Cotyledon pendens - Cliff Cotyledon

Cliff Cotyledon is a much-branched fleshy shrublet with dense, curtain-forming, hanging stems up to 60 cm long. Flowers are borne at the ends of the branches, in clusters which are branched and hanging and 5-9 cm long, with up to 4 flowers, sometimes only a single flower. The flower stalk is about 8-18 mm long and 2 mm in diameter. The flowers are bell shaped, orange-red 4-4.5 x 1.2-1.3 cm with a cylindrical tube slightly bulging in the middle. The petals are spreading. Its 10 stamens are produced in two whorls, they are yellowish green and 1.8-2 cm long, fused into a tube in the lower third. The anthers are spherical bearing yellow pollen. Its roots are fibrous and not fleshy. The stems are initially soft and flaccid, about 2 mm in diameter, whitish green (due to a powdery coating) and the nodes are about 7-15 mm apart. The stems and leaves are at first sparsely beset with glandular hairs, becoming hairless with age. Its leaves are often crowded and highly fleshy, in opposite pairs, pendent, the leaf blades are elliptic to elliptic-egg-shaped, 1.8-2.5 x 1-1.5 cm and 7-10 mm thick, the tip ending abruptly in a sharp point, the base is wedge-shaped. The leaf surface is whitish grey-green due to the powdery bloom, the leaf margin is an attractive reddish color. The short leaf-stalk is 1.5-2 mm long. Cliff Cotyledon is found only on sheer cliff in Eastern Cape, cultivated worldwide.