''Gasteria brachyphylla'' ("Klein Karoo 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

Western Cape The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020 ...

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 ...

Description

This 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 its strap-shaped leaves in two opposite rows (

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 ...

). Its flowers are 12–22 mm long. It very closely resembles its two relatives, ''

Gasteria pillansii ''Gasteria pillansii'' (Namaqua gasteria) is succulent plant native to the arid winter-rainfall regions in the far west of South Africa and Namibia. Description This species of ''Gasteria'' has its strap-shaped leaves in two opposite rows (dis ...

'' and ''

Gasteria disticha ''Gasteria disticha'' is succulent plant native to the Western Cape, South Africa. Description This species of ''Gasteria'' has its strap-shaped leaves in two opposite rows (distichous), from whence its Latin species name comes. In its vegeta ...

'' to the north, both of which are also distichous. However ''G. brachyphylla'' can be distinguished by its very shiny, smooth leaves (its two relatives' leaves are rough with tiny tubercles). ''"Brachyphylla"'' means "wide/short leaves", and this species's leaves are shorter than its relatives'. It is proliferous, and has pink flowers which appear around September. File:Maria Moninckx05.jpg, Botanical sketch by

Maria Moninckx Maria Moninckx (22 April 1673 (baptised) - 26 February 1757 (buried)) was a Dutch botanical artist and painter, best known for the colour plates she and her father, Jan Moninckx, created and which make up the nine-volume ''Moninckx Atlas''. Th ...

File:8 Gasteria brachyphylla inflorescence - W Ladismith.jpg, Inflorescence, growing west of Ladismith

Distribution

It occurs under shrubs in the Succulent Karoo vegetation of the

Little Karoo The Karoo ( ; from the Afrikaans borrowing of the South Khoekhoe !Orakobab or Khoemana word ''ǃ’Aukarob'' "Hardveld") is a semi-desert natural region of South Africa. No exact definition of what constitutes the Karoo is available, so its ext ...

in the

. It is found as far west as Barrydale, and as far east as Uniondale.Gasteria brachyphylla - PlantZAfrica.com information page
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References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q137921 Flora of the Cape Provinces brachyphylla