Small succulent 60-150 mm diam. Stems 30-120 mm long, 8-15 mm thick; leaf-rudiments 2-3(-5) mm long, subulate. Inflorescence with few flowers developing in rapid to gradual succession on spreading peduncle up to 20 mm long; pedicels 20-60 mm long, 2-3 mm thick, spreading with upturned apex so that flowers often ± humifuse; sepals 2-3 mm long, 1.25 mm broad at base, narrowly deltoid, acute. Corolla 22-35 mm diam., rotate (rarely campanulate); outside pale dull green spotted with purple-brown and obscurely 5-nerved on each lobe; inside pale cream to greenish finely spotted with purple-brown (spots becoming slightly larger towards margins and there sometimes coalescing into narrow purple-brown border), faintly rugulose but not papillate; tube a very shallow (±1 mm deep, occasionally somewhat deeper in subsp. truncata) depression in centre of flower, corolla slightly thickened around mouth (towards bases of lobes); lobes 8-10 mm long, 10-12 mm broad at base, spreading with recurved apices, ovate to ovate-deltate, acute, sometimes with simple to slightly clavate cilia. Corona 2.5-3.0 mm tall, 4.0-6.5 mm broad, raised on short stipe; outer lobes 1-3 mm long, 1.0-1.5 mm broad, ascending then spreading, shiny black, deeply bifid into obtuse ± terete diverging lobules to ± rectangular and truncate-emarginate; inner lobes ±1 mm long, shorter than to exceeding anthers and meeting in centre but not rising above anthers, yellow with black margin all round, narrowly deltoid, ± acute, near base sometimes with small dorsal gibbosity.
More
Like T. jucunda but pedicels 20-60 mm long, outer corona lobes broadening towards tips, inner lobes not rising above anthers, with only a small, dorsal swelling.
Like T. gemmiflora but plants smaller and flowers 15-25 mm diam., cream-coloured to pale green spotted with purple-brown.
Home