Mesembryanthemum cordifolium

Baby sun rose, heart-leaf, red aptenia, aptenia, rooi brakvygie or brakvygie, uncolozi omncane, heartleaf iceplant, heart-leaved aptenia, heart-leaved midday flower, Μπούζι, Μπούζι Απτένια. Ιt opens its flowers only during the sunshine of the day. It is a creeping plant that forms a carpet of flat-growing perennial herbs in groups on the ground from a base. Genus name means middle-embryo flower in reference to the position of the ovary in the flower. The specific epithet is derived from Latin for heart-shaped leaves.

This is a succulent, creeping, short-lived, mat-forming perennial herb growing in flat clumps on the ground from a woody base. Plants only rise to about 10 centimetres (3.9 in) tall but prostrate stems reach up to about 60 centimetres (24 in) long. The stems are green and stalk-round. The fleshy, small leaves are opposite, ovate to cordate, about 2.5 centimetres (0.98 in) long and covered with fine papillae. Bright pink to purplish solitary flowers appear in the leaf axils, open during the day but close up at night and remain closed on cloudy days. These colored whorls are not petals, but non-functional modified stamens. Normal stamens are yellow. Flowers bloom primarily from spring to fall. The fruit is a capsule of little more than one centimeter in length with millimeter brown tuberose seeds. There is a variegated form.

Native to the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, this species has become widely known as an ornamental plant. Today it can be found growing in Australia, escaped gardens and naturalized in some parts of California, Oregon and Florida, in the Mediterranean region of the Europe and in central Mexico. The plant was recently determined to be invasive in California and was listed as a wildland weed red alert.

Mesembryanthemum cordifolium can be planted as a fast-growing, not hardy, groundcover in flower boxes and around traffic lights. The plant needs a sunny spot and well drained soil. This plant is also ideal for covering walls, rockeries and areas bare of grass. Due to its quick growth, it is useful to prevent the growth of weeds in the field where it is planted. It can also survive without problems in a pot, where it is grown in hanging baskets so the long trailing branches can hang down with their leaves spaced out. Over-wintering should take place in a frost-free, sunny place at approximately 5 to 8 °C (41 to 46 °F). No serious insect or disease problems are known. In addition to the species and the hybrid 'Red Apple', one also encounters the variety A. x. 'Mezoo', a mutant of 'Red Apple' whose variegated leaves have creamy white edges, and rarely on a white-flowering form.

It easily reproduces from cuttings of the developed stems, roots, seeds of its capsular fruit, and even from its own buried leaves. Seeds must be sowed in summer and cuttings can be done in early spring in cooler climates. For cuttings, the plant can be divided and runners can be planted directly into the ground. The garden bed must be readied by digging over the soil. Compost and a slow-release fertilizer may be added to ensure healthy growth. With regard to risks, it is very resistant to drought, but with moist soil it grows rapidly. It is convenient that the farmland has good drainage. It cannot withstand frost, where it freezes below −5 °C (23 °F).

Litocarpus cordifolius, Ludolfia cordifolius, Aptenia cordifolia, Tetracoilanthus cordifolius.