Description
Lithops hallii var. ochracea favours white and pink quartzite and pegmatite and can be tell apart from var. hallii by its opaque more red-brown colour. It forms small clumps with up to 6 or more heads, mostly 2-3.
Bodies (paired leaves): Medium to large, 20-47 mm long and 15-30 mm wide at the fissure. Broadly kidney shaped, top surface truncate, mostly flat, sometimes slightly convex; fissure shallow, 4-7 mm; lobes conjunct. Face somewhat reniform; lobes equal-unequal; opaque, slightly rugose. This species is fairly easy to identify and shows shades of reddish-brown with regular fine to broad interlacing network of channels with mostly small islands and fairly distinct irregularly dentate margins. It never has a brown line along the lip of the fissure. Shoulders as for the margins, or lighter, or milky bluish grey.
Flowers: The blooms are white medium to very large 20-47 mm in diameter.
Fruits: (5-)6(-7)-loculed capsules up to 6-10 mm long 4-6,5 mm wide, boat-shaped, top flat to slightly convex. Face narrowly elliptic.
Seeds: Light yellow-brown to yellow-brown, smooth to rugose.
Remarks: After flowering in the autumn and extending through winter season the plant doesn’t need watering, but they will still be growing, the new bodies will be increasing in size extracting water from the outer succulent leaves, allowing them to shrivel away. In fact the plant in this time extracts water and nutrient stored in the outer succulent leaves, allowing them to dehydrate relocating the water to the rest of the plant and to the new leaves that form during this period until the old leaves are reduced to nothing more than “thin papery shells”.