Description
Lithops verruculosa var. glabra distinguish from the similar Lithops verruculosa for being more grey in colour, (mostly) without raised islands or small warts on the top of the leaves (or if present fewer, smaller and less conspicuous.). It shows a large variety of flower colours and form small groups up to 7 or more heads (usually 2-4).
Desmond Cole field numbers: C025, C160, C177.
Bodies (Paired leave): Small to medium, up to 20-36 mm long and 15-28 mm wide at the fissure. Top flattened to slightly convex, occasionally slightly concave up to 3 cm tall, bluish with blue margins. Face smooth to slightly rugose without or very few small red warts on top surface, wrinkled, the warts mainly in the wrinkles; The depth of varies and can be 5 to 10 mm deep on the same plant, when the capsule is large the fissure often becomes V-shaped; lobes conjunct. Face elliptic-reniform; lobes equal to unequal; opaque to translucent usually without an obvious window; almost smooth to minutely rugose. Margins dentate with small peninsulas and numerous lines, but not always clearly distinguishable; Channels slightly impressed, irregular; Islands variable in size and dimension, enclosed by the grooves, somewhat irregular. Rubrications absent or relatively few and relatively inconspicuous.
Colours: Face grey, milky-grey, cream or beige tinged with pink or blue. Windows & channels translucent greyish, brownish. Rubrications dark dull red 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 (25-32 mm in diameter) multicoloured as for var. verruculosa, 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, tuberculate.
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
COLE, DESMOND T. and NAUREEN A., (2005) Lithops Flowering Stones, Cactus&Co. Libri