In a family full of peculiar plants, this species stands out because of its rod-like branches.
It grows into a tree or shrub 2-8 m tall with ascending branches, (which are the main assimilation organs for this species). The branches are purplish-grey to grey-green in colour and covered with small black conical spines up to 3 mm. long.
The fleshy, dark green leaves are simple and alternate, very small (5-10 mm long and 2-3 mm in diameter), and short-lived.
The whitish flowers are produced in small compact inflorescences near the tips of the stems.
Occurring in Southwest Madagascar between Ampanihy and Amboasary.
With Kalanchoe beharensisAccompanied by Euphorbia stenoclada
Even though this is not the most imposing of the tree Euphorbias, a mature specimen is a sight for sore eyes, especially when it is decorated with its big bright red fruits.
When fully developed, the trees may be 9-10 m tall, with a short bulky trunk and a dense crown of upcurved stems. The tips of the branches are usually 4- angled, 4 to 6 cm wide, and regularly constricted into oval segments to 15 cm long; the angles are straight to shallowly waved.
The spine shields are triangular, to 1 x 0.7 cm; they are separate and become corky with age. The spine pairs are up to 0.5 cm long, often not completely developed or apparently absent.
The cyathia are 1.2 cm across, with golden yellow glands; the fleshy
fruits are about 1.5 x 2 cm, first white, then turning bright red, and hardening over time.
Euphorbia abyssinica occurs at altitudes between 840 and 1460 m in Sudan (Red Sea Hills), Eritrea, N. Ethiopia, Somaliland, and N. Somalia, on dry stony slopes and bushy savannahs, sometimes growing on its own but often locally dominant.
The stem is used for firewood and as timber and the sap is sometimes used in traditional medicine and to kill ticks on cattle.
In suitable climates, the species is grown as an ornamental house plant and also as a garden plant. It is best propagated by seed because cuttings do not develop the characteristic trunk.
Kalanchoe delagoensis is sometimes regarded in quite different ways. Those who Google Kalanchoe tubiflora (the name under which the plant is better known), will find both “How to grow Kalanchoe tubiflora” and “How to kill Kalanchoe tubiflora”. The latter is not intended for the many plant lovers who consider this plant to be weeds in their greenhouses, but for use in the many areas of the world where the plant has started to grow and poses a threat to livestock because of its toxicity. More on this later in this article.
There are also differences of opinion about what is the correct name for this plant.
For starters, Bryophyllum is very often chosen as the genus name. This name aptly reflects the property of the plants in question to produce miniature plants on the margin of the leaves that detach easily and then quickly develop into powerfully growing plants. Others choose to consider Bryophyllum as a section in the genus Kalanchoe.
The origin of the name of the genus Kalanchoe (described by the French botanist Michel Adanson in 1783) is not at all clear. Maybe it’s a phonetic transcription of the Chinese jia lan cai shu (I also came across kalan chau huy) and this would have been corrupted to Kalanchoe. Jia lan cai shu is said to be the name of a species occurring in China, possibly K. ceratophylla or K. spathulata. Searching the internet, I found out that nowadays the Chinese name for Kalanchoe is also Jia lan cai shu(see Flora of China 8: 204–205. 2001), so I wonder if it is not the other way around, to wit that the Chinese name is a corruption of the botanical name.
Other sources refer to the names from Sanskrit kalańka-, “stain” or ” rust”, and chāyā, “clear” which would refer to the leaves of the Indian species K. laciniata.
I also read somewhere that kalan chau huy would mean “that which falls and grows” which would be a perfect description of the plants of the Bryophyllum section. But this seems like “wishful thinking.” All species of the Bryophyllum section occur naturally exclusively in Madagascar which is very far away from China.
With regard to the species name, it should first be noted that “delagoensis” refers to Delagoa Bay (now Maputo Bay) near the capital Maputo of Mozambique (until 1975, when Mozambique became independent from Portugal, called Lourenço Marques). A surprising name for a plant that originates from Madagascar which is located some 1200 km from Delagoa. In order to understand the discussion properly, it is necessary to look into history.
It started in February 1822, when the British royal ship, the “Leven” (equipped with 28 cannons) under the command of Captain William Fitzwilliam Owen, together with the accompanying ship the Barracouta (10 cannons), embarked on a 5-year expedition to map the entire east coast of Africa as well as Madagascar and other islands in the area. The entire expedition is described in detail in a report published in 1833 (2 books, together almost 850 pages) by Captain Owen. Two years later, a similar but even more extensive report, by Second Lieutenant Thomas Boteler (2 books, 900 pages) was published. Onboard the Leven was the young botanist John Forbes, dispatched by the British Horticultural Society. Via Lisbon, Madeira, Tenerife, the Cape Verde Islands, Trinidad, Rio de Janeiro, and the Cape of Good Hope, the ship reached Delagoa Bay for the first time at the end of September of the same year. In Rio de Janeiro alone, the tireless Forbes had already collected more than 300 plants for his herbarium, in addition to numerous seeds and rhizomes.
In later years Delagoa became a kind of base from which all kinds of expeditions were undertaken. It was regularly reported that the many mosquitoes kept the people who were ashore awake. More and more people also became ill. There was no knowledge of malaria and the only treatment known against the mysterious fever was bloodletting.
