FREE: 20ct. Karoo Rose, Lapidaria Margaretae RARE mesembs SEEDS - living rock stone cacti

The listing, 20ct. Karoo Rose, Lapidaria Margaretae RARE mesembs SEEDS - living rock stone cacti has ended.

These seeds are VERY small, each pack of seed will contain more than advertised. But if you are uncomfortable working with VERY small seeds please do NOT purchase this product.

This is a very beautiful plant and a real joy to see in any collection. Lapidaria grows a lot like Lithops but with 2-4 leaves pairs with new leaves emerging at right angles to old.

It is believed to be a kind of ancestral Lithops, or at least a more primitive descendant of an ancestral Lithops.
Lapidaria margaretae, known as the Karoo Rose, is a lovely succulent that is native to South Africa.

Individual plants usually have two bulbous, almost fused leaves opposite to each other and hardly any stem. The slit between the leaves contains the meristem and produces flowers and new leaves. Old leaves die after the new pair has emerged.
The leaves are transparent. These leaves, or “windows” contain calcium oxalate crystals that diffuse onto the area that is being photosynthesized in the plant. This helps the plant absorb lots of sunlight even in minimum exposure. The plant is almost entirely buried in soil only exposing the flat upper surfaces of leaves. This is an adaptation to the dry, hot environment.

Compact stemless succulent with at least 2-3 pairs of stone shaped leaves (more in cultivation), with 1 to 3 branches (rarely forms clumps). Leaves are rounded-triangular, as thick as wide, keel and margins hard and prominent, usually greys white or pinkish at the base with rest of leaf paler. The internodes are short with the subsequent leaves touching and supporting one another at their bases resulting in compact heads.

The Lapidaria margaretae has 5cm wide yellow flowers in the autumn and winter. After they bloom, a new pair of leaves develop, used the moisture from the older pair of leaves to grow. The plants should not be watered until the old pair of leaves is totally shriveled.

Will take -4 ° C for short periods.