Mesembryanthemum crystallinum

Mesembryanthemum crystallinum, commonly called brakslaai (brackish salad) or soutslaai (salt salad) in Afrikaans, is a robust, creeping annual or biennial leaf succulent reaching heights mostly between 10 cm and 20 cm. The roots are not thickened. The stems have glistening, translucent outgrowths but are not winged like those of M. guerichianum. The stems grow flat on the ground forming a large, dense mat when conditions allow.

The species is distributed across about the southwestern half of South Africa, as well as in Africa, the Sinai Peninsula and southern Europe. It is naturalised in parts of the Americas and Australia.

The habitat is open scrub in sandy or clayey soils, coping with little rain, usually received more in winter than summer. The plants are often seen in disturbed areas, such as along roadsides and at watering points. The habitat population is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century. On the contrary, this mesemb might cope better than much of its competition on a warming earth (Grenier, 2019; Van Rooyen and Van Rooyen, 2019; Smith, et al, 2017; Smith, et al, 1998; Manning and Goldblatt, 1997; iNaturalist; Wikipedia; http://redlist.sanbi.org).