When no less than 19 of the 60 crew members had died at the beginning of December 1822, Captain Owen decided to head for Madagascar. On December 5, the ship departed and on December 21 they arrived at St. Mary’s Island (Île Sainte-Marie) on the eastern side of Madagascar. On January 8, the Leven left for the much more northerly Comoros, and sailing along the coast of Mozambique they were back in Delagoa Bay at the beginning of March 1823. During a stay in Cape Town in May 1823, Lieutenant Browne, botanist Forbes, and assistant physician Kilpatrick volunteered for an expedition upstream from the mouth of the Zambezi River. The intention was to go upstream for some 600 miles and then try to cross to the Cape of Good Hope. With a large canoe and 2 ‘black’ helpers, they entered the estuary on July 23. Forbes fell ill on August 3. Several bloodlettings were to no avail and on August 16 he died, aged 25. Soon after, both of his comrades fell ill too. Browne died on September 5 and Kilpatrick on October 28. The two helpers were also sick but survived.
Captain Owen, meanwhile, was already at Delagoa, where he raised the British flag on the south coast in September. At the bay 4 rivers flow into the sea and he realized the importance of this large natural harbour. Until 1875, this was discussed with the Portuguese who finally got the better end of the stick.
We now jump to the years 1835 – 1837. Then the botanist duo Ecklon & Zeyher (the Dane Christian Friedrich Ecklon and the German Karl Ludwig Philipp Zeyher) published a three-volume book on the vegetable world of southern Africa entitled ‘Enumeratio Plantarum Africae Australis Extratropicae’. In part 3 (1837) we find the following ‘description’:
“KALANCHOE delagoensis. — Exemplum unicum et mutilum Cel. Commodore Owen ad „Delagoabay” legit et nobiscum communicavit. Flor. Jun. — Flores saturate rosei JUN. 1836”.
Mind you, this is the full text. The actual description only consists of the 3 words: Flores saturate rosei. In any case, it can be seen from the text that there was only one mutilated (damaged) specimen and that it ended up at Ecklon &Zeyher via Captain Owen from Delagoabay. I then assume that this happened after Forbes died in August 1823.
For me, the question now is when and where botanist Forbes found the plant. Like all Kalanchoes, K. delagoensis is a short-day plant and it blooms in winter. In the southern hemisphere that’s the case between May and October. Forbes was first in Delagoa from early September to December 5. If the plant had been in bloom at the time, why would botanist Forbes have kept that cutting on board for more than six months? He had a habit of sending all his planting material to England. After the first stay, Forbes was not back in Delagoa until early March 1823. Then the plant is probably not yet in bloom. So how could he have found a flowering plant in Delagoa? Maybe he didn’t find it until July when he was preparing for the expedition upstream along the Zambezi River?
Forbes’ notes may provide more clarification about the find, but they are lodged with the Horticultural Society and are not available on the internet.
In 1862, 25 years after the description of Ecklon & Zeyher, the Irish botanist William Henry Harvey (1811-1866) in the Flora Capensis published the same plant under the name Bryophyllum tubiflorum. Harvey knew the earlier description of Ecklon & Zeyher (he also worked with Ecklon), but according to him this description was invalid and Kalanchoe delagoensis was therefore a so-called nomen nudum, a name without a valid description. Harvey not only chose to place the plant in the genus Bryophyllum because the flowers have only 4 petals, but he also changed the species name delagoensis to tubiflorum. Thinking that the plant should have a different genus name may be understandable, but changing the species name without a proper reason is, in my opinion, very disrespectful to your predecessors. The following is his description: B. tubiflorum (Harv.) ; leaves unknown; corolla thrice or four times as long as the sharply 4-cleft calyx, its segments broadly oblong, very blunt or truncate ; stamens as long as the tube of the corolla. Kalanchoe Delagoensis, E. $ Z.! 1955. HAB. Delagoa Bay, Forbes! (Herb. Sond.) Of this very remarkable plant a portion of a denuded branch, and a part of a dense, probably thyrsoid, inflorescence exist in Herb. Sonder. The internodes are scarcely an inch long, and there are 4 cicatrices, indicating whorled leaves, at each node. calyx 3 lines long. corolla uncial, bright red, its lobes almost square, 2½ lines long.
This description shows that Harvey described exactly the same damaged specimen as Ecklon &Zeyher. We are also briefed on the nature of the damage: the material consists only of a defoliated stem (“leaves unknown”) and part of the inflorescence. If Harvey had seen the tubular leaves, he might have called the plant B. tubifolia instead of B. tubiflora. Tubular flowers are not uncommon in kalanchoe-like plants, but tubular leaves may be unique. For the truly curious among the readers: “Herb. Sond”. in the description above refers to the herbarium of the German botanist Otto Wilhelm Sonder, co-author of the Flora Capensis.
More than a century later, in 1985, Toelken argued that the 3 words of Ecklon & Zeyher were enough to distinguish the plant from its closest relatives so that, according to him, because the name K. delagoensis was the first published one, it should be considered the valid one, rendering the name B. tubiflorum of Harvey invalid. It’s called a nomen invalidum.
There is also Kalanchoe verticillata, described by George Francis Scott-Elliot in 1891 (later renamed Bryophyllum verticillatum by Alwin Berger). According to current views, this is synonymous with Kalanchoe delagoensis.
The stems of K. delagoensis become up to 1.2 m tall and the cylindrical leaves are 1.5 to 12 cm long and 2-6 mm in diameter. The number of teeth at the tip of the leaves is 2 to 9. The terminal inflorescence reaches a height of 30 cm. The bell-shaped flowers are brick-red to reddish violet-gray and 2 to 3 cm long.
Kalanchoes are short-day plants, and the flower-stalk begins to develop around mid-November in my greenhouse.
