Long grown in the Huntington’s Desert Garden as Ruschia granitica, this is now included with other diminutive mesembs in Antimima. These typically form tight, mounding cushions. A. granitica is a lower-growing, tightly knit groundcover only 1-2 cm tall—so tight, in fact, that most weeds are choked out. It endures frost that touches the lower Desert Garden most years as well as some more significant cold spells. Rooted cuts of HBG 19565, a cutting received from UCBG (57.867-1) in Sept 1966, originally from CH Hancock in England, collected at Ysterfontein, W Cape, S. Africa, where it is said to grow on granite domes not far from the coast. $5.
Published in the Cactus and Succulent Journal, Vol. 77 (2), March - April, 2005