Mesembryanthemum cordifolium, formerly known as Aptenia cordifolia, is a species of succulent plant in the family Aizoaceae. It is a creeping plant that forms a carpet of flat-growing perennial herbs in groups on the ground from a base. The genus name means middle-embryo flower in reference to the position of the ovary in the flower. The specific epithet is derived from Latin for heart-shaped leaves.
Description
This is a succulent, creeping, short-lived, mat-forming perennial herb growing in flat clumps on the ground from a woody base. Plants only rise to about 10 centimetres (3.9 in) tall but prostrate stems reach up to about 60 centimetres (24 in) long. The stems are green and stalk-round. The fleshy, small leaves are opposite, ovate to cordate, about 2.5 centimetres (0.98 in) long and covered with fine papillae.
Bright pink to purplish solitary flowers appear in the leaf axils, open during the day but close up at night and remain closed on cloudy days. These colored whorls are not petals, but non-functional modified stamens. Normal stamens are yellow. Flowers bloom primarily from spring to fall. The fruit is a capsule of little more than one centimeter in length with millimeter brown tuberose seeds. There is a variegated form.
Names
The common names of the plant include baby sun rose, heart-leaf, red aptenia or aptenia in English, as well as rooi brakvygie or brakvygie in Afrikaans, and umjuluka, ibohlololo, or uncolozi omncane in isiZulu in South Africa. It is known as heartleaf iceplant in the U.S. British names may be heart-leaved aptenia or heart-leaved midday flower because, like many other representatives of the Aizoaceae, it opens its flowers only during the sunshine of the day.
Taxonomy
Mesembryanthemum cordifolium is an accepted name according to "The Plant List" database, the primary source for the modern APG taxonomy of flowering plants. Formerly placed in the genus Aptenia and known as A. cordifolia, it was included in Mesembryanthemum...
