Plant Highlights By Date
Aloe tongaensis (Aloidendron tongaense)
December 2024
The area where Aloe tongaensis occurs, in southern Mozambique and northeastern South Africa, is warm and tropical, so plants in habitat do not experience freezing temperatures. In cultivation, it can tolerate brief overnight lows a little below freezing, but not sustained freezes.
×Mangave ‘Silver Fox’
November 2024
One of the reasons for making hybrids between a Manfreda and an Agave is the desire to come up with a plant that has the sculptural solidity of the latter, along with the purple spots that can be found in the former. ×Mangave ‘Silver Fox’ is one of the ×Mangave crosses with only a faint trace of spotting, but it has a beautiful silvery-bluish leaf color with a hint of purple.
Agave microceps
October 2024
Agave microceps was first described from plants growing in the south-central part of Sinaloa, on the west coast of Mexico. At this locality, the population is only about 1600 feet (500 m) above sea level, growing on rocky low hills not far inland from the Gulf of California.
Parodia leninghausii
September 2024
Parodia leninghausii is an easy plant to grow, performing well as a potted specimen or in the ground. As with other cacti, it requires good drainage.
Fouquieria fasciculata
August 2024
Fouquieria fasciculata may have a single trunk, but often it occurs as a cluster of several trunks, together forming a shrub up to about 10 feet tall (3 m), or occasionally even more than this.
Tylecodon wallichii
July 2024
The species of Tylecodon are heavily concentrated in the winter-rainfall region of western South Africa and southern Namibia, though a few have large distributions that extend outside this area. While some species are geophytes, dying back to an underground tuber during the dormant season, others have swollen basal caudexes or conspicuous succulent stems.
Phlomis purpurea
June 2024
Among the shrubby species is Phlomis purpurea, native to Spain, Portugal, and Morocco.
Yucca linearifolia
May 2024
Yucca species typically have long sword-like leaves, but in some species the leaves are so narrow as to look needle-like. An example is Yucca linearifolia.
Albuca spiralis
April 2024
Several species of Albuca have spiraled leaves, and one of these is Albuca spiralis, whose name refers to this trait. It comes from the winter-rainfall region in western South Africa, from the arid Namaqualand area in the country’s northwest southward to Cape Town.
Coreopsis gigantea (Leptosyne gigantea)
March 2024
The Daisy Family (Asteraceae) is a very large one with a worldwide distribution, containing over 32,000 described species in over 1,900 genera.
