''Gasteria batesiana'' ("Knoppies gasteria") is a species of

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 inland escarpment in the far north-east of

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 batesiana - PlantZAfrica.com Information page
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Description

Gasteria batesiana - Leaning Pine Arboretum - DSC05752

This relatively small, variable species of ''

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 ...

'' has extremely rough, pointed leaves, that eventually form a rosette (though leaves in seedlings are

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 ...

as with all Gasterias). The mottled leaves usually have a strong keel, meaning that they are triangular in cross-section. They also have many tiny white spots, which occur in bands, giving a faint row of stripes on the leaves surfaces. It is closely related to the "Natal Gasteria" (''

Gasteria croucheri ''Gasteria croucheri'' ("Natal Gasteria") is a succulent plant, native to KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa. Description It is one of the larger Gasteria species (up to 400 by 600mm), closely related to '' Gasteria excelsa'' just to the sout ...

''), which occurs just to the south in

KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN and known as "the garden province") is a province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu) and Natal Province were merged. It is locate ...

. The extremely distinctive variety of ''Gasteria batesiana'' which seems to be transitional between these two species, is now considered as a separate (though transitional) species in its own right, '' Gasteria tukhelensis''.

Distribution

Gasteria batesiana var dolomitica in cultivation 2

It is the most northerly of all ''

'' species, occurring from northern

province, northwards through

Eswatini Eswatini ( ; ss, eSwatini ), officially the Kingdom of Eswatini and formerly named Swaziland ( ; officially renamed in 2018), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by Mozambique to its northeast and South Africa to its no ...

and

Mpumalanga Mpumalanga () is a province of South Africa. The name means "East", or literally "The Place Where the Sun Rises" in the Swazi, Xhosa, Ndebele and Zulu languages. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, bordering Eswatini and Mozambique. It ...

, as far north as the Olifants River in

Limpopo Province Limpopo is the northernmost Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa. It is named after the Limpopo River, which forms the province's western and northern borders. The capital and largest city in the province is Polokwane, while th ...

. Here it occurs in rocky terrain in bushveld vegetation.

Varieties

It is an extremely variable species. Plants from the Barberton area are almost black in colour, while plants from the Mzimduzi river have almost smooth leaves, and those from Sifula in the south have extremely fine tubercles. The two recognised varieties are: * ''G. batesiana var. batesiana'': the common type variety, and the most widespread one. * ''G. batesiana var. dolomitica'': the northernmost variety of this species (and of the whole genus), occurring on sheer dolomite cliffs in

. It has long, slender, elongated leaves (100x15mm) and forms dense clumps.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q112030 Flora of the Northern Provinces batesiana Flora of KwaZulu-Natal