Piaranthus R. Br.

Dwarf, mat-forming, glabrous, succulent perennials. Stems cylindric, sometimes clavate, roundly 4- or 5-angled, angles marked by triangular scars of rudimentary leaves. Inflorescence a cymose-thyrsoid cyme, 1-3 per stem, on upper parts. Flowers 1-5, produced on rudimentary peduncles, usually opening in succession. Sepals ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, with scales within the base. Corolla rotate and deeply lobed to campanulate, tubular or with a nearly flat base, 5-lobed in apical part, usually hairy on the inner surface; lobes often with revolute margins. Corona 1-seriate, yellow arising from the staminal column. Follicles paired, green, sometimes spotted red, glabrous. Seeds flat, ovate, winged with a tuft of hairs.

Comment: More recent phylogenetic evidence has led to the forming of a very broad concept of the genus Ceropegia including the genus Brachystelma and all known genera within the Stapeliae (Bruyns, P.V., Klak, C. & Hanáček, P., 2017). However we follow Goyder et Al. in Flora Zambesiaca 7(2), 2020 where the inclusion of the Stapeliad genera has not been accepted.

Worldwide: Six species in southern Africa

Botswana: 2 taxa.