Orbea pulchella (Masson) L.C.Leach

Dwarf succulent forming clump 50-300 mm diam., not rhizomatous. Stems 25-100 mm long, 5-10 mm thick (excluding teeth), (shortly) decumbent, green mottled with purple-brown; tubercles 4-9 mm long, arranged loosely into 4 obtuse rows along stem with groove between rows, tapering into spreading to ascending conical acute tooth (usually lacking denticles). Inflorescence 1 per stem, of 1-3 flowers developing successively from short peduncle <5 mm long, with few small bracts <1.5 mm long; pedicel 10-30 mm long, 2 mm thick, horizontal to ascending usually with ascending apex; sepals 4-10 mm long, 2 mm broad at base, ovate-lanceolate, acuminate. Corolla 30-55 mm diam., rotate to shallowly bowl-shaped; outside smooth, pale green towards base, flecked and veined with purple-brown on lobes; inside pale yellow with purple-brown to red spots becoming smaller and denser on annulus, uniformly purple-brown or red around and beneath gynostegium, transversely papillate-rugulose except towards base of tube; tube shallowly bowl-shaped, containing and often formed by thickened pentagonal (with corners below sinuses of lobes) sometimes very obscure annulus 1.5-2.0 mm thick and ±10-12 mm diam., with ring of cylindrical bristles in base immediately around gynostegium; lobes 13-20 mm long, 12-16 mm broad at base, spreading to recurved, deltate to deltate-ovate, very acute or acuminate, margins eciliate. Corona ±5 mm tall, 6-7 mm broad, raised above base of tube on stout cylindrical stipe ±1 mm tall; outer lobes 2-3 mm long, ascending, deeply channelled on upper surface, ± rectangular, truncate to shallowly apically notched, laterally fused towards base to lower rear of inner lobes, dark purple-red; inner lobes ±3 mm long, adpressed to backs of anthers and exceeding them to rise in small column in centre then slightly diverging, dorsiventrally flattened below becoming terete near apex, usually with deltoid to truncate often transversally flattened dorsal projection near base.