Curio rowleyanus, syn. Senecio rowleyanus is in the daisy family, Asteraceae, which also have  compound flowers made up of smaller individuals. The flowers are like pompoms at the end of relatively long peduncles (flower stems,) and smell like cinnamon, although I only noticed the flower after a few days and it didn’t have much of a smell by then.

It is native to South Africa, where it grows as a ground cover. The pearls are modified leaves designed to to maximize internal space for storing water and minimize surface evaporation. Looking closely you can see light green stripes called fenestrations, (from the latin fenestre, window) made of translucent tissue that let light into the center of the leaf, making the most of a bit of extra space for photosynthesis. Leaves and sap are sticky with a mildly poisonous alkaloid that can irritate skin or cause stomach upset if eaten.

I thought the name was cute: Curio, (abbrevation for curious) and rowleyanus named after a botanist (Gordon Douglas Rowley), because I bet he probably was a pretty curious Rowley.