Jump to content
 







Main menu
   


Navigation  



Main page
Contents
Current events
Random article
About Wikipedia
Contact us
Donate
 




Contribute  



Help
Learn to edit
Community portal
Recent changes
Upload file
 








Search  

































Create account

Log in
 









Create account
 Log in
 




Pages for logged out editors learn more  



Contributions
Talk
 



















Contents

   



(Top)
 


1 Description  





2 Distribution  





3 Cultivation  





4 Cultivars  



4.1  Propagation  







5 History  





6 Taxonomy  





7 Gallery  





8 References  





9 Literature  





10 External links  














Lithops






Afrikaans
Azərbaycanca
Беларуская
Български
Català
Cebuano
Čeština
Deutsch
Ελληνικά
Español
فارسی
Français

Հայերեն
Hornjoserbsce
Hrvatski
Italiano
Lombard
Magyar
مصرى
Nederlands

Polski
Português
Română
Русский
Српски / srpski
Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски
Suomi
Svenska
ி

Українська
Tiếng Vit
Winaray

 

Edit links
 









Article
Talk
 

















Read
Edit
View history
 








Tools
   


Actions  



Read
Edit
View history
 




General  



What links here
Related changes
Upload file
Special pages
Permanent link
Page information
Cite this page
Get shortened URL
Download QR code
Wikidata item
 




Print/export  



Download as PDF
Printable version
 




In other projects  



Wikimedia Commons
Wikispecies
 
















Appearance
   

 






From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 


Lithops
Lithops sp. by Marloth
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Caryophyllales
Family: Aizoaceae
Subfamily: Ruschioideae
Tribe: Ruschieae
Genus: Lithops
N.E.Br.[1]
Species

See text

Lithops is a genusofsucculent plants in the ice plant family, Aizoaceae. Members of the genus are native to southern Africa. The name is derived from the Ancient Greek words λίθος (líthos) 'stone' and ὄψ (óps) 'face', referring to the stone-like appearance of the plants. They avoid being eaten by blending in with surrounding rocks and are often known as pebble plantsorliving stones. Lithops is both the genus name and the common name. The formation of the name from the Ancient Greek -ops means that even a single plant is called a Lithops.

Description[edit]

Lithops hookeri. Two new leaf pairs are emerging between the old one, leading to a double-headed plant

Individual Lithops plants consist of one or more pairs of bulbous, almost fused leaves opposite each other and hardly any stem. The slit between the leaves contains the meristem and produces flowers and new leaves. The leaves of Lithops are mostly buried below the surface of the soil, with a partially or completely translucent top surface known as a leaf window which allows light to enter the interior of the leaves for photosynthesis.[2]

During winter a new leaf pair, or occasionally more than one, grows inside the existing fused leaf pair. In spring the old leaf pair parts to reveal the new leaves and the old leaves will then dry up. Lithops leaves may shrink and disappear below ground level during drought. Yellow or white flowers emerge from the fissure between the leaves after the new leaf pair fully matures, one per leaf pair. This is usually in autumn, but can be before the summer solsticeinL. pseudotruncatella and after the winter solsticeinL. optica. The flowers are often sweetly scented.

Longitudinal section of a Lithops plant, showing the epidermal window at the top, the translucent succulent tissue, the green photosynthetic tissue, and the decussate budding leaves growing between the mature leaves

The most startling adaptationofLithops is the colouring of the leaves. The leaves are fenestrated, and the epidermal windows are patterned in various shades of cream, grey, and brown, with darker windowed areas, dots, and red lines, according to species and local conditions. The markings function as remarkable camouflage for the plant in its typical stone-like environment. As is typical of a window plant, the green tissue lines the inside of the leaves and is covered with translucent tissue beneath the epidermal windows.

Lithops are obligate outcrossers and require pollination from a separate plant. Like most mesembs, Lithops fruit is a dry capsule that opens when it becomes wet; some seeds may be ejected by falling raindrops, and the capsule re-closes when it dries out. Capsules may also sometimes detach and be distributed intact, or may disintegrate after several years.

