Unknown Succulent

[wbruan]

Hi Everyone!

I bought this succulent at a local flea-market (South Africa). I have no idea what it is, though. An acquaintance that is fairly familiar with cacti/succulents claims that it is rather rare.

It seems to be growing at a slow pace (although it is winter here, so that might be why), but every time I water it (only a little bit of water once a month), it pushes out one or two unremarkable yellow flowers. You can see two flowers that are already dead near the top of the plant in the attached picture. The plant is about 7cm in width.

Does anybody know what it could be?

Thanks guys .

Ruan

[majcka]

I don't know much about this things, but I think some kind of Titanopsis.

[Saxicola]

Titanopsis calcarea. It comes from the Upper Karoo, which as I understand it is a summer rainfall region. So keep your plant fairly dry this time of year then water in the summer. Note that some Titanopsis (e.g. T. hugoschlecteri) come from winter rainfall regions and so have the opposite watering requirements.

By the way, it isn't particularly rare in cultivation. Though it isn't a plant they typical nursery will carry.

[iann]

Not exactly rare, but not exactly common either. They show up occasionally in garden centres here, but usually you would only find them at specialists.

This species is found over a fairly wide area of the eastern half of the Northern Cape, from the Orange River to around De Aar and Victoria West. The rest of the genus is found in southern Namibia and adjacent parts of the Northern Cape. The climate has hot summers, cold winters, and a strong rainfall peak in autumn (around March). Autumn is when the flowers occur naturally, but in poor conditions they will linger and open sporadically almost right through winter. Avoid winter water, the plants will stretch and may even die. Some summer water is OK, but don't go mad. Habitat near Upington is hot with quite a lot of summer rain, while further south is colder with drier summers, so they're fairly tolerant, especially compared to the other species in the genus, but look best when grown in strong sun and with not too much water.

[1bigfruit]

Titanopsis, probably Calcarea. They like hot bright light, with mineral loam, they can sometimes take a while to flower.
Eight years from seed. But they grow quite slowly.