Orbea conjuncta (A.C.White & B.Sloane) Bruyns

Dwarf succulent forming sprawling mat from 100 mm to 2 m diam. or hanging from ledges on rocky outcrops or cliffs, not rhizomatous. Stems 50-200 mm long, 6-10 mm thick (excluding teeth), prostrate, branching all along length, grey-green mottled with dark green to purple; tubercles 2-6 mm long, arranged very loosely into 4 rows along stem with slight groove beween rows, tapering into deltoid acute ± conical spreading tooth, without stipular denticles. Inflorescence 1(-2) per stem usually towards base, of 1(-2) flowers developing in gradual succession from very short peduncle (1-2 mm long), with few minute lanceolate bracts (<1.5 mm long); pedicels 8-14 mm long, 1.5-3.0 mm thick, slightly ascending, holding flower facing partly upwards; sepals 3-5 mm long, 2 mm broad at base, ovate-lanceolate, acuminate. Corolla 20-33 mm long, 22-42 mm broad, bicampanulate; outside smooth, cream suffused with pink; inside maroon to deep pink on lower tube annulus and base of upper tube, rest of tube and lobes cream (base sometimes also maroon); tube 12-18 mm deep, cupular, slightly narrowing towards mouth, at base with further (lower) bowl-shaped tube 5-7 mm long and 10-15 mm broad formed by 2-3 mm thick inward-pointing pentagonal annulus; lobes 6-17 mm long, 9-15 mm broad at base, ascending to spreading, deltate, acute, somewhat concave above, with sutures running from bases a further 5-10 mm down along tube (so that tube partly formed from fusion of lobes and lobes really 11-20 mm long), margins eciliate. Corona 5-7 mm tall, 9-10 mm broad, raised above base of tube on very short stipe (<1 mm long) usually just included within lower tube; outer lobes 3-6 mm long, ascending with spreading apices, deeply bifid (often to near base) into widely diverging lanceolate obtuse dorsiventrally-flattened lobules, lobules from adjacent lobes usually adpressed to one another, deep pink to maroon speckled with white towards base, papillate-pubescent towards apices, covered with droplets of sweat-like secretion around gynostegium above base of inner lobes; inner lobes ±1 mm long, adpressed to backs of anthers and sometimes exceeding them (to meet and rise up slightly in centre), dorsiventrally slightly flattened with small obtuse basal dorsal gibbosity connected to outer series, deep pink to maroon spotted with white, finely papillate especially towards apices.