Gasteria batesiana

Gasteria batesiana
Gasteria batesiana in cultivation
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Monocots
Order:	Asparagales
Family:	Asphodelaceae
Subfamily:	Asphodeloideae
Genus:	Gasteria
Species:	G. batesiana
Binomial name
Gasteria batesiana Rowley

Gasteria batesiana ("Knoppies gasteria") is a species of succulent plant, native to the inland escarpment in the far north-east of South Africa.

This relatively small, variable species of Gasteria has extremely rough, pointed leaves, that eventually form a rosette (though leaves in seedlings are distichous as with all Gasterias). The mottled leaves usually have a strong keel, meaning that they are triangular in cross-section. They also have many tiny white spots, which occur in bands, giving a faint row of stripes on the leaves surfaces.

It is closely related to the "Natal Gasteria" (Gasteria croucheri), which occurs just to the south in KwaZulu-Natal. The extremely distinctive variety of Gasteria batesiana which seems to be transitional between these two species, is now considered as a separate (though transitional) species in its own right, Gasteria tukhelensis.

It is the most northerly of all Gasteria species, occurring from northern KwaZulu-Natal province, northwards through Swaziland and Mpumalanga, as far north as the Olifants River in Limpopo Province. Here it occurs in rocky terrain in bushveld vegetation.

It is an extremely variable species. Plants from the Barberton area are almost black in colour, while plants from the Mzimduzi river have almost smooth leaves, and those from Sifula in the south have extremely fine tubercles. The two recognised varieties are:

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Wikipedia