About Tylecodon reticulatus (L.fil.) Toelken
Tylecodon reticulatus (L.fil.) Toelken is a small to medium-sized, tree-like shrublet. It typically has a single, squat stem at its base, which grows up to 6 cm thick and 3–38 cm tall. It forms a rounded, sparsely branched crown up to 30 cm in diameter, covered in light brown bark that peels in strips. For the subspecies Tylecodon reticulatus subsp. phyllopodium, young stems retain residual leaf bases called phyllopodia that stay visible for multiple years. Leaves grow crowded at the tips of branches, are oriented erect to ascending, and measure 5–40 mm long and 3–10 mm thick. Their shapes range from ovate, linear-lanceolate to linear-oblanceolate, and their surfaces can be glabrous or glandular-hairy. Leaf colour ranges from bluish-green to strongly pink-tinged. Inflorescences are finely branched thyrses up to 7 cm tall and 7 cm in diameter, holding many dichasia. Each dichasium bears 2–6 flowers that are oriented spreading to erect; the flowers are greenish yellow, tubular or swollen at the base, 6–8 mm long, 2.5 mm in diameter, and laxly hairy, with an orientation that starts spreading and becomes recurved. Flowers persist after blooming, forming a dense reticulate crown above the branches and leaves, which is the source of the species name. This species occurs in the Succulent Karoo, on quartz gravel flats in southern Namibia, and in the Northern and Western Cape provinces of South Africa.