The plant puts all it has into this flowering and deteriorates dramatically during it. From the top of the plant down, the leaves are ‘drained’ and they start drooping more and more. By the time the plant has finished flowering -this can take some five weeks- there is only little left of it. But, in that pathetic little pile there are still many adventitious plantlets which under favorable conditions will quickly develop into new plants.
With this plant, it seems completely unnecessary to discuss its growing conditions. Nevertheless, I would like to point out that you get the most beautifully developed plants by giving it a lot of light (but not sun all day). It is also not wise to let the plant dry out. It will survive, but it’s definitely not going to get any prettier. It seems that the plant can tolerate a bit of frost. I never tried it.
As mentioned above, the Bryophyllums come from Madagascar and in particular the southwest. F. Vandenbroeck describes in Succulenta that the plant grows noticeably more poorly and stockier in Madagascar’s natural biotopes than in our collections. There were hardly any adventitious plantlets to be seen and the plants did not grow rank. Moreover, the flower colour was much brighter than with us.
Thanks to its phenomenal power of reproduction, K delagoensis has spread all over the world. For example, in the Canary Islands, where I have often found the plant escaped from nearby gardens and from the craving of the garden owners to regulate, much like Crassula multicava discussed earlier in this series.
In many countries, the plant is on the list of weeds. The plant became established in the Australian states of New South Wales and Queensland around 1940. As a short-day plant, K. delagoensis also blooms there in winter (from May to October) which is the dry season and therefore also a time of food shortages. As a result, the cattle often feast upon this very plant, which can result in deadly poisoning. (For the specialists: the poison belongs to the bufadienolide cardiac glycosides). The animals die within 1 to 5 days. In New South Wales, for example, 125 animals died after eating this Kalanchoe in 1997. Rapid intervention by a veterinarian can save the cattle, but that is a pricey issue. Medication for 1 cow costs $70 and this does not include the fee for the vet. That is why no mean measures have been taken.
The legal requirement is: “The plant must be fully and continuously suppressed and destroyed and the plant must not be sold, propagated or knowingly distributed”.
Owning or selling the plant is an offense unless you have a permit. The same measures apply to the hybrid K. daigremontiana x delagoensis (Kalanchoe x houghtonii). This hybrid is very similar to the mother plant K. daigremontiana, but the leaves are much narrower, about 1 cm rather than 4 cm. A characteristic of this hybrid is the sharp incision in the middle of the leaf.
Pest control is done with herbicides and also organically with the South African citrusthrips. A weevil, Alcidodes sedi, is also sometimes used for biological control.
For a plant that is spread worldwide, of course, many names are in circulation. In English e.g.: Chandelier plant, mother of thousands, mother of millions, mission bells, Christmas bells, and friendly neighbour. The latter probably will not be endorsed by the cattle farmers in Australia.
Literature:
Boteler, Thomas (1835). Narrative of a voyage of discovery to Africa and Arabia, Richard Bentley, London.
Ecklon & Zeyher (1837). Kalanchoe delagoensis, Enumeratio Plantarum Africae Australis Extratropicae: 305.
Harvey & Sonder (1862) Flora Capensis 2: 380.
Owen, W.F.W. (1833). Narrative of voyages to explore the shores of Africa, Arabia, and Madagascar, Richard Bentley, London.
Vandenbroeck, F. (1984). De bizarre succulentenwereld van Madagascar, Succulenta 63 (9): 201
Originally published in Succulenta Febr. 2012. Translated from the Dutch by F.N.
Fig. 1 The plants produce miniature plants on the edge of the leaves.
Fig. 2 If the humidity is not too low, little roots develop on the adventitious plantlets even while these are still attached to the mother plant.Fig. 3 Top view of a K. delagoensis with adventitious plantlets.Fig. 4 K. delagoensis has 2 to 9 teeth at the tip of a leaf.
Fig. 5 Anyone who sees K. delagoensis in bloom can hardly imagine that many consider it a troublesome weed.
Fig. 6,7,8 In habitat near Ambovombe. Photos F.N.
(Other photos by Theo Heijnsdijk)
Depending on the time of the year, plants belonging to the genus Mitropyllum develop completely different leaf pairs.
During the resting period, the pairs consist of two leaves pressed together in an upright position. This cone-shaped entity is covered in a paper-thin skin, the remains of the preceding leaf pair.
At the beginning of the vegetation period, the leaf pairs start to swell, and the pressure causes the skin to rip apart. After a while, the old leaves are in a more or less horizontal position and in between them the early stage of the mitre-shaped leaves can be seen. In the next phase, the latter start showing their final shape. The original leaves now only bear the remains of the covering membrane. The mitre is still very thin but will fill out considerably in the weeks to come. Gradually the old leaf pair will shrivel and ultimately wither to dry remains. The mitre-shaped leaf has now attained the shape which the genus name refers to.
This phenomenon whereby plants possess leaves of more than one shape or size is called heterophylly.
In Mitrophyllum and related genera this means that the leaves of the hot resting period are smaller than those present at the height of the cool growing season, resulting in less loss of water.
M. grande is a shrublet with a compact centre and short-shoots from which erect long-shoots develop.
It has green to yellowish-green leaves, which in the first pairs are 6-12 x 1.5-3 mm, with tongue-shaped to triangular free parts; the second-pairs are fused for 4/5, forming an oval body 2.5-10 cm long and 1.5-3.5 cm wide.
The thick and soft internodes are 1-1.5 cm in diam.
