[ Maguey Bilia (Agave seemanniana) | Posted on November 5, 2022 ] Medium sized tropical agave to 2-3 feet wide with pale glaucous green or yellowish green leaves. Typically solitary. Smaller, offsetting forms do exist (often sold under the old name pygmaea). Leaves are usually flat, with wavy or scalloped margins, teeth and decurrent terminal spines. |
[ Starfish Plant (Ceropegia gigantea) | Posted on November 2, 2022 ] Yellow flowered stapeliad with knobby green stems, which may change to brown or purplish brown when stressed. Not real easy to distinguish from the red-flowered Ceropegia grandiflora when not in bloom, but trivially easy once you see them flower. |
[ Gentry’s Agave (Agave gentryi) | Posted on October 29, 2022 ] Medium to large, green to yellowish green agave growing to 3-6 feet wide. Variable. Solitary or offsetting. Leaves are concave on top, with marginal teeth and a stout terminal spine. Branched inflorescence with giant bracts at the base of each branch and yellow flowers. |
[ Khobab (Ceropegia gordonii) | Posted on October 29, 2022 ] Fast growing succulent with spiny, tubercular, blue-green stems and abundant basal branches. Plants in habitat may reach up to 3 feet tall with dozens of stems, though plants in cultivation are usually a fraction this big or branchy. The flowers may be pale yellowish brown to pink or purple. They have a putrid smell attracting flies. The spines (modified leaves) are not at all dangerous and seemingly more for decoration than defense. |
[ Gasterhaworthia (XGasterhaworthia 'Royal Highness') | Posted on October 24, 2022 ] Dark green to brownish intergeneric hybrid with large, pronounced whitish tubercles. A prolific brancher, given time. Forms clumps to 8 inches or more. Bulbils (little plantlets near the base of flower stalks) are common (at least half the inflorescences will produce them) and may be removed and used for easy propagation. |
[ Lesser Candelabra Tree (Euphorbia cooperi) | Posted on October 20, 2022 ] Tree Euphorbia from southern Africa, to about 16 feet tall. The stems have 4-6 ribs and bear marked constrictions between successive seasons of growth. They have regular spines and continuous horny spine shields along the ribs. Red or purple fruit appear at the tips in massive clusters. Plants in habitat typically have a single main stem with branches near the top, presumably because the earlier branches are lost over time. Rebranching is rare. |
[ Madagascar Ocotillo (Alluaudia procera) | Posted on October 19, 2022 ] Spiny tree from Madagascar with an unusual Seussian habit (especially if left unpruned). The most common member of this genus in cultivation. Dramatic seasonality, usually associated with summer-fall growth and winter rest. Provide regular water during growth and maybe hold back a bit during rest (but year round water in moderation works great in our mild climate). This plant is often cultivated with spiny succulents from Madagascar like the crown of thorns and the tree Pachypodiums. It is entirely compatible with the succulent lifestyle and does very well in containers (up to a certain size/age, anyway). |
[ Sedeveria (XSedeveria 'Blue Mist') | Posted on October 5, 2022 ] Beautiful glaucous, dark purplish, fat-leafed rosette succulent with red flowers. The rosette may reach 5-6" and the stem may grow longer than that. Very easily propagated from leaves or cuttings. Branching tends to occur relatively late in life, though leaf propagations usually end up multiheaded, and branching can be triggered en masse by beheading. My plant flowered in early fall. |
[ White Sage (Salvia apiana) | Posted on October 5, 2022 ] This plant, found in northern Baja California (among other areas), is being removed from habitat in vast quantities and sold for its supposed health benefits, some of which involve burning the leaves. The vast majority of white salvia on the market here is obtained illegally, and its extraction causes massive and lasting harm to habitat. |
[ Haworthiopsis koelmaniorum | Posted on September 29, 2022 ] Smallish Haworthia to about 4 inches wide with brownish leaves bearing many warty tubercles. Closely related to and resembling H. limifolia, but a different color and lacking the characteristic lines on leaf surfaces. Usually solitary (propagated from leaves or seed) but offsetting forms exist and are probably overrepresented in cultivation. Slow growing and said to enjoy a bit of protection from the sun. |
