An old Tylecodon reticulatus subsp. reticulatus plant with many successful growth seasons behind it can be a spreading, much-branched plant, impressing more by its width than its height.

Seen here in the Little Karoo during May after rain, there is much green foliage on the thick stem-tips, but not enough to hide the lower stem parts from view and not reaching up to the pale grey, branched stalks of last year’s inflorescences.

This plant is as much a stem succulent as a leaf succulent, storing moisture in both these respectively permanent and deciduous body parts (Smith, et al, 2017; Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; iNaturalist).