Xerophyte

Description

Echidnopsis socotranaSN|33117]]SN|32957]] is a tiny perennial succulent with reclining, creeping, few-branched stems. It is distinguished by the yellow flowers with red centre.

Inflorescences

Sprouting out mainly toward the tip of stems, with 1-2 flowers opening in succession, closely appressed to the stem or with a short pedicel up to 1 mm long.

Taxonomy

Probably Echidnopsis socotranaSN|32957]]SN|32957]] is better placed under Echidnopsis scutellataSN|32957]]SN|33117]] as a further subspecies.

Flowers

Sepals deltoid, 1.5 mm. Corolla yellow, 5 mm in diameter, campanulate, tube rather flat. Corolla-lobes erect, deltoid, 3 mm long, basally approx. 3 mm broad, margins revolute, glabrous on both sides. Corona pentagonal, 3 mm in diameter. Outer corona lobes dark reddish-brown, glossy, deeply 5-partite, cup-shaped, lobes ascending, deltoid, apically blunt, in the middle with longitudinal furrow, margins laterally bulging, glabrous. Inner corona-lobes yellow, lower part covered by the outer corona lobes, lobes ribbon-shaped, apically rounded, lying more or less vertically on the anthers, not meeting above the style head.

Stem

Decumbent, cylindrical, vividly green or flushed entirely coppery-red or brown in dry conditions, 3-7 cm long, 6-10 mm thick. Tubercles, hexagonal, arranged in 6 longitudinal ribs, apically with leaf-rudiment, this ovate-deltoid, short, dark green, soon withering and caducous.