Knopies

Description

Conophytum marginatum is a small, almost stemless, perennial, leaf-succulent that divide quite freely, forming mats of 20 to 100 bodies with nice purplish blooms. The paired leaves are up to 1.2 inches (3 cm) tall, v-shaped, pale green to yellowish-green or reddish, well spotted, papillate to glabrous, keels often red-lined or suffused with red. Flowers are solitary, showy, daisy-like, diurnal, pink to purple. They bloom in autumn and usually stay open for few days. Conophytum is a genus of South African and Namibian succulent plants that belong to the Aizoaceae family. The name is derived from the Latin conus (cone) and Greek phytum (plant). The plants are also known as knopies (buttons), waterblasies (water blisters), sphaeroids, conos, cone plants, dumplings, or button plants. Conophytum species are dwarf cushion-forming or single-bodied succulents. Members of the genus are tiny plants with succulent leaves ranging from 1/4" to 2" in length. These leaves are partially or entirely fused along their centers. Each leaf pair (together referred to as a body) ranges in shape from "bilobed" to spherical to ovoid to tubular to conical. Some species have epidermal windows on the top of their leaves. To the naked eye the epidermis ranges from very smooth to slightly rough to hairy, depending on the microscopic epidermal cell shape and structure. In their normal, natural state each stem has only one pair of leaves at a time though one plant may have dozens of stems and thus dozens of leaf pairs. When very heavy rains come to their native habitat they may grow luxuriantly and develop two leaf pairs per stem simultaneously; this is called "stacking up" of the leaves.