About Tulista pumila (L.) G.D.Rowley
Tulista pumila (L.) G.D.Rowley is an evergreen, winter-growing succulent. It has sharp, succulent leaves arranged in rosettes 20 cm in diameter. The leaves are hard, upright, and sometimes incurved, usually covered in raised white tubercles. This is a variable species: different populations vary in leaf shape, colour, growth form, and tubercles. It also varies with its environment: when growing in direct sun during the dry summer, it can turn red. Its leaves are usually olive-green to brown in colour. From November to December, during the summer, Tulista pumila produces pink-white tubular flowers on a tall, thin inflorescence. This species is naturally distributed in the far south-western part of the Cape, with its range centred on the Robertson Karoo vegetation of the Breede River Valley. It extends north-east as far as Laingsburg, where it grows in Karoo scrub. Tulista pumila is a popular cultivated plant, though it can be slow-growing. Its maximum lifespan is not known, but some cultivated specimens have been kept for over 40 years. It needs well-drained soil, and it is one of the few Tulista species that thrives in full sun. The plant rarely produces offsets, so most propagation is done by seed. It can also be propagated from leaf cuttings when larger leaves are used.
