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Cacti & Succulents

Monstrose? Crest?

17 years ago

I've been trying to find information on what Monstrose and Crest is. I came across a bonsai site that talked briefly about how certain jade plants came into existence from other jade plants because of monstrose form? Such as Hobbit and Gollum and etc.

I can't seem to find any details on the differences between Monstrose and Crest. Am I using the wrong terms or..?

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Comments (5)

mfyss
17 years ago
Add cristate to the mix. Cristate is used to describe one kind of deviation from 'normal' which results in something of a crest. The deviation may be such that it is described as monstrose. Such a broad term may even include leaf color variations or variegation. I wouldn't think there would be lots of agreement, but a cristate plant might look monstrose (monstrous), display a crest, or have leaves not completely green. Yale
webkat5
17 years ago
As I understand it, the monstrose generally refers to the leaves being contorted or not resembling the parent plant.
In the case of cacti, they will look as though they were made of clay and someone pinched them into a new shape...so hard to explain.

Crest forms are, generally speaking, a wide stem base which will in turn carry more plant growth along the top (if it has leaves).

Some plants are both...

This is an example of a crested Dandelion that I found in my yard a couple years ago...

{{gwi:511903}}
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dragonstone
Original Author
17 years ago
See, that's the thing I keep running across. Monstrose is mentioned for something monstrous yet I've seen Monstrose used for a plant that has come from another plant yet retains its own look.
webkat5
17 years ago
I am a bit confused by that...Do you mean 'monstrose' has been on the label, when you didn't see a difference from the original version of the plant? It is very common for labels to be wrong....
dragonstone
Original Author
17 years ago
No, I'm just trying to figure out the terms that are used for certain plants.

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