Lithops is a genus of succulent plants native to southern Africa. "Lithos" means "stone" and "-ops" means "face" in Ancient Greek; therefore "Lithops" means "stone-like". This is a very good description of these plants, which avoid being eaten by blending in with surrounding rocks. They are often known as pebble plants or living stones. The formation of the name from the greek "-ops" means that even a single plant is called a Lithops.
During winter a new leaf pair, or occasionally more than one, grows inside the existing fused leaf pair. In spring the old leaf pair parts to reveal the new leaves and the old leaves will then dry up. Lithops leaves may shrink and disappear below ground level during drought. Lithops in habitat almost never have more than one leaf pair per head, the environment is just too arid to support this. Yellow or white flowers emerge from the fissure between the leaves after the new leaf pair has fully matured, one per leaf pair. This is usually in autumn, but can be before the summer equinox in L. pseudotruncatella and after the winter equinox in L. optica. The flowers are often sweetly scented.