Plants arising from swollen, ± oblong tubers coloured greyish with brown flakes, up to 5.0 x 2.0 cm. Stem swollen, covered with a brown flaking surface, 6-12 mm long x 6 mm broad; branches to 5, greyish, 5-45 mm long x 4-8 mm broad, with phyllopodia covered in minute trichomes; phyllopodia ± triangular, largest 4 x 3 mm, with whitish, half-lunar, apical, leaf abscission points. Leaves 2-4, arranged in a terminal rosette, appearing in winter and withering in spring; pedicels suberect to erect, 5-8 x 0.8-1 mm thick; laminae dark, shiny-green, ± at right angles to the pedicels, upper surfaces all facing skywards and radiating outwards, cordiform, 5-8 x 7-10 mm, covered with dense, erect, transparent, variously shaped, white trichomes that are ca. 0.2-0.6 mm long. Inflorescence a single dichasmia with 1-2 flowers on an erect, wire-like peduncle ca. 10 x 1.2 mm, terminal on previous year’s growth, covered with dense, glandular trichomes. Flowers erect, ca. 10 mm long, appearing in January on pedicels ± 10 x 0.8-1.0 mm, covered with dense trichomes. Calyx segments 2 x 0.8 mm, rectangular with rounded apex, brownish-yellow, covered with variously shaped, dense trichomes. Corolla tube infundibular, 10 x 5 mm at broadest, light lime-green with a green throat and covered with dense, low, translucent trichomes; lobes 4 x 2.5 mm, spreading, slightly recurved, oblong, apiculate, yellowish, with dense, low trichomes covering the undersurface. Stamens in 2 whorls, outer up to 10 mm long and inner ca. 8 mm long, erect with apex decurved, light green, fused to corolla tube from ca. lower third to half way, lower portion of tube surrounding stamens densely hairy; anthers rounded-oblong, yellow, ca. 1 mm long. Squamae transversely-oblong with a deep, apical notch, 0.5 mm high x 0.8 mm wide. Carpels green in lower half and yellow in upper portion, tapering to slender styles from a rounded base, carpel, style and stigma ca. 10 mm x 2 mm broad at base; stigmas white and slightly decurved.
Home