla 6-10 mm diam., ± rotate; outside greyish white, glabrous; inside red-brown to red-purple usually speckled with pale yellow, becoming uniformly pale yellow towards centre, covered with sharp-pointed bristles (up to ±0.15 mm long) each arising from a conical-obtuse papilla; tube shallow, cupular, containing at most lower third of gynostegium; lobes 2-4 mm long, 1.5-3.0 mm broad at base, spreading to reflexed, ovate-deltate, acute, margins folded so that inside strongly convex. Corona 2.0-2.5 mm tall, ±3.0 mm broad, consisting of 2 series of lobes arising on staminal tube and partly intergrown, bright sulphur-yellow, glabrous; outer lobes ±1.5 mm long, steeply ascending and sometimes spreading towards apices, bifid into obtuse linear recurved lobules to emarginate-truncate, fused laterally for lower two thirds with dorsal projections of inner lobes into deep cup hiding guide-rails; inner lobes 0.6-1.1 mm long, adpressed to backs of anthers at bases then erect as anthers become horizontal and sometimes recurved towards tips, dorsiventrally flattened, linear, obtuse, with small truncate-erect dorsal projection in series with and laterally fused to outer lobes. Anthers horizontal on top of style-head, margins shrinking back to expose pollinia, rectangular. Pollinium ellipsoidal, longer than broad, insertion-crest exactly along outer edge, caudicle attached with small ± circular pad to ventral surface. Follicles erect, terete-fusiform, obclavate, slender, consisting of 2 horns diverging at 30-60°, longitudinally mottled with narrow broken purple stripes, glabrous, smooth.