Gasteria batesiana
Gasteria batesiana, or knoppies gasteria, is a species of succulent plant native to the inland escarpment in the far north-east of South Africa.
Description
This relatively small, variable species of Gasteria has rough, pointed leaves, that eventually form a rosette.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, which occurs just to the south in KwaZulu-Natal. The distinctive variety of Gasteria batesiana which seems to be transitional between these two species, is now considered as a separate species in its own right, Gasteria tukhelensis.
Distribution
It is the most northerly of all Gasteria species, occurring from northern KwaZulu-Natal province, northwards through Eswatini and Mpumalanga, as far north as the Olifants River in Limpopo Province.Here it occurs in rocky terrain in bushveld vegetation.