Ceraria pygmaea (Pillans) G.D.Rowley

국표에 없다.

Origin and Habitat: Ceraria pygmaeaSN|23514]]SN|23514]] is found near Grootderm in the northern Richtersveld in Namaqualand (Cape Province, South Africa) and across the Orange River to south of Luderitz in Namibia.
Habitat and ecology: Ceraria pygmaeaSN|23514]]SN|23514]] grows in hot hills in the quartz fields of Richtersveld where so many other extreme succulent plants occur, and has a remarkable growth-form. Like Anacampseros alstoniiSN|25187]]SN|25187]] it has an irregular, knotty caudex almost completely buried in the ground, and which merges into an irregular, knotty, fleshy caudex.

Synonyms:

• Ceraria pygmaea (Pillans) G.D.Rowley

Description: Ceraria pygmaeaSN|23514]]SN|23514]] is a dwarf dioecious, more or less evergreen, glabrous, succulent plants or mini-shrub that, as it matures, it develops a fat tuberous water-storing rootstocks to about 7-10 cm wide. The rootstock is a morphologically hardly identifiable tissue complex, composed of parts of the root, the hypocotyl, the epicotyl and the shoot. Plants with such tissue complexes are called caudiciforms. The plants are compact and bear a large number of very short branches, and forms small mounds up to 200 mm tall and 300 mm in diameter. The small succulent leaves are somewhat bluish or yellowish with a finely warty surface, and the tiny flowers are white to pale pink. Ceraria pygmaeaSN|23514]]SN|23514]] is one of the few succulent plants that stores water in both the trunk and leaves.
Stem: Erect, robust and woody at the base with rough bark, branches cylindrical, somewhat fleshy, stiff, nearly dichotomously branched, lower branches spreading, upper ones spreading decurved, young branches 2 mm in diameter with a silver-gray bark.
Leaves: Thick, sessile, decussate, jelly bean like (9-)11-14(-15) mm long, 6-9 mm across, young leaves 3-4 mm thick, sessile, spreading, ovate- wedge-shaped, tip rounded and minutely acute, rough, covered by roundish papillae, blue-green, later yellowish- green. The leaves fall off almost to the touch. However, new leaves will grow.
Flowers: Small, inconspicuous, pale pink, usually in terminal clusters of 2-6.

Bibliography: Major references and further lectures
1) Doreen Court “Succulent Flora of Southern Africa” CRC Press, 01/Jun/2000
2) G. D. Rowley: “Ceraria”. In: Urs Eggli “Illustrated Handbook of Succulent Plants: Dicotyledons” Springer Science & Business Media, 2002
3) Gordon Rowley “Caudiciform and Pachycaul Succulents: Pachycauls, Bottle-,Barrel-And Elephant-Trees and Their Kin a Collector's Miscellany” Strawberry Press. June 1st 1987
4) D.J,Von Willert, B.M.Eller, M.A.Werger, E. Brinckmann & H.-D. Ihlenfeldt. “Life Strategies of Succulents in Deserts: With Special Reference to the Namib Desert” CUP Archive, 1992

Ceraria pygmaea (llifle.com)

 

Ceraria pygmaea  Photo by: © Plantemania

 

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