Yellow or white flowers appear in May-July (Oct.-Dec. in the northern hemisphere) and are up to 4.5 cm in diam.
Restricted to a small area in the Richtersveld, where it occurs on S to SE slopes with quartzitic stones.
In cultivation a strict summer rest should be respected.
The 6 species in the genus Alluaudia produce two forms ofvegetative growth: -long shoots with paired leaves sticking out above the spines and
-short lateral shoots, arising below the spines and also able to produce leaves.
Male and female flowers are gathered in branched inflorescences arising from the short shoots near the tips of the long branches.
A. procera starts as a shrub, but over time turns into a tree up to 10 m (sometimes even to 15 m) tall, with a broad trunk and more or less vertical branches. These branches are silver-grey and armed with conical spines which are (1-2.5 cm long and arranged vertically in lines that spiral upwards to the branch tips. The leaf blades are oriented to a vertical (in profile) position, thereby reducing overheating by sunlight.
The flowers are very small and yellowish-white.
This is the most widespread species in the genus, occurring in south and southwest Madagascar, mostly in coastal habitats on both acid and alkaline soils.
In cultivation, it is the most common member of the family. It is not only the most easily grown one, but it is also quick growing and easy to propagate from seed and cuttings. These properties make it attractive to use young specimens as stock to graft Didierea madagascariensis on.
* This is the name most often used for this plant, but if you want to follow the latest trend, you should call it C. perfoliata var. minor.
First of all, a quote from the Dutch illustrated weekly Floralia of 26 October 1933. The writer was G.D. Duursma, one of the founders of ‘Succulenta’ and a well-known figure in the Dutch succulent world.
Under the headline “Crassula falcata, a reluctant flowerer?” he wrote the following: Crassula falcata, better known to the old florists as Rochea falcata, is a very classic succulent, which has disappeared almost completely from cultivation. In former days, half a century or more ago, every florist grew them and there were beautiful specimens to admire on all country estates. Nowadays, for the sake of completeness, they are still seen among succulent enthusiasts. They were acquired because, according to the books, they bloom so beautifully and so easily… ,but most people have noticed very little of that easy flowering. Is the plant to blame or is it the wrong treatment?
Crassula falcata hails from the area of the former Cape Province in South Africa. The plant, which has been known since about 1700, was described in 1798 by the German botanist Johann Christoph Wendland in the journal ‘Botanische Beobachtungen’. De Candolle gave the plant the name Rochea falcata in part 3 of his bilingualbook‘Plantarum Historia Succulentarum’ = ‘Histoire des plantes grasses’. He created the genus Rochea to accommodate the Crassulas with large tubular flowers. The genus name refers to the Swiss botanist Daniel de la Roche whose son François also was a botanist. Both died in Paris in 1813 of typhus (brought from Russia by Napoleon’s soldiers). To honour them both, De Candolle divided the genus into a section Daniela and a section Francisceana in 1828. In the aforementioned book by De Candolle, which appeared in episodes between 1799 and 1837, we also find an image (by Pierre Joseph Redouté) of Rochea falcata. I don’t think the resemblance is that strong. Much more beautiful is the image in Fragmenta botanica by Nicolaus Joseph Freiherr von Jacquin, which also appeared in episodes, published in the years 1800 – 1809. (fig. 1).
Fig. 1: Plate from Fragmenta botanica by N.J. von Jacquin.
Here the plant is called Larochea falcata (genus name published in 1805 by the South African mycologist Christiaan Hendrik Persoon). Nowadays, the Rocheas are again simply included in the genus Crassula, whereas C. falcata is considered a variety of C. perfoliata. Perfoliata means ‘with the stems apparently growing through the leaf (or pair of united leaves)’ which obviously refers to the stem-encompassing leaf bases which give the impression that the stem grows through the leaves. We see this phenomenon even more clearly in C. perforata and related species.
Despite its large leaf surface, C. falcata is excellently resistant to dehydration caused by sun and heat. This is a result of the structure of the epidermis. In the book “Pflanzenleben” by Kerner von Marilaun, published in 1887, extensive attention was already paid to this. In the book, there is an image with a cross-section and a view from above of the leaf surface (Fig. 2).
Fig. 2: Illustration from ‘Pflanzenleben’ by Kerner von Marilaun. At 1, a cross-section approximately 600 times enlarged and at 2, a view from above, approximately 350 times enlarged. On the right, the armored cells are omitted so that the stomata become visible.
The accompanying text reads as follows (slightly abridged): “The ordinary epidermis cells are small and only a little thickened on the outer wall. The cells that assemble the armor, on the other hand, are greatly enlarged. Their stem-shaped foot, which has been pushed like a wedge between the ordinary epidermis cells, is already relatively large; but the bladder-shaped swelling has dimensions that are 600 times the size of ordinary epidermis cells. All the vesicles are close together and, because of the pressure they exert on each other, have almost taken the form of a cube. Where, despite this, there would still be an opening, the bladders form bulges to the left and right, which interlock in such a way that a completely closed armor is created. The latter name is all the more justified here because the bladder-shaped swollen cells ofCrassula falcata are hard as pebbles. Abundant silica is deposited in their cell wall and by annealing them one gets a real pebble skeleton, likeDiatomaceae. It goes without saying that in the dry season such an armour is excellent protection against evaporation for the cells full of liquid that it covers.”
The armoured cells remind me very much of the basalt blocks with which dike slopes are reinforced.
