All the information and photos in cactus art files are now available also in the new the Encyclopaedia of Succulents. We hope you find this new site informative and useful.

Lithops dorotheae is probably one of the most stunning of Lithops, specifically admired for their strikingly bright red markings, though individual plants are quite variable one to each other.
 

Description: Stone shaped succulent with a fissure across the middle Yellowish brown, with some white, distinctly mottled with clearly defined reddish brown window.
Size: Small to medium, facial diameters up to 23 X 16 mm, mostly about 20-13 mm. Number of heads up to 7 or more, mostly 2-5.Yellow, medium to large, rarely up to 42 mm Ø, mostly 25-30 mm Ø
Profile:  truncate-cordate; top surface mostly distinctly convex, fissure shallow, 7-10 mm; lobes conjunct, sometimes very slightly divergent at the top.
Face: elliptic-reniform; lobes equal-unequal; opaque + transluscent; smooth.
Margins:  distinct and sharply defined, irregularly dentate or sinuate, usually with numerous peninsulas.
Windows:  seldom ± completely open, usually ± occluded. Channels broad to narrow, irregular. Islands few to many, small to large, irregular, usually sharply defined. Rubrications in the windows and channels, usually numerous bold regular lines, dots, hooks and stars, sometimes connected into a broken network. Dusky dots seldom visible even with a lens, few to many, scattered in the windows.
Colours: Margins and islands various shades of opaque creamy, yellowish or pinkish beige, sometimes tinged with green. Windows and channels various shades of transluscent greyish, brownish or reddish green, or greenish grey. Rubrications bright to dark blood-red, orange-red. Dusky dots obscure dull dark greyish green. Shoulders as for the margins.
Blooming season: Flowers appear in mid-autumn.
 

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Scientific name:  Lithops dorotheae G.C. Nel (1939)

Origin: South Africa Restricted to vicinity of Pofadder (Bushmanland)
TL: 15km N Pofadder  (C124)

Field numbers: C124, C300

Habitat: Grows on  fine-grained sheared quartz and feldspar rock containing feldspathic quartzite.

Bibliography: CACTUS & Co, Vol. X, 1, pp 57-59 (2006)

Etymology: Named for 'Mrs Dorothea Eksteen', whose father obtained plants from Aletta Helena Eksteen, the original collector who find this plant in 1935.

• Lithops eksteeniae L.Bolus

Uncommon red markings within motteling make this a very desireable addition to anyone's collection. Eventually forms clumps of well-windowed plants with numerous blood-red streaks or stripes.
 

Photo of conspecific taxa, varieties, forms and cultivars of Lithops Dorotheae:

• L. dorotheae C124
• L. dorotheae C300

All the information and photos in cactus art files are now available also in the new the Encyclopaedia of Succulents. We hope you find this new site informative and useful.