DESCRIPTION: Plants perennial, densely cespitose from a subglobose tuber, tuber 1.5-2.5 cm in diameter. Stems up to 2.5 cm long, 2.4-3 mm in diameter, erect to spreading, unbranched, glabrous. Leaves hidden by the subtending scales; scales about 2 mm long, 2.8 mm wide, sessile, membranous, silvery, erect, overlapping, broadly ovate, entire, and shortly acute near the base, up to 5 mm long and 2.5 mm wide, narrowly ovate, and acute distally; leaves 0.5-0.8 mm long and 1-2 mm green, fleshy. entire, crescent-shaped, rounded to truncate. Flowers terminal, solitary, sessile, fragrant, concealed by the distal scales when closed; sepals 2, about 3.2 mm long. 2.5 mm wide, whitish, broadly ovate-elliptic and subacute, persistent in fruit; petals 5, about 4 mm long by 2.5 mm wide, white, broadly elliptic, obtuse; stamens 7-8, filaments about 2.5 mm long, white, shortly connate at the base; anthers about 1 mm long, elliptic, yellow; ovary subglobose, about 1,2 mm in diameter, green, style with 3 branches, about 2 mm long (including the branches). Fruit a capsule. about 2.5 mm long, ovoid, surrounded by the persistent perianth, splitting into segments from the base. Seeds about 0.6 - 0.8 mm long by 0.5-0.6 mm in diameter, ovoid to somewhat crescent-shaped, pale brown, papillose, with a minute horn-like outgrowth.
ECOLOGY: Grows on open ground in shallow soil over limestone at 170-215 m in Thulin's N3 region (northern Puntland). It is not known to grow naturally anywhere else but plants are available from various growers.
TAXONOMIC COMMENTS: According to Rowley (1994), this species belongs in Avonia but no one has yet made the appropriate combination.
Rowley, G.D. Anacampseros and allied genera - A reassessment. Bradley 12: 105-112.