This small shrublet produces a tuft of three-winged succulent stems variegated with attractive decurrent streaks of yellowish-green in a pattern reminiscent of the marbled end-papers of old books, giving the stems a stretched appearance. These stems radiate from atop a tuberous root system that, in cultivation, may be exposed as a caudex. Native to SE Kenya and NE Tanzania, the species grows in open acacia woodland between 600 and 1100 m. In cultivation, it makes a persistent specimen that develops an increasingly impressive caudex with age. Rooted cuts of HBG 80453, a plant originally from Arid Lands Greenhouses, already developing swollen roots ready to be seen above ground. $10.
Published in the Cactus and Succulent Journal, Vol. 84 (2), March - April, 2012