Distribution[edit]

Large stand of Lithops salicola

Lithops occur naturally across wide areas of Namibia and South Africa, as well as small bordering areas in Botswana and possibly Angola, from sea level to high mountains. Nearly a thousand individual populations are documented, each covering just a small area of dry grassland, veld, or bare rocky ground. Different Lithops species are preferentially found in particular environments, usually restricted to a particular type of rock. Lithops have not naturalised outside this region.

RainfallinLithops habitats ranges from approximately 700 mm/year to near zero. Rainfall patterns range from exclusively summer rain to exclusively winter rain, with a few species relying almost entirely on dew formation for moisture. Temperatures are usually hot in summer and cool to cold in winter, but one species is found right at the coast with very moderate temperatures year round.

Cultivation[edit]

Group of Lithops sp. dividing and producing new leaf growth.

Lithops are popular house plants and many specialist succulent growers maintain collections. Seeds and plants are widely available in shops and over the Internet. They are relatively easy to grow and care for if given sufficient sun and kept in well-draining soil.

Normal treatment in mild temperate climates is to keep them completely dry during winter, watering only when the old leaves have dried up and are replaced by a new leaf pair. Watering continues through autumn, when the plants flower, and then stops for winter. The best results are obtained in an environment with additional heat such as a greenhouse. In hotter climates, Lithops will have a summer dormancy when they should be kept mostly dry, and they may require some water in winter. In tropical climates, Lithops can be grown primarily in winter with a long summer dormancy. In all conditions, Lithops will be most active and need most water during autumn and most species will flower at approximately the same time.

Lithops olivacea

Lithops thrive best in a coarse, well-drained substrate. Any soil that retains too much water will cause the plants to burst their skins as they over-expand. Plants grown in strong light will develop hard strongly coloured skins which are resistant to damage and rot, although persistent overwatering will still be fatal. Excessive heat will kill potted plants as they cannot cool themselves by transpiration and rely on staying buried in cool soil below the surface. Commercial growers mix a mild fungicide or weak strength horticultural sulfur into the plant's water to prevent rotting. Lithops are sensitive to watering during hot weather, which can cause the plants to rot; in habitat the plants are often dormant when the temperatures are high, doing most of their growing during the cool months of the year. Low light levels will make the plants highly susceptible to rotting and fungal infection.[3]

In the United Kingdom the following species have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit:[4]

  • Lithops olivacea[6]
  • Lithops pseudotruncatella[7]
  • Lithops salicola[8]
  • Lithops schwantesii[9]
  • Cultivars[edit]

    Mr Keith Green was appointed International Cultivar Registration Authority for Lithops in 2013, and recognises over 100 registered cultivars.[10]

    Since Lithops are mostly propagated by seed, cultivars require to be stabilised as seed strains. Most cultivars are either abnormally green or abnormally red plants, lacking most of the normal leaf pigments. Some were initially found as isolated unusual plants in habitat, but increasingly have arisen from cultivation, sometimes by deliberately selecting mildly-coloured plants to achieve intense colours for a cultivar. The term "aberrant colour form" (acf.) has been used for these unusually-coloured Lithops.[11]

    There are also so-called "pattern cultivars" of Lithops, seed strains which have been selectively-bred or stabilised from isolated unusual plants to have intensified or unusual leaf patterns, and sometimes unusual flowers. In some cases, these are hybrids.[10]

    Propagation[edit]

    Lithops seedlings

    Propagation of Lithops is by seedorcuttings. Cuttings can only be used to produce new plants after a plant has naturally divided to form multiple heads, so most propagation is by seed. Lithops can readily be pollinated by hand if two separate clones of a species flower at the same time, and seed will be ripe about 9 months later. Seed is easy to germinate, but the seedlings are small and vulnerable for the first year or two, and will not flower until at least two or three years old.

