Quaqua mammillaris (L.) Bruyns

Often robust succulent shrub up to 600 mm diam., rooting from single central stem only. Stems 120-500 mm long, 15-40 mm thick, erect, uniformly green to purple or brown, occasionally mottled with purple-brown on green; tubercles 5-20 mm long, conical to slightly laterally flattened, spreading, fused near base into 4-5 irregularly arranged angles, each tipped with sharp hardened yellow-brown tooth. Inflorescences of 3-15 ± simultaneously opening flowers usually in dense fascicles mostly in upper two thirds of stem; pedicel 2-3 mm long, 2 mm thick, spreading and holding flower facing horizontally; sepals 3-4 mm long, ovate, acuminate. Corolla 20-27 mm diam., campanulate to nearly rotate; outside pale-green towards base, otherwise purple-brown; inside purple-black to red on lobes and into mouth of tube where breaking up and becoming spots and bands on cream to white in tube, with low to conical obtuse papillae mainly on lower half of lobes and mouth of tube, each topped with a thick ascending bristle; tube 3-5 mm long, ±5 mm broad at mouth, cupular, corolla thickened at mouth; lobes 10-20 mm long, 4.5-7.0 mm broad at base, erect to spreading, narrowly lanceolate (sometimes ovate then linear, usually tapering from base to finely acute often slightly incurved apex), strongly longitudinally folded back down middle. Corona ±3 mm tall, 4.0-4.5 mm broad, dark purple-brown, raised on short stipe; outer lobes 1.5-2.0 mm long, erect, bifid to nearly halfway down into erect deltoid teeth (sometimes with small denticle between them) laterally fused for most of length with bases of inner lobes to form deep pouch; inner lobes ±1 mm long, adpressed to backs of anthers and exceeding them, then connivent-erect and rising into small column in centre, linear, obtuse, dorsiventrally flattened, with erect truncate to obtuse dorsal projection slightly in front of outer lobes.

It is a tropical plant. It grows in shade. In southern Africa it grows between 150-1,100 m above sea level. It can grow in arid places.

Caution: It should not be eaten by pregnant women. The stems are eaten in large quantities. The leaves are used as a green vegetable. The flowers and fruit are eaten.