Trichodiadema mirabile

Description

Trichodiadema mirabile is succulent plant of the genus Trichodiadema, native to the Western Cape Province, South Africa, where it is known from the Laingsburg area and especially from south-facing slopes. A small, erect shrub, reaching up to 11 cm. The leaves are erect, stiff and papillate, and each leaf is tipped with dark-brown, erect-inclining bristles. The flowers are white to pale-cream in colour, with white filamentous staminodes at the centre, and are on short stalks. The fruit capsule has six locules, each locule with distinctive V-shaped covering membranes. It very closely resembles Trichodiadema orientale, a species from the Eastern Cape, which however has 5 locules, longer papillae on its bladder cells, and has flowers that are more pinkish-white (sometimes white with pinkish petal tips). Trichodiadema mirabile, T. orientale and T. hallii are the only three species in the genus to have erect-inclining diadem bristles. Trichodiadema is a genus of succulent plants of the family Aizoaceae. The name "Trichodiadema" comes from the ancient Greek (hair, bristle) and (crown) They come from Cape Province in South Africa. Trichodiadema are small, short-stemmed succulents with small, elongated, alternating sections measuring 8 mm long. They are grey and green. At the apex of each alternating section is a ring of small bristles radiating around the center, that give the appearance of a cactus areola. The flowers look like daisies, with red, pink or white petals, earning them the nickname "Desert Rose". Two species however, Trichodiadema aureum and Trichodiadema introrsum, have flowers that are yellow. The plant requires sun exposure (although not too intense), and well-drained soil. Propagation is by division of the clumps. Propagation by cuttings is difficult, because of the risk of rot. Trichodiademum densum has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.