Disphyma is a monotypic genus of succulent shrubs. Commonly known as Round-leaved Pigface, it occurs in South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 and New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

. Its sole species, Disphyma crassifolium, is divided into two subspecies, D. crassifolium subsp. crassifolium and D. crassifolium subsp. clavellatum

Disphyma crassifolium subsp. clavellatum

Disphyma crassifolium subsp. clavellatum is the subspecies of Disphyma crassifolium that occurs in Australia and New Zealand. It is sometimes known by the common name Rounded Noon-flower-Description:...

.

Description

It grows as a prostrate, succulent shrub or annual herb, from two to 30 centimetres high. Unlike the other pigfaces, its leaves are round in cross-section. Flowers are pink, purple or violet.

Taxonomy

Disphyma crassifolium was first published as Mesembryanthemum crassifolium by Carl Linnaeus in 1753, based on South African specimen material. In 1786, Georg Forster

Georg Forster

Johann Georg Adam Forster was a German naturalist, ethnologist, travel writer, journalist, and revolutionary. At an early age, he accompanied his father on several scientific expeditions, including James Cook's second voyage to the Pacific...

 published M. australe based on New Zealand material. Forster failed to give a description, however, so valid publication of the name falls to William Aiton

William Aiton

William Aiton was a Scottish botanist.Aiton was born near Hamilton. Having been regularly trained to the profession of a gardener, he travelled to London in 1754, and became assistant to Philip Miller, then superintendent of the Chelsea Physic Garden...

, who published a description in 1789. In 1803, Adrian Hardy Haworth

Adrian Hardy Haworth

Adrian Hardy Haworth was an English entomologist, botanist and carcinologist.He was the son of Benjamin Haworth of Haworth Hall...

 published M. clavellatum based on plants raised at Kew from seeds collected in Australia. Thus distinct species were erected for each country in which the plant occurred.

The genus Disphyma was published by N. E. Brown in 1925. The type species for the genus was M. crassifolium, which would be transferred into Disphyma as D. crassifolium. Apparently Brown neglected to formally transfer the species over, however, as this was done in 1927 by Harriet Margaret Louisa Bolus

Harriet Margaret Louisa Bolus

Harriet Margaret Louisa Bolus née Kensit was a prodigious South African botanist.- References :...

. Three years later, Brown transferred M. australe into Disphyma as D. australe. Robert James Chinnock published a new species name, D. blackii in 1971, and five years later he transferred M. clavellatum to Disphyma.

In the early 1980s, Hugh Francis Glen determined, on the basic of a multivariate analysis

Multivariate analysis

Multivariate analysis is based on the statistical principle of multivariate statistics, which involves observation and analysis of more than one statistical variable at a time...

, that Disphyma was monotypic. All other names were therefore given synonymy with D. crassifolium. This situation remained until 1986, when it was decided that the South African populations differed sufficiently from the Australian and New Zealand populations to merit distinct subspecies. D. crassifolium subsp. clavellatum was then erected to encompass the Australian and New Zealand populations, with the autonym

Autonym (botany)

In botanical nomenclature, autonyms are automatically created names, as regulated by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature . Autonyms are cited without an author. Relevant provisions are in articles 6.8, 22.1-3 and 26.1-3....

D. crassifolium subsp. crassifolium defined as encompassing the South African plants.

Distribution and habitat

Disphyma is widely distributed in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. It grows in saline areas such as coastal dunes and samphire flats, and tolerates a range of soils including sand, loam and clay.