This article is about the plant genus. For the indigenous South American language, see Piaroa language

Piaroa language

Piaroa is an indigenous language of Colombia and Venezuela, native to the Piaroa people.A Wirö language is sometimes listed separately, or left unclassified...

.

The genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 Quaqua falls within the tribe of plants known collectively as stapeliads. All stapeliads, including Quaqua, are old world

Old World

The Old World consists of those parts of the world known to classical antiquity and the European Middle Ages. It is used in the context of, and contrast with, the "New World" ....

 stem-succulents.


Species of the Quaqua genus are exceptionally varied and endemic to the southwestern Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

, and locally very common in Namaqualand

Namaqualand

Namaqualand is an arid region of Namibia and South Africa, extending along the west coast over and covering a total area of 170,000 square miles/440,000 km². It is divided by the lower course of the Orange River into two portions - Little Namaqualand to the south and Great Namaqualand to the...

. They are usually characterised by having stout, firm, 4 or 5-sided stem

Plant stem

A stem is one of two main structural axes of a vascular plant. The stem is normally divided into nodes and internodes, the nodes hold buds which grow into one or more leaves, inflorescence , conifer cones, roots, other stems etc. The internodes distance one node from another...

s bearing conical tubercle

Tubercle

A tubercle is generally a wart-like projection, but it has slightly different meaning depending on which family of plants or animals it is used to refer to....

s which often have a tough, tapering spike at their ends. A few species lack the spikes or have smoothly rounded tubercles.

Quaqua flower

Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...

s are distinctive from those of other southern African stapeliads for their numerous inflorescence

Inflorescence

An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Strictly, it is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed and which is accordingly modified...

s emerging from each stem, especially closer to the ends. There are ten along each stem, vertically arranged in distichous series. The flowers themselves are typically sweet smelling (faintly of honey

Honey

Honey is a sweet food made by bees using nectar from flowers. The variety produced by honey bees is the one most commonly referred to and is the type of honey collected by beekeepers and consumed by humans...

 or lemon

Lemon

The lemon is both a small evergreen tree native to Asia, and the tree's ellipsoidal yellow fruit. The fruit is used for culinary and non-culinary purposes throughout the world – primarily for its juice, though the pulp and rind are also used, mainly in cooking and baking...

), attractive and rather small (between 7 and 15 mm in diameter). Some, however, reach a maximum diameter of 27 mm and are dark and papillate

Plant cuticle

Plant cuticles are a protective waxy covering produced only by the epidermal cells of leaves, young shoots and all other aerial plant organs without periderm...

. These larger flowers frequently have a repulsive, pungent odor, either of urine

Urine

Urine is a typically sterile liquid by-product of the body that is secreted by the kidneys through a process called urination and excreted through the urethra. Cellular metabolism generates numerous by-products, many rich in nitrogen, that require elimination from the bloodstream...

 or excrement.

Species

Quaqua acutiloba (N.E.Br.) Bruyns Quaqua albersii Plowes Quaqua arida (Masson) Plowes Quaqua armata (N.E.Br.) Bruyns Quaqua dependens (N.E.Br.) Plowes Quaqua framesii (Pillans) Bruyns Quaqua incarnata (L.f.) Bruyns Quaqua inversa (N.E.Br.) Bruyns Quaqua linearis (N.E.Br.) Bruyns

Quaqua mammillaris (L.) Bruyns Quaqua marlothii (N.E.Br.) Bruyns Quaqua multiflora (R.A.Dyer) Bruyns Quaqua pallens Bruyns Quaqua parviflora (Masson) Bruyns Quaqua pillansii (N.E.Br.) Bruyns Quaqua pruinosa (Masson) Bruyns Quaqua radiata Plowes Quaqua ramosa (Masson) Bruyns

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