Haworthia flowers – some comments as a character source, Appendix 4

No conclusion is written to this appendix. It is evident to me that there just is no way for me to generate a composite picture for each set of flowers by which one can adequately compare. In general the summer flowering cf. H. retusa set have flowers that are correspondingly lighter coloured than those of the darker flower of the correspondingly darker H. mirabilis set. While gathering the plant pictures from files it struck me how similar plants are from quite different sets across both groups and persuading me that H. retusa and H. mirabilis are in fact one integral system and H. mutica and H. pygamea are western and eastern offshoots.

Acknowledgement
I must again appreciate the kindness and helpfulness of landowners in allowing access. Neels and Suzanne Smit of Volmoed; Hector Odendaal of Dankbaar; Jon and Cindy Webber of Klipport; Tom,Trevennan and Hesphia Barry of Van Reenens Crest, and Coetzee and Surieta Uys of Morning Star. The present owner of the Bromberg site could not be established. The other plants photographed are not field plants and neither can they be seen as any more than flowers of one or few cultivated specimens with provenance already acknowledged.

The following additional populations and plants were observed:-

1. MBB7954 H. mutica, Volmoed.
2. MBB6512 H. mutica, Klipport.
3. MBB7741 H. mutica, Dankbaar.
4. & 5. MBB7920 and MBB7921 H. retusa (nigra), Van Reenens Crest.
6. MBB7803 H. rossouwii, Morning Star, S. Heidelberg.

In addition I include pictures from plants in cultivation:-

7. MBB7758 H. retusa, Skietbaan, S Riversdale.
8. MBB7780 H. retusa (geraldii), Komserante, E Riversdale.
9. MBB7781 H. retusa (foucheii), Komserante, E Riversdale.
10. MBB7776 H. retusa, Pienaarsrivier, W. Riversdale.
11. MBB6747 H. pygmaea, Vleesbaai.
12. MBB33 H. comptoniana, Georgida.
[ed.] MBB33 doesn’t exist in Bayer’s Accession, correct reference is most likely KG114/72

The population H. rossouwii (elizeae) at Bromberg, Stormsvlei was visited but the plants were only in very early bud.

The Heidelberg H. rossouwii is a small solitary plant and only known to me from two populations. H. rossouwii (elizeae) is also small, proliferous and very problematic. It is so far only known to me as one very restricted population. I doubt if the eastern end of the Riviersonderend Mountains have ever been adequately explored to exclude it from there. Even the Bromberg alone could yield more populations.