Orbea gerstneri (Letty) Bruyns

Species

Angiosperms > Gentianales > Apocynaceae > Orbea

Characteristics

Small succulent forming dense clumps, often rhizomatous. Stems 30-100 mm long, 5-20 mm thick (excluding teeth), slender to stout, decumbent, dark grey-green to dark green mottled with red-purple; tubercles 4-13 mm long, arranged into 4 obtuse rows along stem, tapering into laterally flattened deltoid acute spreading to ascending tooth rarely with 2 minute denticles on either side towards apex. Inflorescence 1(3) per stem from base to near apex, of 3-8 flowers opening ± simultaneously or in succession from short peduncle (<2 mm long), with several subulate laterally toothed bracts 2.0-2.5 mm long; pedicel 6-10 mm long, 2.0-2.5 mm thick, ascending and holding flowers facing upwards or horizontally; sepals 5-8 mm long, 1.5-2.0 mm broad at base, lanceolate, acuminate. Corolla 35-60 mm diam., rotate-campanulate; outside smooth, finely mottled with purple-red on pale cream-green to pale cream-green towards base; inside dark purple-red mottled with cream becoming solid purple-brown in tube, irregularly rugulose-papillate with rugosities disappearing in lower half of tube, rugosities somewhat organised into longitudinal lines on lobes; tube 6-8 mm long, 10 mm broad, cupular, pentagonal, with corolla slightly thickened at mouth and sometimes with raised annulus there; lobes 11-17 mm long, 7-10 mm broad at base, spreading, slightly ovate, deltate to lanceolate, acute, flat above, with clavate vibratile cilia 1.5-2.0 mm long along margins of lower third. Corona 4.0-4.5 mm tall, 9.0-9.5 mm broad, raised above base of tube on short stipe (±1 mm long), red-brown; outer lobes 2-3 mm long, 1.5-2.0 mm broad, ± rectangular, spreading with ascending tips, with 2 raised radial ridges on upper surface (area between them dark purple-brown), apex deltoid to bifid between these ridges outside them truncate to attenuated into spreading lobules; inner lobes 2.5-3.0 mm long, with lower slightly dorsiventrally flattened portion adpressed to backs of anthers for half anthers’ length then becoming ± terete and ascending-connivent with slender to clavate-tuberculate apex, with dorsal (slightly laterally flattened) horn about halfway up lobe, dorsal gibbosity/hornlets at base partly fused to outer series, brown.
Life form perennial
Growth form herb
Growth support free-standing
Foliage retention -
Sexuality hermaphrodite
Pollination -
Spread -
Mature width (meter) -
Mature height (meter) 0.0 - 0.01
Root system -
Rooting depth (meter) -
Root diameter (meter) -
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Nitrogen fixer -
Photosynthetic pathway -

Environment

Light -
Soil humidity -
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Soil acidity -
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Hardiness (USDA) -

Usage

Uses medicinal
Edible -
Therapeutic use -
Human toxicity -
Animal toxicity -

Cultivation

Mode -
Germination duration (days) -
Germination temperacture (C°) -
Germination luminosity -
Germination treatment -
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Optimum temperature (C°) -
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Vigor -
Productivity -

Distribution

Orbea gerstneri world distribution map, present in South Africa

Identifiers

LSID urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:1019346-1
WFO ID wfo-0000384606
COL ID 6SRDJ
BDTFX ID -
INPN ID -
Wikipedia (EN)
Wikipedia (FR)

Synonyms

Orbea gerstneri Caralluma gerstneri Orbeopsis gerstneri Orbeopsis gerstneri subsp. gerstneri

Lower taxons

Orbea gerstneri subsp. elongata