Haworthia heidelbergensis
A small, windowed Haworthia from the retusa group, endemic to the southern Western Cape around Heidelberg. It has been treated as a variety of H. retusa and of H. mirabilis. It grows half-buried among rocks and shrubs on low ridges and hill slopes, where it gets bright light that the shrubs break up, with rain spread over the whole year. In cultivation it wants bright but not scorching light, a gritty mix, and a cool, bright winter.
Where it grows wild
Herbarium labels place it on rocky ridges, hill slopes and west- and north-facing rocky slopes around Heidelberg, Drew and Potberg. One reads 'under bush on edge of rocky ridge'. The vegetation is fynbos and renosterveld shrubland. Like H. retusa, the rosettes probably sit partly sunken in the soil so that the leaf tips and windows are roughly level with the ground, but no source confirms this for H. heidelbergensis itself.
Few records carry an elevation. One label gives about 500 ft (150 m), and the measured site is at about 150 m. The known localities are low hills and ridges, mostly below about 400 m.
🔒 Growing it like that
The wild conditions above, turned into targets for a shelf, a tent or a greenhouse. The full profile has:
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Profiles are drafts built from measured range and climate and from published sources; each section carries its own confidence in the app. Photo from Wikimedia Commons, used under its CC0 licence, unmodified.