    History[edit]

    Seven-day time-lapse

    The first scientific description of Lithops was made by botanist and artist William John Burchell, explorer of South Africa, although he called it Mesembryanthemum turbiniforme. In 1811, Burchell discovered a specimen when picking up a "curiously shaped pebble" from the ground.[11] Unfortunately the documented physical description was not detailed enough to be sure which Lithops he had discovered and the name Lithops turbiniformis is no longer used, although for many years it was applied to what is now known as Lithops hookeri.

    Several more Lithops were published as Mesembryanthemum species until in 1922 N E Brown started to split up the overly large genus on the basis of the capsules. The genus Lithops was created and dozens more species were published in the following decades. Brown, Gustav Schwantes, Kurt Dinter, Gert Nel, and Louisa Bolus continued to document Lithops from across southern Africa, but there was little consensus on the relationships between them, or even which populations should be grouped as species. As recently as the 1950s, the genus remained rather unknown in cultivation and was not well understood taxonomically.

    In the 1950s, Desmond and Naureen Cole began to study Lithops. Together, the couple visited nearly all natural habitats of the different lithops populations and collected samples from approximately 400. They document and identify them, assigning a number, which is now known as the Cole number still used today all around the world. They studied and revised the genus, in 1988 publishing a definitive book (Lithops: Flowering Stones) describing the species, subspecies, and varieties which have been accepted ever since.

    Because their camouflage is so effective, new species continue to be discovered. Recent discoveries include L. coleorum in 1994, L. hermetica in 2000, and L. amicorum in 2006.[12]

    Taxonomy[edit]

    Many of the species listed have named subspeciesorvarieties and some have many regional forms identified by old names or habitat locations. Identification of species is primarily by flower colour and leaf patterns. The species list here follows Cole & Cole (2006).[11]

    Lithops[13]
    Specific epithet Meaning
    amicorum[14] of the friends
    aucampiae named after Juanita Aucamp
    bromfieldii named after H. Bromfield
    coleorum named after Desmond & Naureen Cole
    comptonii named after Prof. Robert Harold Compton
    dinteri named after Moritz Kurt Dinter
    divergens divergent lobes
    dorotheae named after Dorothea Huyssteen
    francisci named after Frantz de Laet
    fulviceps tawny head
    gesineae named after Gesine de Boer
    geyeri named after Albertus Geyer
    gracilidelineata thin lined
    hallii named after Harry Hall
    helmutii named after Helmut Meyer
    hermetica named after the 'hermetically sealed' location, Sperrgebiet
    herrei named after Adolar 'Hans' Herre
    hookeri named after Sir Joseph Hooker
    julii named after Julius Derenberg
    karasmontana named after the Great Karas Mountains
    lesliei named after T. N. Leslie
    localis of a place
    marmorata marbled
    meyeri named after Rev. Gottlieb Meyer
    naureeniae named after Naureen Cole
    olivacea olive-green
    optica eye-like
    otzeniana named after M. Otzen
    pseudotruncatella had been confused with Conophytum truncatum
    ruschiorum named after Rusch family
    salicola salt-dweller
    schwantesii named after Gustav Schwantes
    vallis-mariae named after the location Mariental (Latinised)
    verruculosa warty
    villetii named after C. T. Villet
    viridis green
    werneri named after Werner Triebner

    Although the species, subspecies, and varieties published by Cole & Cole[11] largely remain accepted and in widespread use,[13] some variations have been published by other authors. Some published changes since 2006 include:

    Lithops fulviceps 'Aurea', green-bodied cultivar

    One study of non-coding chloroplast DNA (trnS-trnG intergenic spacer), nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (nrITS) sequences and AFLP data found that Lithops was not monophyletic since Dinteranthus, Schwantesia, and Lapidaria were involved. It identified 9 clades which did not closely frame the accepted 37 species.[18]

    Gallery[edit]

    References[edit]

