Anagram of the name Cotyledon.
Small perennial shrubs with swollen succulent stem bases. Leaves at the apices of the branches, spirally arranged, fleshy, deciduous. Flower clusters branched, open. Flowers mostly erect, with a few dispersed bracts. Sepals 5. Petals 5, united into a long tube with the lobes bent back. Stamens 10 in 2 whorls.
A closely related segregate genus of Cotyledon. The alternate and deciduous leaves, the inflorescence stalk with a gradual transition from leaves to bracts rather than an abrupt transition, and the mostly erect or spreading flowers most readily distinguish the genus from Cotyledon. Tylecodon has elongate epidermal cells with sinuate anticlinal walls, whereas in Cotyledon and Adromischus the cells are isodiametric with straight anticlinal walls. The leaves of T. wallichii are toxic if ingested.
About 27-35 species (depending on authority) from southern Africa (the Cape to Namibia).
Stem cuttings or seed.
Leaves alternate, deciduous; flowers erect or spreading, solitary or spike-like, petals fused, corolla tube-like.
Toelken (1978, 1985).
Source: (2002). Crassulaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 3. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 2. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.