Dwarf non-rhizomatous succulent forming mat up to 300 mm diam. Stems 25-300 mm long, 8-10 mm thick, prostrate, glabrous, initially pale grey-green later often yellowish or reddish green sometimes speckled with purple-red; tubercles 2-5(-8) mm long, broadly conical, slightly laterally flattened and joined near base into 4 acute angles along stem between which stem concave, tapering to sharp yellow-tipped conical spreading tooth. Inflorescences glabrous, 1(-3) per stem, with 1-10 flowers developing above surface of soil on knobbly peduncle up to 5 mm long; pedicel 3-12 mm long, 1 mm thick, ascending and holding flower facing upwards; sepals 2-3 mm long, 1 mm broad at base, ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, often with recurved tips. Corolla 8.5-9.0 mm long, 5-6 mm diam., obconical and widest about halfway down lobes; outside glabrous, ± shiny, dark flesh-coloured to pale pink becoming whitish near base; inside pink on lobes changing to pale yellow in lower half of tube, with many erect straight white bristles ±0.5 mm long in lower half of tube only; tube 4-6 mm long, 3.0-4.5 mm broad, cupular but widening slightly towards mouth from narrow base, walls less than 0.5 mm thick; lobes 4-6 mm long, ±3 mm broad at base, occasionally united at tips, narrowly deltate, acute. Corona 3-4 mm tall, 2-3 mm broad, raised on very short stout obtusely pentagonal stipe, yellow becoming reddish towards tips of inner lobes; outer lobes <0.5 mm long, ascending-spreading, truncate to emarginate, forming shallow pouch between bases of inner lobes and fused laterally to them for entire length; inner lobes 2.5-3.5 mm long, erect then connivent at apices, laterally flattened in lower half becoming ± terete above, dorsal projection ± absent.
Home