    1. ^ "Genus: Lithops N. E. Br". Germplasm Resources Information Network. United States Department of Agriculture. 2009-06-09. Archived from the original on 2012-10-11. Retrieved 2011-04-09.
  • ^ Best of Both Worlds: Simultaneous High-Light and Shade-Tolerance Adaptations within Individual Leaves of the Living Stone Lithops aucampiae
  • ^ Ed Storms (1986). The New Growing the Mesembs. Storms.
  • ^ "AGM Plants - Ornamental" (PDF). Royal Horticultural Society. July 2017. p. 61. Retrieved 25 March 2018.
  • ^ "RHS Plantfinder - Lithops karasmontana". Retrieved 25 March 2018.
  • ^ "RHS Plantfinder - Lithops olivacea". Retrieved 25 March 2018.
  • ^ "RHS Plantfinder - Lithops pseudotruncatella". Retrieved 25 March 2018.
  • ^ "RHS Plantfinder - Lithops salicola". Retrieved 25 March 2018.
  • ^ "RHS Plantfinder - Lithops schwantesii". Retrieved 25 March 2018.
  • ^ a b Keith Green. "The International Cultivar Registration Authority Register and Checklist for the genus Lithops N.E.Br". Scrapbooklithops. Retrieved 2023-07-09.
  • ^ a b c d Cole, Desmond; Cole, Naureen (2005). Lithops—Flowering Stones. Cactus & Co. ISBN 88-900511-7-5.
  • ^ Eller, Benno M.; Ruess, Beatrice (1982). "Water relations of Lithops plants embedded into the soil and exposed to free air". Physiologia Plantarum. 55 (3): 329–334. doi:10.1111/j.1399-3054.1982.tb00300.x. ISSN 0031-9317.
  • ^ a b Hartmann, H.E.K., ed. (2001). Illustrated Handbook of Succulent Plants: Aizoaceae F-Z. Springer. ISBN 3-540-41723-0.
  • ^ Cole, Desmond (2006). "Cactus&Co Journal". Cactus&Co. X(1): 57–59.
  • ^ Arakaki, Mónica; Christin, Pascal-Antoine; Nyffeler, Reto; Lendel, Anita; Eggli, Urs; Ogburn, R. Matthew; Spriggs, Elizabeth; Moore, Michael J.; Edwards, Erika J. (2011). "Contemporaneous and recent radiations of the world's major succulent plant lineages". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 108 (20): 8379–8384. Bibcode:2011PNAS..108.8379A. doi:10.1073/pnas.1100628108. PMC 3100969. PMID 21536881.
  • ^ Earlé, Roy A.; Young, Andrew J. (2020). "The form, structure and size of Lithops N.E.Br. Seeds and the taxonomic implications". Bradleya. 2020 (38): 195. doi:10.25223/brad.n38.2020.a20. S2CID 220072147.
  • ^ H Jainta (2019). "Ein neuer taxonomischer Ansatz für die Gattung Lithops N.E.Br". Avonia. 37 (1).
  • ^ Kellner, A.; Ritz, C. M.; Schlittenhardt, P.; Hellwig, F. H. (2011). "Genetic differentiation in the genus Lithops L. (Ruschioideae, Aizoaceae) reveals a high level of convergent evolution and reflects geographic distribution". Plant Biology. 13 (2): 368–380. doi:10.1111/j.1438-8677.2010.00354.x. PMID 21309984.
  • Literature[edit]

    External links[edit]


    Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lithops&oldid=1223177000"

    Categories: 
    Lithops
    Taxa named by N. E. Brown
    Hidden categories: 
    Articles with short description
    Short description matches Wikidata
    Articles with 'species' microformats
    Commons category link from Wikidata
    Articles with BNF identifiers
    Articles with BNFdata identifiers
    Articles with J9U identifiers
    Articles with LCCN identifiers
    Articles with NKC identifiers
    Articles containing video clips
     



    This page was last edited on 10 May 2024, at 11:25 (UTC).

    Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.



    Privacy policy

    About Wikipedia

    Disclaimers

    Contact Wikipedia

    Code of Conduct

    Developers

    Statistics

    Cookie statement

    Mobile view



    Wikimedia Foundation
    Powered by MediaWiki