This species may admittedly not look like much at first, but careful study of this shrubby mesemb reveals bright pink spines and cute succulent foliage. What really sells it are the photos of plants in habitat, which show its true habit as a ground dweller, with only a few small leaves and the vividly colored spines poking above the orange quartz sand. In cultivation it is nearly impossible to keep it this compact, but we value its fast-growing shrubby habit as both a strong landscape addition and a sculptural potted plant with a slim silhouette. We offer cuttings propagated from material ex-Huntington Botanic Gardens, collected by Matt Opel and our friend Steven Hammer in 1997 near Springbok in Namaqualand, South Africa. This region of the Northern Cape is strictly winter rainfall, but Springbok lies near the border with Namibia, where conditions become drier with more summer rain. We find it grows even through the hottest months, though a bit slower than when the weather cools.
