Gibbaeum

Gibbaeum
File:Gibbaeum heathii.jpg
Gibbaeum heathii
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Core eudicots
Order:	Caryophyllales
Family:	Aizoaceae
Genus:	Gibbaeum Haw., 1821
Species
21, see text

Gibbaeum is a genus of about 21 species of small succulent plants of the family Aizoaceae, indigenous to the Little Karoo region of South Africa. The name "Gibbaeum" comes from the Latin gibbosus (hunchback)

Description

File:Succulente AnysbergPICT1438.JPG

Gibbaeum pubescens in natural habitat.

File:1 Gibbaeum shandii - Kirstenbosch gardens.jpg

Gibbaeum shandii in flower.

These dwarf succulents are characterized by distinctively asymmetrical pairs of leaves, mostly globular or sometimes thick and arcuate. The sizes of the leaves of each pair are nearly always different. Gibbaeums grow in clumps and produce pink or white flowers in spring.

Cultivation

Sunny exposure and well drained soil. Their natural range spans the boundary between winter and summer rainfall areas of southern Africa, and their growth period (emergence of new leaves and flowering) is therefore in summer for some species and in winter for other ones. However, overall most species can be watered primarily in winter. Temperature must stay above 10 °C in winter.

Propagation can be done by cuttings or by seeds. Many of the species hybridise easily - with each other and with the related Muiria genus.

List of species

• Gibbaeum album
• Gibbaeum angulipes
• Gibbaeum blackburniae
• Gibbaeum comptonii
• Gibbaeum cryptopodium
• Gibbaeum dispar
• Gibbaeum esterhuyseniae
• Gibbaeum geminum
• Gibbaeum gibbosum
• Gibbaeum haagei
• Gibbaeum heathii
• Gibbaeum luckhofii
• Gibbaeum nebrownii
• Gibbaeum pachypodium
• Gibbaeum periviride
• Gibbaeum petrense
• Gibbaeum pilosum
• Gibbaeum pubescens
• Gibbaeum schwantesii
• Gibbaeum shandii
• Gibbaeum velutinum

External links

• (French) photos on www.AIAPS.org