Argyroderma

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Argyroderma is a small group of succulent plants from South Africa. There are about a dozen species. They’re known as “living stones” because their blue-green, ground-hugging leaves look like tiny rocks. They grow in tight clumps with pairs of leaves that are usually cylindrical or egg-shaped and have a notch in the middle. Each season a stem bears two leaves, and new plants can form from offsets. In some species the old leaves stay on to form a short column where new leaves grow.

Solitary daisylike flowers, usually white, yellow, or purple, appear in the leaf cleft.

Native habitat: the far west of South Africa in the Knersvlakte, a very dry winter-rain desert with quartzite sands. Like other succulents, they need extremely well-drained soil and frost can damage them. For cultivation, give them bright sun and gritty, free-draining soil. They can be grown from seed or by dividing established clumps.

Evolution note: In the Cape Floristic Region, Argyroderma shows diversification as isolated populations adapt to different habitats, leading to genetic differences and different flowering times; this is an example of adaptive radiation in the ice-plant family.

There are about 12 recognized Argyroderma species.