Kingdom Plantae Family Aizoaceae Rank Species | Order Caryophyllales Genus Lithops | |
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Similar Lithops francisci, Lithops herrei, Lithops coleorum, Lithops gracilidelineata, Lithops werneri | ||
Lithops comptonii is a species of plant in the Aizoaceae family, indigenous to South Africa.
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Distribution
Lithops comptonii is naturally found in the far south-west of South Africa, in an arid inland region of the Western Cape Province. The furthest south-west of any Lithops species, this range includes the Karoo areas north east of the town of Ceres. This dry area is subject to a winter-rainfall climate.
Cultivation
It is sometimes used as a houseplant or for landscaping. Like all Lithops, it requires extremely well-drained soil. Like all Lithops it also grows in annual cycles, as the leaf-pairs flower, and then each produces a new leaf-pair that replaces the old one (which shrivels away). The principal rule of watering is that Lithops should be kept dry from when they finish flowering, up until the old leaf-pairs are fully replaced.
Of the Lithops species, L. comptonii is one of the few which is adapted to a predominantly winter-rainfall climate (together with Lithops viridis, Lithops divergens, Lithops meyeri and Lithops helmutii). This means that its flowering and leaf-replacement process happens over the summer.