Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Various pretties

Another summary post.

First up is Haworthia cooperi pilifera, another one native to southern Africa.  This species is one of many haworthias that have "windows" at the tips of the leaves.  This clear tissue allows sunlight to penetrate down into the leaves, so that when the plant draws itself underground during dry periods in its native habitat it can continue photosynthesizing.


Haworthia cooperi pilifera

I should do a post on just my Haworthias, because they're very cool plants. The flowers look pretty much alike for all the species, small greenish brown and white striped flowers on long spikes. Not very eye-catching, but pretty if you look close. This particular plant is especially floriferous right now, with six spikes, and look at that one in the front! It's huge!

Haworthia cooperi pilifera flowers

Next up is Pachyveria 'Blue Haze', another Pachyphytum-Echeveria cross.

Pachyveria 'Blue Haze'

This one has big chubby leaves, and droopy flower spikes.

Pachyveria 'Blue Haze'

The flowers themselves are bright maroon, but almost hidden by the fleshy green corolla.  I actually didn't even realize the flowers on this one were open until I turned the plant around to water it.  Nice surprise!

Pachyveria 'Blue Haze'

Last up for today is what I think is a Sedeveria (I'm not sure).  If that's correct, it's a cross between a Sedum and an Echeveria.  I still have more research to do on this one. [Update: I'm pretty sure this is Sedeveria 'Sedona']

The flowers are pale, pale yellow, and open to a nice star shape.

Sedeveria

The leaves are pretty, too.

Sedeveria

While each individual flower is small, there are a lot of them on the inflorescence.

Sedeveria

I got this plant as part of a mixed hanging basket at the end of last summer. The basket was 70% off because it was in such rough shape, but I figured, hey, there are a couple plants left alive and the wire basket is nice. The plants have been hanging on fine over the winter, under lights, and this one bloomed!

Sedeveria

Once these flowers are done, I'll cut off the rosette at the end of that scraggly bare stem and re-root it, and I'll be re-planting the basket this summer to fill in the bare spots and make it all pretty again.

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