Greek cheiris—sleeve, opsis—resemblance, referring to the sleeve-like dried leaf surface that covers the dormant new leaves.
Clumping or mat forming dwarf perennial succulents. Shoots with up to 4 leaf pairs. Leaves club shaped to cylindrical or 3-angled with a papery sheath, green, grey or white and generally dotted with papillae, often with a toothed ridge towards the tip. Flowers terminal, solitary and usully stalked. Sepals 4-5; petals many in several rows, mostly yellow, rarely reddish to purple. Stigmas 8-19, pointed. Ovary mostly half inferior with 10-20 chambers; ovule placentation parietal.
Species available include C. peculiaris N.E. Br. which has leaves of 2 different alternating types and stems that are hardly branched; C. pillansii Bolus with similar leaf pairs and leaves that are hooded and without toothed ridges or pointed tips; C. denticulata (Haw.) N.E. Br. which has leaves with pointed tips and most leaves with toothed ridges. [C. candidissima (Haw.) N.E. Br.]
Seed (cuttings often difficult).
Leaves with a cup-like dry papery sheath; flowers mostly yellow; ovary chambers 10-20.
29 species from SW Africa and S Namibia.
Source: (1997). Aizoaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 2. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 1. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.
