haworthia-archeri

Haworthia archeri W. F. Barker - A short discussion by Gerhard Marx.

Haworthia archeri is a small and strictly solitary species, seldom more than 50 mm wide and growing very sparsely distributed and extremely well hidden amongst and below rocks on steep southern slopes. It seems to be restricted to the area between Laingsburg and Matjiesfontein and a few km northwards towards Sutherland.

Flowering is during mid-summer (February) and the flowers are characterised by having straight tips to the upper perianth lobes, not upward-curving as generally found in Haworthia. Most characteristic is the large and flecked fruits which is unique to Haworthia archeri. (The flecked fruits are also found to a lesser degree in Haworthia dimorpha and Haworthia fraseri.),

Haworthia archeri is slow and difficult in cultivation, causing it to be rarely encountered in collections.

The habitat receives very sparse rain throughout the year but the main growing periods for Haworthia archeri seem to be early and late winter.

At some localities Haworthia archeri grows closely adjacent to Haworthia lockwoodii, Haworthia arachnoidea var scabrispina and Haworthia viscosa.

The association with Haworthia marumiana as encountered in some publications is extremely unfortunate as it is totally superficial and misleading. Haworthia marumiana is a spring-flowering and freely clustering species with numerous flower, fruit and leaf differences and restricted to vertical cliff faces in the wild. In addition, Haworthia marumiana is a very easy plant in cultivation and proliferates to weed-like extent while Haworthia archeri is rare and difficult to maintain and propagate.


Haworthia archeri habitat			The speckled fruit only occurs in Haworthia archeri and a few other species.