Malephora crocea is a species of flowering plant in the ice plant family known by the common name coppery mesemb and red ice plant. It is native to Africa and it is grown in many other places as an ornamental plant and a groundcover.
Malephora crocea is a perennial herb with a creeping corky to woody stem which roots where nodes come in contact with soil. The succulent leaves are triangular in cross-section, a few centimeters long, pale green to reddish in color, and somewhat waxy in texture. The flower is borne on a short stalk. It has many narrow petals in shades of red, orange, and yellow, sometimes with purplish undersides. The fruit is a valved capsule containing many lens-shaped seeds. Malephora crocea is naturally found at an altitude of 1100-1600 meters in the Karoo Desert, in South Africa and Namiba, where it is endemic, but perfectly adapts to warm, dry and frost-free areas around the world.