As we have seen, back in 1933 G.D. Duursma observed that C. falcata was an antique plant that almost had disappeared from the collections. These days, it is all the way back. With its silver-grey to elephant-grey leaves, the plant fits perfectly into the modern interiors as well as the garden. For example, a few years ago nurseryman Smit from Sappemeer launched the ‘Eden collection’:
“This label guarantees the consumer strong plants that remind one ofparadise. The combination of exceptional shapes and colours with a unique name must give each plant a distinctive identity. No colorful overcrowded flower boxes, but a series of trendy, non-flowering plants in ornamental pots, bowls, or planters. All these plants can shine on the terrace table during the summer and in autumn you just take them inside.“
The paragraph overhead is a quotation from the grower’s promotional material. Part of the “Eden collection” is a bowl planted entirely with C. falcata. I have to admit, it looks beautiful.
Fig. 3: C. perfoliata var. falcata in the ‘Eden collection’.
Let’s return to the article “Crassula falcata, a reluctant bloomer?” from the ‘Floralia’ magazine. Of course, the word reluctant does not refer to the flowers as such, because it is particularly fascinating to see how the buds that are packed like a grey ball at first (fig. 4), unfold into an umbrella-like screen while gradually changing from yellow and orange-red (fig. 5) to fiery red (fig. 6). (There is also a white flowering variant).
Fig. 4
Fig. 5. The umbel unfolds and the flower buds start colouring.
Fig. 6.The umbel’s colour changes from orange to fiery red.
After the lines cited above, the article continues as follows: “We know an old nurseryman in Friesland’s capital (note: Friesland is one of the Dutch provinces), someone who does not worry much about careful cultivation, and dozens of “Rocheas” bloom beautifully every summer for him. Other growers have tried to draw the secret from this Rochea specialist. But they did not find out the truth, because, when asked what he did to get such beautifully flowering Rocheas every year, the laconic answer was: “nothing!”. And yet in this one word, the grower has revealed his entire secret. It’s incredible how casually, how barbaric almost, the Rocheas are treated here. ”
This is followed by an account of the especially ‘hard’ cultivation of these plants and the curbing of strong growth. The article ends as follows:
“The old grower whom we mentioned earlier on, knocks the plants out of the pot in spring and puts them in a sunny place, potting them again as soon as buds start appearing.” In this case too, the plant is forced to flower due to a strong restraint from growing.
So the plants thrive most if they get a lot of sun and fresh air in summer and no more water than is necessary to prevent wrinkles. In winter, a cool but light place is recommended.
Propagation can be done by sowing and by taking stem or leaf cuttings, preferably with a little piece of stem. In sandy soil, the cuttings will root quickly.
Fig. 7: C. perfoliata var. falcata is easy to propagate from leaf cuttings.
For such a well-known plant, there are of course a number of ‘common’ names in addition to the botanical name. Apart from sickle leaf, we find the name propeller plant. English speakers also use the name ‘scarlet paintbrush’. G.D. Duursma affectionately calls it ” Cape beauty” in one of his books.
Over the years, it has been shown that C. falcata can be crossed with almost any other Crassula. This is all the more remarkable as there is an unlikely number of different growth forms in the genus. In his book ‘Crassula’, Gordon Rowley gives a diagram in which no less than 16 Crassulas are mentioned of which hybrids with C. falcata are known. In addition, there are a number of crosses that are not documented but in which C. falcata was probably also involved. In the beginning, people were looking for crosses with closely related species. This was done in 1898 with another Rochea (R. coccinea) and this hybrid was called C. x langleyensis. In 1936, C. exilis ssp. cooperi followed, which hybrid is now called C. x justi-corderoyi. In 1945, Dr. Meredith Morgan managed to realize a hybrid with the miniature (only about 1 cm tall) C. mesembryanthemopsis (fig. 8).
Fig. 8: C. mesembryanthemopsis, the father of C. ‘Morgan’s Beauty’.
This resulted in “Morgan’s Beauty”. Probably everyone knows this plant. It looks like a C. falcata compressed in all dimensions and it blooms with a bouquet of fragrant pink flowers barely taller than the rosette (fig. 9). Fig. 9: C. ‘Morgan’s Beauty’ (C. perfoliata var. falcata x C. mesembryanthemopsis).
I have found that this plant is almost irresistibly attractive especially to women. The only disadvantage is that the old flowers remain on top of the plant like an ugly plug. This property shares the plant with its father, as shown in figure 8.
Another well-known hybrid is ‘Buddha’s Temple’ (fig. 10) from 1959, a cross with C. pyramidalis.
Fig. 10: C. ‘Buddha’s Temple (C. perfoliata var. falcata x C. pyramidalis).
We may also come across ‘Jade Necklace’ (fig. 11), a hybrid with C. rupestris var. marnieriana, also from 1959 and ‘Moonglow’ (fig. 12), a cross with C. deceptor from 1958.
Fig. 11: C. ‘Jade Necklace’ (C. perfoliata var. falcata x C. rupestris var. marnieriana).
Fig. 12 C. “Moonglow” (C. deceptor x C. perfoliata var. falcata)
And then there are crosses between these crosses, but we will leave them out of account here.
Literature: Candolle, A.P. de and Redouté, P.J. (1799-1837): Plantarum Historia Succulentarum, vol. 3: t. 121
Jacquin, N.J. von (1809): Fragmenta botanica, figuris coloratis illustrata, t. 82
Kerner von Marilaun, A. (1902): Het leven der planten, after the 2nd edition, tyranslated by Dr. Vitus Bruinsma
Laren, A. J. van (1932): Vetplanten, Verkade factories N.V., Zaandam
Rowley, G. (2003): Crassula, Cactus & Co.
