Description
Lithops verruculosa is recognizable for the characteristic small shiny red verruculae or pimples on the face, and shows a large variety of flower colours. It form small groups up to 8 or more heads (usually 2-4).
Desmond Cole field numbers: C120, C129, C159, C178, C198, C200B, C229B, C230C; (*inae) C095, C157, C196.
Bodies (Paired leave): Medium to large, up to 25-34 mm long and 15-26 mm wide at the fissure. Top flattened to slightly convex, occasionally slightly concave up to 3 cm tall, bluish with blue margins. Face whitish through yellow to bronze and pink with small raised red warts on top surface, wrinkled, the warts mainly in the wrinkles; fissure shallow bordered by a line, 4-8 mm; lobes conjunct. Face reniform; lobes equal to unequal; opaque to translucent usually without an obvious window; almost smooth to somewhat rugose. Margins dentate with small peninsulas and numerous lines, but not always clearly distinguishable; Channels slightly impressed, irregular; Islands enclosed by the grooves, somewhat irregular. Rubrications evident and numerous, with small isolated round shining warts or pimples (a feature characteristic of this species), up to 1 mm in diameter, usually situated in the channels, slightly raised. Dusky dots not visible.
Colours: Face grey or beige tinged with pink, yellow, light brown, lilac, green or blue. Windows & channels translucent greyish, brownish or reddish green, or greenish brown or bluish or greenish grey. Rubrications dark blood-red or purplish red, usually clear and slightly shiny, sometimes deeper set, covered with a bluish film, and then obscurely bluish red. Shoulders bluish grey or greyish blue contrasting with the margins.
Flowers: Small to medium sized (25-35 mm in diameter) multicoloured, straw yellow, golden yellow, light orange, bronze, carrot, lime yellow, shell-pink and rose, salmon, cream and near-white; often with a contrasting tint or inner ring of orange, rose-pink, mauve or magenta, which may extend up onto the stamens.
Fruits. Seed capsules 6-8 long 5-7 mm in diameter, (4-)5(-6)-merous, boat-shaped, top flat. Face elliptic to almost round.
Seeds: Yellow-brown, smooth to rugose.
Origin and Habitat
South Africa, Cape Province. Widespread in large area comprised among Kenhardt, South of Prieska, Brandvlei, and East of Gamoep.
Type Locality: North West Cape.
Habitat: They grow on granitic soils among gravel and stones comprising: Amygdaloidal lavas, banded ironstone, calcrete, fine-grained quartzitic sandstones, cherts, jaspers and shaly sandstones). Background colours grey-white, grey, brown, reddish brown, greyish green, some pink, red, black and blue.
Cultivation and Propagation
Need an open mineral, fast draining mix and the maximum amount of light you are able to give them. The basic cultivation routine is: Stop watering after flowering. Start watering after the old leaves completely dry. (Usually late March or Early April) Water freely during the growing season, soak the compost fully but allow it to dry out between waterings, no water when cold. Some growers fertilize frequently, some hardly ever. Keep them dry during the winter. Nearly all problems occur as a result of overwatering and poor ventilation especially when weather conditions are dull and cool or very humid. This plant is best for a well lit area (Bright shade to full sun).
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”.
Bibliography
Major refences and further lectures
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Heidrun E. K. Hartmann “Aizoaceae F – Z” Springer 2002
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Achim Hecktheuer “Mesembs, mehr als nur Lithops” Books on Demand GmbH Norderstedt. 2008
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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. BussinessPoint 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 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” Hortors Limited, South Africa 1946
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Edgar Lamb “The illustrated reference on cacti and other succulents” Blandford Press. 1978
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Christopher Brickell, Royal Horticultural Society “RHS A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants: K-Z., Volume 2” Kindersley, 2008
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G. C . Nel “Lithops: Plantae succulantae, rarissimae, in terra obscuratae, e famailia Aizoaceae, ex Africa australi” Hortors Limited, Cape Town, South Africa 1946
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Heidrun E. K. Hartmann “Illustrated Handbook of Succulent Plants: Aizoaceae F-Z” Springer, 2002
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Steven A. Hammer “Lithops: Joyaux du veld” Editions Quae, 25/nov/2010