Crassula coccinea L.
rochea
Erect, almost glabrous subshrub 15- c. 50 cm high; stems to c. 1.3 cm thick, becoming woody. Lvs sessile, connate at base, strictly decussate and in 4 ranks, strongly imbricate, scarcely aggregated towards apex of shoots, 20-30 × 13-17 mm, elliptic or ovate-oblong, flat, green, without hydathodes; apex obtuse. Infl. thyrsoid and corymbose, to c. 8 cm across; main axis short and leafy. Fls 5-merous, 20-24 mm diam., few- c. 25, subsessile or on pedicels to 10 mm long. Calyx 1.8-2.5 cm long; lobes lanceolate, with ciliolate margins. Corolla 40-47 mm long, not star-like; tube 3-3.5 cm long, white at base, pink above; lobes 5, 1-1.2 cm long, ovate-oblong or elliptic-oblong, crimson, becoming recurved. Stamens and carpels (including styles) c. 3 cm long. Scales c. 0.8 mm long, ± oblong. Seeds not seen but fls not replaced by plantlets in infl.
N.: 2 populations in old settlement areas, Rangitoto Id (Auckland); S.: Camp Bay (Banks Peninsula).
S.W. Cape Province, South Africa 1984
On raw lava and earth banks over volcanic rock.
FL Dec-Feb.
This sp. is often known as Rochea coccinea (L.) DC. but this genus is now treated as Crassula sect. Kalosanthes by Tölken (1985, op. cit.). The large fls with tubular corollas distinguish this sect. (Plate 12).