Wendland, J.C. (1798): Botanische Beobachtungen, 44
Originally published in Succulenta 92 (2013) p. 3-11. Translated from Dutch by F.N.
Although this species covers a wide distribution area (from the Free State and the Eastern Cape to Worcester), it is never very common. It usually occurs on sandy or loamy flats in the shade of shrubs.
The plants form clumps to over a meter in diameter, with erect, bluntly 4-angled stems 5 to 15 cm tall and 1-1.5 cm thick; the leaves are 0.5-1 cm long and short-lived.
They bloom profusely in February-May; the distinctive flowers emit a strong musky odour and are 4.5-10 cm in diameter, usually deep brown to purple-black and mottled with pale yellow (sometimes the yellow spots are so dense that the colour pattern is almost reversed); the lobes are fringed with vibratile white or purple hairs.
This is one of those Ruschia species which give the impression of being stem rather than leaf succulents.
In his magnum opus FLOWERING STONES AND MID-DAY FLOWERS ( published in 1957), Gustav Schwantes has to say the following on this topic:
A number of species are interesting because their leaves appear to be much shortened. In Lampranthus also one sees that the pairs of leaves, arranged cross-wise to each other, are partly united at the base. In this way a quite short tube is formed which is called the leaf sheath. In many species of Ruschia this sheath is considerably longer and united to the stem which it surrounds like a sleeve*.
The free leaf tips are often very short so that altogether there is a considerable reduction of the leaf surface. The stem itself cannot be seen. Where the parts of the leaf that are united into a sheath join there is a seam-like groove, which runs down from one pair of leaves to the next. In this way very remarkable structures are produced. They look somewhat like Horse Tails and present a very antediluvian appearance in consequence; but for us they represent more interesting evidence of the struggle these plants have with the fearful, pitiless African sun. We find therefore, that these very distinct thirst-endurers which, owing to the reduction in the size of the leaves, lose less water by evaporation, occur in arid and barren areas. Such a Ruschia, by its habit, when flowers and fruits appear in long lines on the apparently withered stems, is a most unusual sight.
*Even after the transfer of about a hundred of these species to the genus Antimima, at least twenty of the remaining Ruschias show this phenomenon. (See posts on R. crassa, impressa, karrooica).
R. grisea grows into a lax shrublet to 30 cm tall with stiff, spreading branches.
The leaf sheath is up to 5 mm long; the free parts are 2-4 mm long and bear 1 or 2 small teeth at the tip. The pale pink flowers are about 1.4 cm in diameter and appear in November-December.
One can come across this species on shale flats from the Little Karoo to the Calvinia-Sutherland and the Middelburg area.
The first record In January 1906, Ms. Olive Nation found a peculiar little plant. It was growing “on the top of the Magaliesberg, 5500 ft.”, near Rustenburg (South Africa). Today, that area belongs to the Northwest province, but at that time it was part of the now-defunct Transvaal province. She sent the plant to Kew Botanic Gardens near London for identification. Unfortunately, it did not survive the trip, but from the remnants, Kew botanist N.E. Brown deducted that it had to be a new species. Ms. Nation died not long afterward and attempts to get more specimens came to nothing.
“It bears a flower so it must be a plant” Until in 1924 Mr. and Mrs. Dobie, who lived in the same area, on a Sunday hike in the mountains, suddenly saw reddish-purple flowers that seemed to grow directly from crevices in the rocks. Upon further examination, the flowers were found to be attached to small plants, consisting of 6 to12 short rods that were almost completely covered by the flowers. “Here’s something for your collection. It bears a flower so it must be a plant, Mr. Dobie is believed to have told his wife.
The first description Mrs. Dobie sent a specimen to Frank Frith (1872 – 1954) in Johannesburg, a botanist who worked for the South African railways. Frith also came looking for it himself and he submitted some of the collected plants for the ‘South African Rockery’ of the Wembley Exhibition of 1924 (a kind of World Exhibition).
On December 10, 1924, Frith wrote to Mrs. Dobie:
That professor was the famous Nicholas Edward Brown, who worked in Kew from1873 until his death in 1934. In the 1920’s he separated many genera from the ever-expanding genus Mesembryanthemum. In the identification key he published in the journal ‘Gardeners’ Chronicle’ in November 1925, the generic name Frithia first appears. The description of the only species in that genus, F. pulchra, followed in 1926. He named the genus Frithia, to honor Frank Frith. In view of the above, it would have made more sense to call it Dobiea. The species name pulchra, by the way, is derived from the Latin pulcher = beautiful.
The original material collected and supplied by Frith is still present in Kew’s herbarium (fig. 1).
Fig. 1. Kew’s herbarium sheet with the original material collected by Frith in 1924.
Brown added an exclamation mark after his remark that the flowers of this plant lasted for up to three weeks.
The first published image The oldest image known to me appeared in 1927 as record 275 in the seventh part of the magazine ‘The Flowering Plants of South Africa’ (fig. 2).
Fig. 2. Plate 275 of ‘The flowering plants of South Africa’ from 1927.
This magazine, published annually since1921 and edited by I.B. Pole-Evans, is reminiscent of the well-known ‘Curtis’s Botanical Magazine’: always a botanical drawing with many details on a full page, followed by a text of 1 to 2 pages. In this way, 40 plants were depicted and discussed each year. F. pulchra’s drawing was created by botanical artist Beatrice Orchard Carter; the text accompanying the image is by Louisa Bolus.
