It's been almost too hot to metabolize - up to 108 Fahr. here. 115 to the nearby south and east -and certainly too hot to think, but I should nonetheless attempt a few nocturnal notes. The Leeupoort "Lithops marmorata" population discussed in the latest issue of MSG (21:28) has produced a double surprise. Three years ago, I'd given a green-skinned cutting and a tiny seedling to Mias Kennedy, and he recently sent me a photograph of the two plants, now handsomely grown up. One plant has the rich yellowflower typical of L.helmutii; the other, greener-skinned plant sports long-petalled flowers with the typical shoulder-draping form of L. helmutii, but all white! A small sample, to be sure, but it seems as if the plants represent a southern L.helmutii with albinistic tendencies. The abundant presence of what appears to be typical L.marmorata a kilometre or so to the east of Leeupoort suggests a parallel with the original (and hitherto, sole) L.helmutii site, C271, just to the east of which one finds L.marmorata, C260. The case is also interesting as Leeupoort lies halfway between C271 in the north and C304, L.naureeniae, in the south. L.naureeniae and L.helmutii are separated mostly by leaf shape and leaf colour. The former has rich brownish or reddish tones never seen in the bottle-green helmutii, a squatter shape and, often, a bolder pattern in which one can fancy hawk silhouettes against a dark sky - at least when it's very hot.
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