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Erepsia pillansii (Catherine Wheel) - A open sparsely branching shrubby succulent that grows to 2 feet tall with reddish stems holding narrow blue-gray sickle-shaped leaves. In spring into summer appear the large strikingly unique 2 inch wide flowers in a flat topped inflorescence at the branch tips. The flowers have numerous paddle shaped petals that are a magenta-purple at the tips with narrow white bases and threadlike white sterile stamens in the middle. These flowers, unlike most other mesembs (ice plants), remain open through the evening hours.
Plant in full sun in a well drained soil and irrigate occasionally to very little - this is a drought-tolerant plant in our mediterranean climate. An extremely interesting and showy plant for the garden or as a container specimen. Though it is fairly long lived, this plant is adapted to regeneration within the fire prone fynbos vegetation type and gets a bit woody after 4 to 8 years so is best if it is replanted within this time frame.
Erepsia pillansii grows naturally between 1,600 and 3,200 feet elevation in the Piketberg Mountains in Western Cape, South Africa. Dr. Harriet Margaret Louisa Bolus (Kensit was her maiden name) first described this plant as Mesembryanthemum pillansii in 1908 to honor Neville S. Pillans, a well-known Cape botanist. It was renamed Kensitia pillansii to honor Kensit-Bolus by Friedrich Karl Georg Feddein in 1940 and then combined with Erepsia by Sigrid Liede in 1990 based on similarities of the fruit and leaf morphology, but its flowers are unique within this genus. The name Erepsia pillansii is considered current and this genus name comes from the Greek word 'erepso' which is said to mean "I shall hide". The common name "Catherine Wheel" comes from the name for an extremely showy firework that rotates rapidly producing a display of sparks and flame in all directions but this was named after an instrument of torture, the breaking wheel, on which, legend has it St. Catherine was martyred. Another common name is Piketberg vygie.
Our thanks to our friend John Bleck (1933-2025) for this noteworthy plant that we grew from 2013 until we closed the nursery in 2025.
The information displayed on this page about Erepsia pillansii is based on our research conducted about this plant from books in our nursery library as well as from information that is provided by reliable online resources. We also have included our own observations made about it as it grew in the nursery gardens and other gardens visited, as well how the crops of this plant performed in the containers when we had them in our nursery field. We also include comments received from others and welcome hearing from anyone who has information about this plant, particularly if it includes cultural information aiding others to better grow it.
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