Rapid integration Amazingly, the species – of which only one locality was recorded at the time – quickly became widely known. As early as 1927, a slide of a F. pulchra in bloom was displayed at a meeting of the ‘s Gravenhage (Netherlands) branch of the succulent plant lovers’ association Succulenta. In 1928, Mr. E.J. Labarre (member of Succulenta since its inception in 1919) wrote an article in the weekly magazine ‘Onze Tuinen’ about Frithia. He had received plants from Mrs. Dobie himself and donated a seed tray full of them to the Botanic Garden of Amsterdam. In the same year, an article by the same writer appeared in the monthly magazine ‘Succulenta’, titled “The Frithia blooms!” with a picture of another seed pan, this time with flowering plants. With this exhibit, Mr. Labarre won a certificate of merit at the show of the Amsterdam Hortus. He added: ‘The finder, Mrs. Dobie, has always called them ‘Fairy Elephants’ Feet’. Isn’t that a suitable name for those who are romantically inclined?”
The name Fairy Elephants’ Feet is still used. In South Africa the plant is also referred to as ‘Bobbejaanvingers’ (a bobbejaan is a baboon), ‘glasies’ (glasses), ‘toontjies’ (toes) and ‘Baby Toes’. Also called ‘Purple Baby Toes’ to distinguish it from the Fenestraria’s, which look like it and are also called ‘Baby Toes’ but have white or yellow flowers.
Occurrence in nature The plant also became a popular species in South Africa itself. This is evident from a comprehensive report in ‘Succulenta’ (8 pages) of a trip by Mr. F.W. Reitz of Pretoria in1935 from his hometown to the Rustenburg Gorge. Below are some of the passages from his report:
Being a passionate succulent collector, I already consider myself owning an extensive collection of succulents and also some rare cacti. However, the heavy rains of last November have ruined all my Frithia pulchra, so I planned to search for some of those beautiful plants.
A little further, diagonally opposite Rustenburg Gorge, lives Mrs. Dobie, the discoverer of Frithia pulchra. I know her well and had promised her I would come and see her collection of rare succulents.
That fine rose flower on the crystal-white quartz grit was the purpose of our trip, Carefully I wiped away the gravel, and only then did the characteristic rods emerge, with their transparent windows that absorb the sunlight, since the plant itself does not expose itself in order to protect itself from the drought. With long spikes, which Mrs. Dobie had supplied, we managed to remove the plants from the crevices: it had to be done very carefully because they were well secured, and the Frithias are very delicate. When I removed the gravel over a greater surface, it turned out that the ground was literally dotted with Frithia pulchra, and that without realizing it, we had walked over them. But it is remarkable that only on those flats covered with fine gravel and in solid rocks this special succulent could be found. Dry, intensely dry, it has to be there. And the power of the sun at 4500 feet(1372 m)above sea level, where the average winter temperature is 58° F.(14°C), the average summer temperature is 72° F (22 °C)., and the average annual rainfall is only 25 inches (635 mm),must be very strong.
The removal of these petite plants was not easy, but in the course of half an hour, we had more than 100 of them together. Carefully they were packed in a bag, and, glad to have achieved our goal, we made our way back.
Before packing the car and setting out on the return journey, I filled two flour bags with pure white quartz gravel. This came in handy, because I now keep my Frithia pulchra in a box, in which I have tried to imitate the natural conditions at the site on the mountain as faithfully as possible.Yet I have failed to keep the whole treasure alive. Within a week, about 50% of myFrithias suddenly dried up. The rest, on the other hand, is safe and sound. I am very satisfied with the result. Frithia pulchra possesses the same property as many other aristocratic plants, i.e. that they are very difficult to replant and very peculiar about unaccustomed living conditions: too much water, too rich soil and too little gravel can be the cause of Frithia pulchra’s death.
So much for Mr. Reitz’s account. This story clearly shows that you can easily overlook the plants.
In figure 3 we see what looks like a piece of land with some grassy plant growth. But in reality, it’s full of F. pulchra. Within the red circle, there are three clusters.
Fig. 3. Locality somewhere southeast of Rustenburg. In the indicated area there are 3 clusters of Frithia pulchra. Photo Werner du Toit
Figure 4 shows the same site with a corresponding circle.
Fig. 4. Many specimens of Frithia pulchra among quartz gravel and in crevices, with the same area encircled as in fig. 3. Photo Werner du Toit
These photos by Werner du Toit were taken on January 28, 2017, in the middle of the growing period. In the dry season (winter), the plant tissue contracts due to dehydration and so the plant bodies are even pulled completely into the ground. The quartz gravel in which the plants grow can become very hot in summer. In harsh winters it may freeze there. In summer it can rain heavily and the plants clearly enjoy that. Flowering in South Africa also takes place in summer (December through February).
Fig. 5. Frithia pulchra in bloom in habitat at the end of January. Photo Werner du Toit
Nature conservation Fortunately, in these times people no longer work as described above by Mr. Reitz. On the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, F. pulchra has the status of ‘vulnerable’. The distribution area is limited to a number of localities in the Magaliesberg region and is estimated to be less than 5 km2. The biggest threat is illegal collection, but it is assumed that this has not had a major impact on the occurrence of the species. The populations are stable. The fact that the plant is easy to grow and that plants collected in the wild usually die may play a role in this. The area of the Magaliesberg is now a protected nature reserve, the Magaliesberg Protected Environment (MPE). It runs roughly from Rustenburg to Pretoria.
