Cotyledon

Cotyledon is a genus of shrubs and shrublets, mainly succulent, growing erect branches that are fleshy, often becoming woody in lower parts. The opposite, sometimes whorled leaves are sessile and persistent.

The flowers grow in thyrse-like clusters, pendulous from sturdy peduncles. The tubular flower has five fused petals, free and often recurving only in their lobe tips.

There are ten stamens in two whorls, the anthers exserted. The carpels are equal in number to the calyx lobes. Fused at the base, the carpels have slender styles. The seeds are ellipsoid with a constriction and striations running across surface ridges.

The genus of about 11 species occurs in Africa, all of them also in southern Africa.

The plant laden with fruit in picture is Cotyledon orbiculata, seen near Oudtshoorn in midsummer (Leistner, (Ed.), 2000; Manning, 2007).