Crassula multicava Lem.
fairy crassula
Glabrous, perennial herb; stems prostrate, creeping, sprawling or decumbent, rooting at nodes. Lvs shortly petiolate, sometimes with petioles to 2 cm long, mostly on distal ascending part of stems, not decussate or imbricate except in small rosettes at stem apices, to 45-(55) × 40-(43) mm, broadly ovate, broadly oblong-elliptic, to suborbicular or almost square, flat, entire, green or glaucescent, often suffused with red, especially towards margins, dotted with numerous whitish or reddish hydathodes; base rounded, truncate or subcordate; apex rounded or ± emarginate. Infl. a loose thyrse, to c. 10 cm long but very variable in size; main axis with very small bracts. Fls 5-merous, 8-12 mm diam., usually 12-numerous, on pedicels slightly < to = fls. Calyx 1.5-2 mm long; lobes triangular. Corolla star-like; petals free and patent, (4)-5-6 × 1-2 mm, narrowly triangular or triangular-lanceolate, rose to crimson in bud, pale pink inside at anthesis; apex acute. Stamens 3-4 mm long, < carpels. Scales 0.2-0.3 mm long, ± rectangular (wider than long). Frs and seeds not seen, but fls often replaced by small plantlets in infl. branch axils.
N.: E. coastal areas from Whangaroa Harbour (N. Auckland) S. to Wellington; S.: Nelson, coastal Marlborough, coastal Canterbury, especially Port Hills and Lyttelton Harbour.
South Africa 1959
Rock and concrete walls, banks, raw lava, crevices, volcanic cliff faces, usually in open places but sometimes in partial shade of scrub and tall herbs.
FL Aug-Feb.
Fairy crassula or pitted crassula is easily distinguished from the other Crassula spp. described here by the lvs being dotted all over with hydathodes. In C. spathulata, the only other wild sp. to have them, the hydathodes are only marginal. N.Z. plants of C. multicava often develop small plantlets, a character of subsp. multicava (Tölken 1985, loc. cit.); plantlets consist of a rosette of rudimentary lvs on the infl. branches and are produced after flowering.
