Tylecodon reticulatus is a species of succulent plant in the genus Tylecodon belonging to the family Crassulaceae.[1]

Tylecodon reticulatus
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Saxifragales
Family: Crassulaceae
Genus: Tylecodon
Species:
T. reticulatus
Binomial name
Tylecodon reticulatus
Synonyms
  • Cotyledon reticulata L.f.

Description edit

 
Detail of Tylecodon reticulatus flowers. Private garden in Berkeley, CA.
 
Tylecodon reticulatus subsp. reticulatus in summer Springbok. After anthesis dry sepals become loose and star-shaped but remain attached to their pedicels.

Tylecodon reticulatus is a small to medium-sized, tree-like shrublet with a squat, basally normally solitary stem, up to 6 cm thick and 3–38 cm tall with a round sparsely branched crown to 30 cm in diameter with light brown bark peeling in strips. Young stems Tylecodon reticulatus subsp. phyllopodium have residual leaf bases (phyllopodia) which remain visible for several years. Leaves are crowded at branch tips, erect to ascending, 5–40 mm long and 3–10 mm tick, ovate, linear-lanceolate to liner-oblanceolate, glabrous to glandular-hairy, coloured from bluish-green to heavily pink-tinged. Inflorescences are finely branched thyrses to 7 cm tall and in diameter, with many dichasia each bearing 2–6 spreading to erect greenish yellow, tubular or swollen at base flowers, 6–8 mm long, 2.5 mm in diameter, laxly hairy, spreading and becoming recurved. The flowers persist after blossoming, so they form a dense reticulate crown above branches and leaves, hence the species name.[2][3]

Distribution edit

Succulent Karoo, quartz gravel flats of South Namibia and RCA (Northern and Western Cape) .[1]

Subspecies edit

References edit

  1. ^ a b "Tylecodon reticulatus (L.f.) Toelken". Plants of the World Online. Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Retrieved 22 January 2022.
  2. ^ Eggli, Urs (2003). Illustrated Handbook of Succulent Plants: Crassulaceae. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg. pp. 360–361. ISBN 978-3-642-55874-0.
  3. ^ F. Smith, Gideon; R Crouch, Neil; Figueiredo, Estrela (2017). Field Guide to Succulents of Southern Africa. Penguin Random House South Africa. pp. 318–319. ISBN 9781775843672.