Description:Gibbaeum velutinum familiar under the name Mentocalyx velutina is a slow growing species spreading into grey-green carpets. It is rather variable in its leaf shape and size ranging from plants with long and narrow leaves to plants with short and thick leaves. Gibbaeum velutinum resembles a small Glottiphyllum in its growth of fleshy leaves and flowers of either pink or pale magenta, white flowered plants are known only from cultivation as Gibbaeum schwantesii. Habit:Gibbaeum velutinum is a perennial clumping, mat forming succulents up to 5 cm tall and up to 30 (or more) cm wide. The plant is compact with only the upper surface of leaves visible. Stems: Short, branched, woody and prostrate, with the remnants of old dry leaves, each branch ending in 2 pairs of leaves. Leaves: Fleshy, paired, joined at the base, finger-like, mostly broad-triangular, more or less horizontally compressed, strongly keeled beneath. The leaves forms unequal pairs, in which the longer leaf is mostly hook-shaped while the short one addpressed to it with a neat cut margin visible close to the the longer leaf. The longer leaf-pair about 3−7 cm long, the smaller 2-4 cm, velvety, bluish grey-green, dark green, green-brown or silvery/grey. The epidermis is covered by characteristic minuscule branching hairs that give it a silver/velvety appearance. Every year a few new leaves grow from the central stem. Flowers: Daisy-like, pale pink/violet to pale magenta (or white), 20−35(-50) mm in diameter and long lasting. Pedicel 2-2,5(-50) mm long. Petals in 2 rows. Filamentous staminodes white, basally faintly pink, filaments white. Blooming season: Late winter to spring.
