Cotyledon barbeyi

C. barbeyi in the Algarve, Portugal

Cotyledon barbeyi is a larger plant with many varieties and cultivars. It is the only true tropical plant and found throughout Eastern Africa an into the Arabian peninsula.

It may resemble a larger C. orbiculata, but the flower will remove all doubt.

Take care because although it vaguelly resembles Crassula arborescens and ovata, it is much more sensitive to cold than these Crassula!

C. barbeyi east of Polokwane, SA.
Photo © Simon Atwood on inaturalist.org

C. barbeyi narrow leaf form near Blyde rivier canyon, SA.
Photo © Tony Rebelo on inaturalist.org

Plant shape

C. barbeyi is a larger plant that can grow up to 1.5m high. However there are several forms that look different and are smaller.

The leaves are usually oval in shape and flat. They often have a grass green to blueish green colour and may have a reddish top edge.

Another form has narrow hairy leaves .

C. barbeyi flowers show the clear bulge between the calyx lobes. Photo © Ruben Heydenrych on inaturalist.org

Flowers

The inflorescence is around 30-40cm long and ends in a many branched thyrse. The peduncle is about 3-4cm long.

The flowers are red or yellow and always have a very distinctive bulge between the calyx lobes.

The calyx lobes are elongated triangular, 3-6mm long, green. The corollla lobes are recurved or are completely reflexed. The lobes have a yellow green base colour with many elongated wine red spots. The stamens are exerted and coloured.

Variability

C. barbeyi is very variable and has many cultivars, but also has one described variety:

C. barbeyi var. soutpansbergensis shows the same bulge of the corolla as the main species. Photo © Jacquie Koutsoudis.

C. barbeyi var. soutpansbergensis

This very pretty plant only occurs on cliffs of northern slopes of the Soutpansberg in the Limpopo province, South Africa. It is a cremnophyte.

It has flat leaves 3-4cm wide, very pale green to white, glabrous. The whole plant never gets much bigger than 15cm.

The flowers are red and about 2cm long, but with this clear bulge between the calyx lobes.

Where

C. barbeyi occurs from northern Kwazulu-Natal through Swaziland and Mpumalanga into Mozambique and Zimbabwe up to Ethiopia and Yemen.