Description
Carpobrotus edulis is a creeping, mat-forming succulent species and member of the stone plant family Aizoaceae, one of about 30 species in the genus Carpobrotus.
C. edulis is easily confused with its close relatives, including the more diminutive and less aggressive Carpobrotus chilensis (sea fig), with which it hybridizes readily. C. edulis can, however, be distinguished from most of its relatives by the colour of its flowers. The large (2.5-to-6-inch-diameter (63 to 150 mm)) flowers of C. edulis are yellow or light pink, whereas the smaller, 1.5-to-2.5-inch-diameter (38 to 63 mm) C. chilensis flowers are deep magenta. On the flowers, two of the calyx lobes are longer, extending further than the petals.
The leaves of C. edulis are only very slightly curved and have serrated sides near the tips.
Read more about this topic: Carpobrotus Edulis
Famous quotes containing the word description:
“The great object in life is Sensation—to feel that we exist, even though in pain; it is this “craving void” which drives us to gaming, to battle, to travel, to intemperate but keenly felt pursuits of every description whose principal attraction is the agitation inseparable from their accomplishment.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“Whose are the truly labored sentences? From the weak and flimsy periods of the politician and literary man, we are glad to turn even to the description of work, the simple record of the month’s labor in the farmer’s almanac, to restore our tone and spirits.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Once a child has demonstrated his capacity for independent functioning in any area, his lapses into dependent behavior, even though temporary, make the mother feel that she is being taken advantage of....What only yesterday was a description of the child’s stage in life has become an indictment, a judgment.”
—Elaine Heffner (20th century)