Crassula natans
A tiny, short-lived aquatic or semi-aquatic Crassula from seasonal pools, streams and seepages across South Africa and Lesotho, with a dense centre in the winter-rainfall Western Cape. On wet mud it forms reddish tufts under 6 cm tall; in water it grows floating stems up to about 35 cm with broader floating leaves and small white to pink flowers. Treat it as a sunny pond or bog plant that lives through one wet season, not as a dry-grown succulent.
Where it grows wild
Herbarium labels describe shallow standing or slow water: rock pools on sandstone and granite, vernal pools, pans and depressions, seepages, marshes, stream beds and banks, farm dams and ditches, and wet black coastal sand touched by sea spray. Most labels record full sun on clay, gravel or sandy mud; a few note partial shade. The pools usually dry out later in the season.
From sea level to about 3010 m, median 562 m (13 records with elevation). High-altitude records come from basalt pans and slow streams in the Lesotho and Free State highlands at about 2800 m.
🔒 Growing it like that
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More Crassula
Profiles are drafts built from measured range and climate and from published sources; each section carries its own confidence in the app.