Conophytum ricardianum ssp. rubriflorum

Some populations of C. ricardianum contain plants with purple as well as white flowers. The purple ones tend to be called ssp rubriflorum when really they should only have forma or cultivar status at best. The plant in the photograph can be traced back to de Boer at the IVT in Holland and then back to Tischer who originally described rubriflorum. Therefore this plant represents Tischer's concept of the taxon and it is rather different to recent collections of purple-flowered ricardianum - just compare the bodies in the two photographs.