2.1 Crassula species
Nine species of Crassula native to southern Africa were used in
this study (Table 1 ), spanning the breadth of the most recent
phylogeny of the genus (Lu et al. 2022) and different growth forms and
habitat preferences in southern Africa (Figs. 1, 2 ). The six
species with compact growth forms (C. ausensis subsp.titanopsis , C. deceptor , C. fragarioides , C.
plegmatoides , C. sericea var. sericea , C. tecta )
occur along the southwestern and western coasts of southern Africa,
mainly within the predominantly winter-rainfall Succulent Karoo biome,
whereas the three non-compact species (C. multicava subsp.multicava , C. ovata and C. perforata subsp.perforata ) occur along the southeastern and eastern coasts.