Conophytum roodiae ssp. sanguineum

Conophytum roodiae is also widespread on the Namaqualand eroded gneiss formations and in common with most widespread plant species, it shows much variation. It is the large-flowered, self-sterile sister of C. rugosum. Most ecotypes of the species are quite growable although they do suffer from the same problem as C. rugosum in that some heads fail to resurrect in the autumn and that frequent separation of heads is needed. However, in the south-west corner of its distribution, to the south of Garies, there is a very special population that when it was first discovered was known as the “red pea”. These grow in grit pockets in gneiss rock that is barely raised above the level of the surrounding vegetation and as the same suggests they have quite rich-red bodies when they first emerge in the autumn in the wild. This element was given the name C. roodiae subsp. sanguineum in recognition of its bloody colouration, but in cultivation in the UK the red colour is usually not so well developed. A few kilometres to the east, near Hoedberg, there are more populations of well-pigmented C. roodiae but these are brown-purple rather than red and with a more rugose epidermis. I would personally include these in subsp. sanguineum rather than subsp. roodiae but I suspect that other authors would not. Steven Hammer provided me with seeds of the “red pea” around the time he described it in 1990 but I found them very difficult to germinate. Adult plants are even more prone than the typical subspecies to die-back during the resting period and I eventually lost them. In the mid-noughties, I got more seed from Steve and this germinated fairly well and I have been able to maintain some plants and even produce a few seedlings from them. I think that there has been unnatural selection at the Sphaeroid Institute in that propagating plants by seed in cultivation over several generations has produced a strain that has self-selected for easier cultivation. So I am now optimistic that this attractive plant will become more common in our collections in the future.