Lithops - Au Cactus Francophone

If these plants are grown throughout the year in places of relatively
high humidity, as for example in Europe, Western Cape or near the sea, they
tend to elongate and appear above the surface of the soil, and thus assume
an appearance quite unlike their usual form and shape. One has then to be
very careful in making use of the convexity or otherwise of these plants in
deter mining the species, as the changed environment may have caused them
to become very much more convex and swollen.
The top is either smooth or shows various degrees of rugosity. The two
extreme cases are L. turbiniformis and L. verruculosa, where the whole top
is covered with a large number of interconnected convolutions, breaking the
surface up into numerous ridges and depressions. Plants like L. olivacea have
a smooth surface. L. salicola, on the other hand, though usually pos sessing a
smooth surface, may show in addition various degrees of rugosity. To give an
adequate idea of all the various modifications of the top it would be neces
sary to describe each species afresh and the reader is therefore referred to
the description of the individual species, the various photographs, and the
coloured plates.
The colour of the top also varies very considerably and no description,
however detailed, can give any clear and definite idea of the appearance of
these weird and interesting plants. Human language is far too poor to de
scribe adequately these delicate colours. Not only one leaf of a pair differs
from its immediate neighbour but leaves taken at random from plants of the
same species growing on one spot show a very great degree of variation.
figure 4 . dr. h. w. de boer
’n Lithops liefhebber aan die werk An enthusiastic Lithops collector at work.
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