The genus Frithia As mentioned above, the genus Frithia was established in1925. Today it is one of more than 120 genera in the Ruschioideae, one of the five subfamilies of the large family of Aizoaceae (the ice plant family). The grouping into genera is based, among other things, on the construction of the seed capsules and therefore not easy to understand for the average enthusiast. The genus Frithia however is easy to tell apart from the genus Fenestraria – which at first glance bears a lot of resemblance to Frithia – by the way the leaves are arranged. In Frithia, the leaf position is spiral, whereas in Fenestraria the leaves are placed crosswise. Also, in Fenestraria the leaf surface is smooth, whereas in Frithia it is divided into tiny lens-like structures (fig. 6 and fig. 7).
Fig. 6. In Frithia, the leaf surface is covered with lens-like structures. Photo Theo HeijnsdijkFig. 7. Six-week-old seedlings of Frithia pulchra. The first ‘rod’ with lens-like structure develops between the cotyledons. Photo Theo Heijnsdijk
In his 1925 description of both genera, Brown commented that the leaf surfaces do not contain chlorophyll. He indicated that you can easily ascertain this by cutting off the top of a leaf and looking at it against the light. This works, but it’s also quite destructive.
A second species Brown knew one species: F. pulchra. In 1968 H.W. de Boer described in ’Succulenta’ some different plants that he had received from a C.G. Booker in Transvaal. The deviations concerned the much smaller leaves and flowers, the colour of the leaves (“rose-like greenish-brown”), and the colour of the flowers (white with the tips of the petals tinted rose-violet). The locality could not be established because Mr. Booker had since died. De Boer described this form as F. pulchra var. minor (= smaller). Because no material was deposited in a herbarium, the description is invalid. In the year 2000 Patricia Burgoyne et al. described the plant as a new species: Frithia humilis. According to the dictionaries, humilis means low or near the ground, but according to Burgoyne it is ‘smaller than others of its kind’. One of the photos accompanying the 1968 article by de Boer is now the lectotype of F. humilis.
Bronkhorstspruit, about 50 km east of Pretoria, is indicated as locality (fig. 8 and 9).
Fig. 8. Frithia humilis north of Bronkhorstspruit . Photo Sean Gildenhuys
Fig. 9. Frithia humilis north of or Bronkhorstspruit in bloom. Photo Sean Gildenhuys
It is worth noting that Louisa Bolus in ‘The Flowering Plants of South Africa’ mentions that the South African lawyer and plant collector Douglas Gilfinnan had already found F. pulchra at the place Witbank at the end of December 1905, just a few weeks before Mrs. Nation. That is about 200 km east of Rustenburg and about 40 km east of Bronkhorstspruit. This may also be F. humilis.
Cultivation In cultivation, we grow Frithia pulchra with its leaves above the ground. The risk of rot is high if we don’t. The soil should be granular and well permeable with a small proportion of organic matter. Keep absolutely dry in winter. The plants will certainly start to shrivel then. In spring, light misting is recommended. Once the plants are filled out, you need to water them regularly. The plants should not start to shrivel during this time. Flowering time occurs with me in the Netherlands in June-July. It is wise to limit the amount of water afterward, because the growing period is rather short.
Fig. 10. Frithia pulchra flowering in cultivation. Photo Theo Heijnsdijk
Propagation by sowing works fine, but is also possible by cuttings. This is done by carefully dividing a rosette in half and planting the pieces after the wounds have dried. But don’t do this if it’s your only plant, as there’s a good chance of rot occurring.
Literature Boer, H.W. de (1968). Frithia pulchra var. minor 47: 147.
Bolus, L. (1927) Frithia pulchra, The flowering plants of South Africa 7: text accompanying plate 275.
Brown, N.E. (1925). Mesembryanthemum and some new genera separated from it. The Gardeners’ chronicle 78: 433.
Brown, N.E. (1926). Ficoidaceae in J Burtt Davy, Manual of the Flowering Plants and Ferns of the Transvaal 1: 41, 162.
Burgoyne, P.M. & Smith, G.F. & Plessis, F. du. (2000). Notes on the genus Frithia (Mesembryanthemaceae) and the description of a new species, E humilis, in South Africa, Bothalia 30 (1): 1 – 7.
Labarre, E.J. (1928). De Frithia pulchra, of romantiek in de botanie, Onze tuinen 23 (6): 61.
Labarre, E.J. (1928). De Frithia bloeit!, Succulenta 10 (12): 215 – 219.
Reitz, F.W. (1935). Frithia pulchra, Succulenta 17 (6): 81 and 17 (7): 97.
First published in Succulenta 99 (2), 2020. Translated from the Dutch by F.N.
This dazzling species is a conspicuous component of the deciduous forests along Madagascar’s southwestern coast, especially on limestone slopes in association with succulent Euphorbias. It forms trees to 10 (-18) m tall with a swollen, white trunk to 2 m in diameter and a compact crown of short sinuous branches.
The small, creamy yellow flowers are arranged in dense inflorescences.
In cultivation, the species grows exceptionally fast, reaching a height of three meters and more within a year. It is often planted around traditional tombs and in villages.
In other parts of the world, Moringas are viewed as useful food plants, supplying edible leaves, young seedpods, and a first-class seed oil, but this does not seem to be the case in Madagascar.
On the other hand, just like other Moringas, M. drouhardii is used medicinally. (One of the pictures below shows holes in the trunk where people have removed bark and wood to treat coughs and colds).
Fig. 1 The plants produce miniature plants on the edge of the leaves.
