Corpuscularia is a small genus of succulent plants in the family Aizoaceae (order Caryophyllales), described by the German botanist Gustav Schwantes in 1926 in the journal Zeitschrift für Sukkulentenkunde. It comprises roughly eight to ten species, all of which are endemic to South Africa according to the 2018 South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) National Biodiversity Assessment plant checklist. Species include Corpuscularia gracillima, C. manifesta, C. buchubergensis, C. gracilis, C. angustifolia, C. taylorii, C. britteniae, and C. angustipetala, among others recognized by GBIF's taxonomic backbone.
The genus's taxonomic standing is unsettled. GBIF's backbone taxonomy and the SANBI-derived South African checklist both treat Corpuscularia as a valid, accepted genus distinct from its relatives. Other treatments — reflected in English Wikipedia, where the article title "Corpuscularia" redirects to "Delosperma" — instead sink it as a synonym of the much larger genus Delosperma (itself around 170 species). This split is visible even within Wikipedia: its general Aizoaceae genus list calls Corpuscularia "a synonym of Delosperma," while its dedicated South African species checklist keeps Corpuscularia as the accepted name and lists several old Delosperma-authored binomials as synonyms falling under it. Botanically, Corpuscularia sits within Aizoaceae's subfamily Ruschioideae in at least one GBIF-aggregated classification, the same broad succulent lineage that includes Delosperma, Conophytum, and other South African "ice plants" or "vygies."
As with most Aizoaceae, plants in this group are thought to produce hygrochastic seed capsules — structures that open when wetted by rain and close again as they dry, a mechanism that helps disperse and protect seed until conditions are favorable for germination. The best-known member in cultivation is Corpuscularia lehmannii (also treated as Delosperma lehmannii), a mat-forming succulent grown for its blue-green, bead-like leaves. iNaturalist records the genus under the common name "Hardfigs."
Distribution
All currently recognized Corpuscularia species are endemic to South Africa, per the 2018 SANBI National Biodiversity Assessment plant checklist as reflected in Wikipedia's List of Aizoaceae of South Africa.
Taxonomy Notes
Corpuscularia Schwantes (1926) is treated as an accepted, distinct genus by GBIF's taxonomic backbone and by South Africa's SANBI-derived species checklist, but as a synonym of Delosperma by other Wikipedia treatments (the article title redirects there). Species combinations in the genus are largely credited to H.E.K. Hartmann.
