''Frithia'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

of succulent

plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclu ...

s in the family

Aizoaceae The Aizoaceae, or fig-marigold family, is a large family of dicotyledonous flowering plants containing 135 genera and about 1800 species. They are commonly known as ice plants or carpet weeds. They are often called vygies in South Africa and Ne ...

, indigenous to several small rocky areas in the vicinity of Gauteng Province,

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

Description

Like several of its close relatives (e.g. ''

Fenestraria ''Fenestraria'' (known as babies' toes or window plant) is a (possibly monotypic) genus of succulent plants in the family Aizoaceae, native to the Namaqualand in Namibia. Description The only species currently recognised in this genus is '' ...

'') and other plants in its

ecotype In evolutionary ecology, an ecotype,Greek: ''οίκος'' = home and ''τύπος'' = type, coined by Göte Turesson in 1922 sometimes called ecospecies, describes a genetically distinct geographic variety, population, or race within a specie ...

(e.g. some species of ''

Haworthia ''Haworthia'' is a large genus of small succulent plants endemic to Southern Africa ( Mozambique, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini and South Africa). Like the aloes, they are members of the subfamily Asphodeloideae and they generally resemble ...

'' and ''

Bulbine ''Bulbine'' is a genus of plants in the family Asphodelaceae and subfamily Asphodeloideae, named for the bulb-shaped tuber of many species. It was formerly placed in the Liliaceae. It is found chiefly in Southern Africa, with a few species extend ...

'') it has

epidermal window Leaf window, also known as epidermal window, and fenestration. is a specialized leaf structure consisting of a translucent area through which light can enter the interior surfaces of the leaf where photosynthesis can occur. The translucent structu ...

s (translucent areas in its leaves) as an adaptation to the difficulties of

photosynthesis Photosynthesis is a process used by plants and other organisms to convert light energy into chemical energy that, through cellular respiration, can later be released to fuel the organism's activities. Some of this chemical energy is stored i ...

in its arid environment.

Cultivation

''Frithia'' are summer-growing species, as their natural habitat lies in a summer-rainfall region. They grow in very well-drained, sandy soil, with repetitive light watering in summer and a dry environment in winter.

Species

The genus contains the following species: * ''

Frithia pulchra ''Frithia pulchra'', the fairy elephant's feet, is a species of flowering plant in the figmarigold family Aizoaceae, endemic to Gauteng Province, South Africa (where it is classified as “Vulnerable” by the IUCN Red List). Its natural habitat ...

N.E.Br. Nicholas Edward Brown (11 July 1849 in Redhill, Surrey – 25 November 1934 in Kew Gardens, London) was an English plant taxonomist and authority on succulents. He was also an authority on several families of plants, including Asclepiadacea ...

* '' Frithia humilis'' Burgoyne

References

Aizoaceae Aizoaceae genera Taxa named by N. E. Brown Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Aizoaceae-stub