The genus name is a syllabic anagram of the former name Cotyledon, created by Helmut Toelken who split a few species off into a genus of their own.[2]
The species Latin epithet refers to the shape of inflorescence — branched terminal panicles.
The common names refer to soft, fleshy and brittle stems. For centuries children have used the soft, slippery stems as sleds.[3]
Description
Tylecodon paniculatus is a thickset, robust succulent dwarf tree up to 2.5–3 m tall, with very fat stems with usually well branched rounded crown. The single main trunk and branches are covered with mustard-yellow to olive-green bark peeling in papery semi-translucent sheets. Branches are short, with prominent leaf scars. Leaves are clustered and spirally arranged around the apex of the growing tips simple during the wintertime; they are paddle-shaped, 5–12 cm long and 2–10 cm wide, thickly succulent, bright yellowish-green; apex is broadly tapering to rounded, base is tapering without petiole. The plant is deciduous. Inflorescences are spectacular slender, ascending thyrses to 40 cm, with bright crimson-red stalks. Flowers have five joined sepals and five joined petals, forming an orange-yellow to red urn-shaped tube 1.5–2.5 cm long with spreading lobes. Ten stamens are pendulous at first, then upright as the petal-tube dries.[4][5]
The species grows in the arid, winter rain-fall regions from Namibia to the southwestern South Africa.
Toxicity
The plant contains bufadienolide-type cardiac glycoside cotyledoside which causes cotyledonosis or nenta poisoning ("krimpsiekte") in sheep and goats.[7]
Subspecies
Tylecodon paniculatus subsp. paniculatus — southwestern Namibia through to Cape Province.
Tylecodon paniculatus subsp. glaucus van Jaarsv. — Namibia.[1]
^Coates Palgrave, Keith (2002). Trees of southern Africa (3rd, New / rev. and updated by Meg Coates Palgrave ed.). Cape Town: Struik Publishers. p. 239. ISBN1868723895.
^Eggli, Urs (2003). Illustrated Handbook of Succulent Plants: Crassulaceae. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg. p. 359. ISBN978-3-642-55874-0.
^F. Smith, Gideon; R Crouch, Neil; Figueiredo, Estrela (2017). Field Guide to Succulents of Southern Africa. Penguin Random House South Africa. p. 317. ISBN9781775843672.
^Manning, John C.. (2013). Field guide to wild flowers of South Africa. Cape Town: Random House Struik. p. 236. ISBN9781920544874.
^Kellerman, T. S.; Coetzer, J. A. W.; Naudé, T. W.; Botha, C. J. (2005). Plant poisonings and mycotoxicoses of livestock in southern Africa (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 116–146. ISBN978-0195761344.