[ Euphorbia (Euphorbia fortuita) | Posted on September 27, 2022 ] Relatively large medusoid Euphorbia from southern South Africa with a main stem to 5 inches and somewhat upright arms to 4-5 inches (total width about 10 inches). Cyathia (near the tips of the branches) are dark purple with several tiny processes on the outer edge, appearing on non-persistent peduncles. |
[ Mammillaria (Mammillaria bocasana 'Fred') | Posted on September 27, 2022 ] Monstrose cactus with (mostly) spineless stems that branch profusely and may form a large mound over time. The stem tips, often somewhat involuted, may be pink, but the rest of the plant is light green. Spines may appear where reversions occur; these parts of the plant may not particularly resemble the usual bocasana. |
[ Biznaga de Muchos Dedos (Cochemiea multidigitata) | Posted on September 27, 2022 ] Clumping cactus with stems to 2-8 inches tall and 1-2 inches wide. Usually 4 central spines (sometimes 1 hooked) that are whitish with brown tips; 15-25 spreading, white radial spines. Flowers are white or off-white, fruit is red. |
[ Biznaga con Espinas en Cruz (Mammillaria crucigera) | Posted on September 27, 2022 ] Solitary or more commonly dichotomously branching bubble cactus with olive green or gray-green stems and short spines. Stems may reach up to 4 inches tall and 2-2.5 inches in diameter. In advanced age, branching plants may reach 12 inches or wider. 2-5 short, rigid central spines; 16-30 short, white radial spines; axils with sparse wool (more abundant in some clones and sometimes alternating over time). Flowers are rather small and purplish pink, and may not open very far. This species is from Oaxaca in southern Mexico, where it grows on gypsum cliffs. |
[ Alicoche (Echinocereus pulchellus) | Posted on September 15, 2022 ] Small, usually solitary, globose cactus from higher altitudes (>2000m) across a wide range in Mexico. Plants are 1-5 inches in diameter and retract into the soil during times of drought. They have thick roots, 9-12 ribs, 3-7 short spines per areole. Pink, magenta or white flowers to 3 inches in diameter appear laterally. |
[ Agave 'Red Margin' | Posted on September 10, 2022 ] Smallish agave to about 2 feet wide with many blue-green leaves that have red margins. Very similar in appearance to 'Blue Glow', a hybrid of ocahui and attenuata. Presumed to have the same parentage. Presumed to be the same as plants sold as 'Jose's Blue Glow' (among other names). One big difference between this plant and 'Blue Glow' is the margins are nearly toothless, while 'Blue Glow' has many fine teeth. |
[ Euphorbia (Euphorbia boiteaui) | Posted on August 31, 2022 ] This dwarf succulent species from Madagascar includes plants long circulated in the trade as E. decaryi (via reputable sources like Rauh), which are distinct from the "true" decaryi. The confusion about different forms of decaryi led to the name being retired and the plants distributed into two different botanical boxes: E. boiteaui and E. francoisii. Out of this rearrangement also came E. spirosticha and E. durispina a few years later. Details below. |
[ Haworthia 'Yucatan' | Posted on August 9, 2022 ] Windowed Haworthia hybrid from Suculentas Dzityá in Merida, Yucatán. Named after the state where it was derived. The parentage is given as H. pygmea x H. cooperi vitata (in the database this is cooperi v. cooperi). Leaves are wide and rounded, with triangular windowed tips bearing irregular longitudinal lines and many fine bumps. |
[ Turbinicarpus | Posted on July 14, 2022 ] This genus of small, spiny cacti from the Chihuahuan Desert of north-central Mexico has been subject to intense, repeated taxonomic reassignment. It was recently split into 3 genera based on genetic analysis, with the addition of Kadenicarpus and Rapicactus. |
[ Haworthia x mantelii | Posted on July 13, 2022 ] Haworthia truncata hybrid (with cuspidata) with short, fat, windowed leaves in a spiral rosette. Compact and slow growing (more like truncata in this regard). |