Haworthia maculata leaf tips, faces and backs

Die Nekkies – a selection of Haworthia maculata plants with their leaf faces and backs showing variability over this extensive area.

I took the following photographs originally just to show how much the leaves varied in the species. The only locality data record was Die Nekkies with no differentiation into populations. The variability was firmly established and became apparent even within populations where the degree of variation surprised even me. It was also extrapolated across the genus.

As an afterthought, this turned my mind to Farden and Smith’s observation about the idiocy of trying to make varieties in Haworthia attenuata on the basis of leaf characters where the individual leaves varied so much that several varieties could be detected from the same plant. This is exactly what Breuer, Marx and Hayashi are actually doing when they get carried away by their justification for new species, drawing conclusions from single plants because of the inability of the mind to hold many images. This is exactly the way in which “H. magnifica” is maintained as a species when the imagery is based on the original single plant originally described. There can be no such thing as “H. magnifica” because the variation across the range of populations from Riversdale to Riviersonderend is so immense and complex.

The following photographs show a random selection of plants and their leaf faces and backs from Die Nekkies. These were taken some time ago when I did not record actual populations. They do record the variability of plants and leaves over this wide area which I classify as Haworthia maculata. For subsequently photographed plants I have recorded my population collection numbers which are indicated on the map found in Die Nekkies Haworthia – A further visit and updated information.

8019. Haworthia maculata, Die Nekkies – each plant with leaf back and face

8019a
8019b
8019c

8019c - leaf face (2)  8019g    8019f  

 8020. Haworthia maculata, Die Nekkies

8020a  8020a - leaf back 8020a - leaf face 8020b  8020b - leaf back 8020b - leaf face 8020c  8020c - leaf back 8020c - leaf face 8020d   

 8021. Haworthia maculata, Die Nekkies

8021a 8021a -  leaf back 8021a -  leaf face 8021c 8021c -  leaf back 8021c -  leaf face

8022. Haworthia maculata, Die Nekkies

8022a 8022a -  leaf back 8022a -  leaf face 8022b 8022b -  leaf back 8022b -  leaf face 8022c 8022c -  leaf back 8022c -  leaf face 8022d 8022d -  leaf back 8022d -  leaf face 8022e S slope 8022e S slope -  leaf back 8022e S slope -  leaf face

7526. Haworthia maculata, Die Nekkies, Brandvlei Dam (Incorrectly identified as 7426 in the paper edition of Volume 11.)

MBB7526.1 H.maculata. Die Nekkies, Brandvlei Dam.  MBB7526.1- leaf back MBB7526.1 - leaf face  MBB7526.2 H.maculata. Die Nekkies.  MBB7526.2 - leaf back MBB7526.2 - leaf face  MBB7526.3 H. maculata. Die Nekkies.  MBB7526.3 - leaf back MBB7526.3 - leaf face  MBB7526.4 H. maculata. Die Nekkies.  MBB7526.4 - leaf back MBB7526.4 - leaf face  MBB7526.5 H. maculata. Die Nekkies. MBB7526.5 - leaf back MBB7526.5 - leaf face  MBB7526.7 H. maculata. Die Nekkies. MBB7526.7 - leaf back MBB7526.7 - leaf face  maculata + 001  maculata + 001 - leaf back maculata + 001 - leaf face  maculata + 002  maculata + 002 - leaf back maculata + 002 - leaf face  maculata + 004  maculata + 004 - leaf back maculata + 004 - leaf face  maculata + 005 maculata + 005 - leaf back maculata + 005 - leaf face maculata + 006 maculata + 006 - leaf back maculata + 006 - leaf face maculata + 007 maculata + 007 - leaf back maculata + 007 - leaf face 1.9 sn4 H. maculata, Die Nekkies - east. maculata + 025 - leaf back maculata + 025 - leaf face maculata + 028 maculata + 028 - leaf back maculata + 028 - leaf face maculata + 033 maculata + 033 - leaf back maculata + 033 - leaf face maculata + 035 maculata + 035 - leaf back maculata + 035 - leaf face

-ed. Another way to consider the variation within the Die Nekkies populations is to browse the tip faces and backs …

Haworthia maculata leaf tips – faces

Haworthia maculata leaf tips – backs