Conophytum frutescens (Conophytum frutescens)
Description
Conophytum frutescens is a very attractive, slow-growing, perennial succulent, up to 4 inches (10 cm) tall that forms loose, spherical shrublets of bodies. It produces laxly branched stems with extended internodes up to 1.2 inches (3 cm) long. The paired leaves are flat, up 1.4 inches (3.5 cm) tall, up to 0.6 inch (1.5 cm) wide, more than half fused, claw-shaped, slit which gapes open, and the two lobes are rather prominent, yellowish-green, grey-green, or turquoise, glabrous, spotted, marked with dully purple streaks or patches on the keels and on edge of fissure between the lobes. Flowers are orange to coppery or pinkish. Conophytum is a genus of South African and Namibian succulent plants that belong to the Aizoaceae family. The name is derived from the Latin conus (cone) and Greek phytum (plant). The plants are also known as knopies (buttons), waterblasies (water blisters), sphaeroids, conos, cone plants, dumplings, or button plants. Conophytum species are dwarf cushion-forming or single-bodied succulents. Members of the genus are tiny plants with succulent leaves ranging from 1/4" to 2" in length. These leaves are partially or entirely fused along their centers. Each leaf pair (together referred to as a body) ranges in shape from "bilobed" to spherical to ovoid to tubular to conical. Some species have epidermal windows on the top of their leaves. To the naked eye the epidermis ranges from very smooth to slightly rough to hairy, depending on the microscopic epidermal cell shape and structure. In their normal, natural state each stem has only one pair of leaves at a time though one plant may have dozens of stems and thus dozens of leaf pairs. When very heavy rains come to their native habitat they may grow luxuriantly and develop two leaf pairs per stem simultaneously; this is called "stacking up" of the leaves.
Taxonomic tree
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Domain: Eukarya
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Kingdom: Plantae
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Phylum:
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Class: Magnoliopsida
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Order: Caryophyllales
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Family: Aizoaceae
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Genus: Conophytum
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