Saturday, August 11, 2012

Cephalophyllum

Cephalophyllum pillansii


Cephalophyllum pillansii, a very cute succulent indeed. Annie's Annuals pegs it to Zone 8 - 10 while Dave's Garden puts it at 9b - 11. Looks like it trails and spreads, although I don't know how quickly it does so. While it's not flowering it still looks great, its foliage has a range of tones that seems to vary from plant to plant. If I had to guess, I'd say it depends on how much direct sun light they receive. I don't know how decent my guesses are though, I'm no pro.


Cephalophyllum alstonii

Cephalophyllum alstonii is next and is actually the first Cephalophyllum that caught my attention. Dave's Garden puts it at Zones 9b - 11. The picture on the left is what caught my eye first on the CTSairplants page. I'm a sucker for succulents that have faint blushing on their foliage and looking like some sea anemone is a plus. Only later did I find out that it produces very stunning red flowers!


Cheiridopsis candidissima

Cheiridopsis candidissima is a cool one. At Zone 9b - 11 (Dave's Garden), it's following the trend set by most South African plants by being something to grow indoors for many people. What I like most about this species is the foliage. With C.candidissima it's very easy to see the T-bone like shape that seems to characterize its genus as well as its family(Aizoaceae). The flowers are very cute and soft on the eyes. While it's nice to have vibrant colors in the garden, softer ones are easily more elegant and beautiful to some people. The lower picture is from the oregoncactus blog and he stumbled upon this little anomaly. Genetic mutation or simply a fading flower? Either way, super cool. Too bad his nursery just upped the minimum purchases to $30 or I'd get it in a heartbeat. Soon though!


Cephalophyllum spissum

And finally, we have Cephalophyllum spissum. I was going to stop but then the utter adorableness of this plant forced me to continue. Zones 9b - 11 again (Dave's Garden). Seems to be a slow grower and a clumper which makes it a great specimen plant in my opinion. 

2 comments:

  1. All very nice plants and you must look into seed growing, lots of fun, much cheaper and rewarding. Cephalophyllum can be creeping or upright depending on specie (about 30). Cheiridopsis also offers lots of variety and they are one of my favourites. Glad to see another blogger in succulents. I will be keeping an eye out for more posts. Have fun. LT (South Africa)

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  2. I'll definitely have to snatch myself a few seeds then! I've bought some lithops and other mesembs that way but at the time I didn't have the space or light to grow them well (and half the seeds germinated into something else anyway. Ebay, yknow).

    Thanks for reading and don't worry, succulents have a special place with me! I'm glad that at least someone won't be annoyed at the plethora of them.

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