Description
Lithops bromfieldii var. mennellii cv. Pale Selection (MG 1561.8) is a nice selection in which the leaves have clear and opaque, pinkish-grey almost milky raised and bumpy surface, with distinct islands marked with very, contrasting, impressed and branched dark chocolate lines (rubrications). The flowers are yellow. This cultivar comes true from seed but the clearnesses of the surface varies noticeably among specimens.
Habit: It is a small to medium sized plant, solitary or forming clumps of two to 10 heads, (mostly 4-6) to 1,5 cm high, typically dwarfed, in particular in the natural environment, but cultivated specimens can reach relatively large sizes. It conforms to the typical Lithops morphology: two thick, fleshy windowed leaves separated by a crack from which a yellow flower appears. The windowed part allows light into the inner portion of the leaf where the process of photosynthesis is carried out.
Bodies (paired leaves): Mostly less 20-35 mm wide, obconical, truncate with rugose surface, pale pinkish-grey or milky facial colour and very dark rubrications. Channels deeply impressed which branch and tail off into the marginal area and enclosing fairly large, raised islands and peninsulas. Margins and windows vaguely distinguishable. Rubrications filling the channels in an irregular network of lines, dots, hooks and dashes. Face and shoulders pinkish grey, creamy grey, greenish grey or light milky grey. Channels dull dark greyish green; it is often difficult to distinguish between the channels and concentrations of dusky dots. Rubrications dark red, red-brown or purplish red. Dusky dots dull dark greyish green.
Flowers: Yellow, thinly petaled, 25-35(-45) mm in diameter.
Fruits: Mostly 5-chambered, profile boat-shaped, top flat.
Seeds: Yellow-brown, rugose.
Origin and Habitat
South Africa, Cape province. It is found in a very small area on the south side and within 2-3 km of the Orange River, to the SW of Louisvale, S of Upington. TL ‘Louisvale, near Upington, on low quartz slopes between the road and the Orange River’
Habitat: Grows in stonily soils comprising micaceous quartzo-feldspathic gneiss; granitic gneiss. Colours of the stony background grey-white, brown, pink.
Cultivation and Propagation
In the winter season the plant doesn’t need watering, the plant in this time extracts water from the outer succulent leaves, allowing them to shrivel away, relocating water to the rest of the plant and to the new leaves that form during this period. This plant is best for a well lit area (Bright shade to full sun). Water sparingly only when warm, no water when cold.
Notes
Distinguished by its rugose surface, pale pinkish-grey facial colour and dark rubrications.
Bibliography
Major refences and further lectures
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Heidrun E. K. Hartmann “Aizoaceae F – Z” Springer 2002
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Desmond T. Cole & Naureen A. Cole, Uwe Beyer, Yves Delange “Les Lithops” SUCCULENTES Spécial 2008 AIAPS (now Terra seca). 2008
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Desmond T. Cole & Naureen A. Cole “LITHOPS Flowering Stones” Cactus & Co. Libri. 2005
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Yasuhiko Shimada“The Genus Lithops” Dobun Shoin. 2001
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Rudolf Heine “Lithops - Lebende Steine” Neumann Verlag. 1986
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Bernd Schlösser “Lithops – Lebende Steine” Praktische Anleitung für die Zimmerkultur. Bussiness Point MEDIA. 2000
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Steven A. Hammer “Lithops – Treasures of the veld” British Cactus and Succulent Society. 1999
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Desmond T. Cole “Lithops – Flowering Stones” Acorn Books CC. 1988
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Rudolf Heine “Lithops – lebende Steine” Neumann Verlag. 1986
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David L. Sprechman “Lithops” Associated University Presses, Inc. 1970
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Gert Cornelius Nel “Lithops: Plantae succulantae, rarissimae, in terra obscuratae, e famailia Aizoaceae, ex Africa australi” Hortors Limited, South Africa, 1946
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Achim Hecktheuer “Mesembs, mehr als nur Lithops” Books on Demand GmbH Norderstedt. 2008
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Werner Rauh “Die grossartige Welt der Sukkulenten” Hamburg and Berlin: Verlag Paul Parey, 1966
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Stuart Max Walters “The European Garden Flora: Dicotyledons (Part I)” Cambridge University Press, 1989
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Gordon D. Rowley “The illustrated encyclopedia of succulents” Crown Publishers, 01/Aug/1978
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Steven A. Hammer “Lithops: Joyaux du veld” Editions Quae, 25/nov/2010
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Gustav Schwantes “Flowering Stones and Mid-day Flowers: A Book for Plant and Nature Lovers on the Mesembryanthemaceae” Ernest Benn, 1957
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