Xerophyte

Leaves

Rudimentary, short-lived, ascending, finely papillose, thick, triangular.

Flowers

Small, solitary or 2–5 together, subsessile, closely appressed to the stem, but the pedicels lengthening to 2 mm long in fruit. Calyx green, 5 lobed. Sepals 1.5 mm long, ovate-acuminate, glabrous, very minutely papillate. Corolla rotate, 7-11 mm across, dark purple-brown. purplish to greenish brown on the lobes, speckled with dull green-yellow, covered with minute, sharp-pointed papillae, with dark purple-brown dots on the disk. Tube very shallow. Lobes 5, curling when fading 2.5 mm long, 2 mm broad, ovate-triangular, acute, glabrous, outside green-brown, bristly-papillate. Corona five-lobed shiny black-purple, sometimes speckled brown or yellowish. Outer coronal-lobes small (c. 0.5 mm), spreading or deflexed, lanceolate, concave, channelled, ascending towards apices tooth-like or with the sides more or less pinched together at about the middle, dark purple-brown, glabrous. Inner coronal-lobes 1 mm long, broadly triangular, acute, incumbent on the backs of the anthers, dark purple-brown, glabrous. Pollinia yellow.

Stem

Procumbent, rigid, with clear latex, usually 5-15 (often up to 60) cm long, 12-20 mm thick, divided into 8-10 tessellate ribs, with tetragonal or hexagonal irregular mammillae, dull greyish to purplish-green or brownish, glabrous, finely papillose and faintly wrinkled.