''Gasteria acinacifolia'' ("Dune Gasteria") is

succulent In botany, succulent plants, also known as succulents, are plants with parts that are thickened, fleshy, and engorged, usually to retain water in arid climates or soil conditions. The word ''succulent'' comes from the Latin word ''sucus'', meani ...

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 exclud ...

native to the

Eastern Cape The Eastern Cape is one of the provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, but its two largest cities are East London and Gqeberha. The second largest province in the country (at 168,966 km2) after Northern Cape, it was formed in ...

Province,

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

.Gasteria acinacifolia - PlantZAfrica.com information page
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Description

It is the tallest of the ''

Gasteria ''Gasteria'' is a genus of succulent plants, native to South Africa (and the far south-west corner of Namibia). Naming The genus is named for its stomach-shaped flowers (''"gaster"'' is Latin for "stomach") that result from the swollen base on t ...

'' species (even larger than its close relative to the east, '' Gasteria excelsa''), with rosettes of light-green, sharp, stiff, spotted leaves, that are up to 1 meter long. The species name ''"acinacifolia"'' means ''"scimitar-leaves"'', and refers to how the smooth adult leaves curve, and end in a sharp point. The multi-branched

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

is often over a meter in height, with pink flowers and appears between September and December. The

is flat-topped (unlike that of '' Gasteria excelsa'') and has

raceme A raceme ( or ) or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are produced as the s ...

s that spread horizontally. It can be confused with '' Gasteria excelsa'' to the east, but ''G.excelsa'' has thicker, wider, straighter, smoother, darker leaves, that have fewer spots and much sharper, heavily-serrated margins, as well as a more erectly branching inflorescence. It can be confused with ''

Gasteria carinata ''Gasteria carinata'' ("Bredasdorp Gasteria" or "Keeled Gasteria") is a small and variable succulent plant, native to the Western Cape Province, South Africa. Description This is a highly variable species. Typically it has sharp, triangular l ...

'' to the west too, but ''G.carinata'' in its typical form has much smaller leaves and a non-branching inflorescence. Juvenile Gasteria acinacifolia acilliers South Africa 5

Juvenile Gasteria acinacifolia acilliers South Africa 5

Like most ''

'' species, juvenile ''G. acinacifolia'' plants look very different from adults. Juveniles have a

distichous In botany, phyllotaxis () or phyllotaxy is the arrangement of leaves on a plant stem. Phyllotactic spirals form a distinctive class of patterns in nature. Leaf arrangement The basic arrangements of leaves on a stem are opposite and alternat ...

(two-ranked) leaf arrangement, with tubercled, strap-shaped, blunt leaves. Adults form rosettes of extremely long, smooth, sharply-pointed "scimitar-shaped" leaves which are green and extremely densely covered in bands of tiny white spots. The leaves also have rough partial margins.

Distribution

It occurs on shady cliff faces and in dune thickets, along the coast, between

Knysna Knysna () is a town with 76,150 inhabitants (2019 mid-year estimates) in the Western Cape province of South Africa. and is one of the destinations on the loosely defined Garden Route tourist route. It lies at 34° 2' 6.3168'' S and 23° 2' 47. ...

and Port Alfred in the

. This is a region of moderate rainfall all year round. It is often cultivated for coastal gardens or as a container plant.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q112026 Flora of the Cape Provinces acinacifolia