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Frithia pulchra
A tiny stemless succulent from South Africa with bulb-like leaves that have translucent windows at the tip, and magenta and white daisy-like flowers in summer. It needs a dry, gritty mix, strong light and very sparing water, and it can pull itself below the soil in drought.
Frithia pulchra, the fairy elephant's feet, is a species of flowering plant in the fig‑marigold family Aizoaceae, endemic to Gauteng Province, South Africa (where it is classified as "Vulnerable" by the IUCN Red List). Its natural habitat is temperate grassland with high summer rainfall. A tiny stemless succulent growing to just 10 cm (3.9 in) tall and 20 cm (7.9 in) broad, it has bulbous oblong leaves with leaf windows at the tip; and magenta and white daisy-like flowers in summer. During periods of drought it has the ability to shrink beneath the soil surface, thus avoiding excessive desiccation, but making it extremely difficult to find.
It is named for Frank Frith, a Johannesburg gardener who showed specimens to N.E. Brown, a botanist at Kew Gardens, while on a visit to London, UK, in 1925. The Latin specific epithet pulchra means "beautiful".
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Frithia pulchra by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
Pet safety from the ASPCA toxic and non-toxic plant lists.
