Wow, that is beautiful.....

Ugh! This girl is REALLY jealous! I have been trying to get my hands on one of those! Even went as far to bid on one on *gasp* eBay! It is absolutely beautiful! Please keep me posted on how yours does and if you ever feel like giving it someone *wink*

~Erin~

Rian,

Really nice pictures of this rare species - you don't even see it for sale much (if at all) in the SouCal area. I remember trying to get this plant for 3 years, then getting it, then losing it the next year. So if I enjoy yours again, it will help heal the heel.

Thanks guys - nice to share my excitement with you! I know I have posted a few threads, so sorry, but this needed to be shared!! Cost: 1x A. malherbei, 1x Crassula barkleyi, 1x Stoeberia arborea and I added a Anacampseros subnuda.., not bad!

Fantastic!!! I just love it. Great work!

Mike

Sweet! Take good care of that baby--she's a beauty.

A beauty! Does it shed in Winter?

Sweeeeet!

Thanks. I loses its form when flowering and the mother plant seem to die and the older leaves seem to create new plants..sure hope its the case.

That is such a bizzare plant!

Yep, and its precisely why I love C&S, because there is such a variety is shapes and forms. It is just fascinating.

Now that's a winner! Sounds like you had to trade an arm and a leg to get it!

If mom dies after it blooms, would you be able to collect seeds to plant from it? Hopefully, it'll be a very old plant before it decides to sprout forth in flower. Ok, I'm going to take a plunge here with my newbie knowledge...it's a succulent and not a cactus?

Jeff, how did yours die? It looks like a pretty tough little plant.

Penny, not really, the plants I traded is all grown from seed and I have plenty..LOL! Not a cactus, family of the Jades, Crassula, and thats hair like cilia. The little plants develop from the leave edges.

I've seen photos of little plants on the edge of leaves. What I can't figure out is how do they get from the edge of the leaf to the ground and grow roots? Do they just fall off? Do they have roots before they fall off? Does the leaf sort of die and when it falls over the plants can then root into the soil?

See, all these little details are important to a curious mind.

Way cool. You are the crassula queen!

Penny, my guess would be develop roots/plant and the old leafs would dry out creating the space for the new growth.

Karyn, Norma would that! I am more the right-hand man to the prince! What I am doing, if you noticed my threads, is building a crassula collection, by hook or by crook, from either seeds, trades or purchases. I decided to learn more about the genus and there is no way like seeing them first hand.

Gosh, Rian, there are 1400+ species of Crassula so that should keep you busy! I have to admit that it seems that so far all my purchases have been Crassulas...sedums, echeverias, or graptopetalums, so I understand your collection decision. Just so many plants, so little time!

Penny, I think about +/- 333-350 in the genus (Crassula), and a few of whom are pretty rare, so I will never get them all..LOL! You may be referring to the family Crassulaceae. If I am lucky I may get around 80 species over time. For its just nice to focus on groups and try and expand them and my understanding of them - doing the same with mesembs. For instance Aloinopsis, once I have all the species I can find, the hunt is on for the those hard to find species. Love that part.

Hmmm, help me out here. I'm trying to get a better understanding of how all this naming works. I thought I'd like to collect just Crassulacea too so I bought the Illustrated Handbook of Succulent Plants, Crassulaceae ed: Urs Eggli since I have no clue about this stuff. It is a masssive, very technical handbook that I hoped would help me along. I'm still trying to figure out how to read it! God only knows why I even thought I needed this book. One of these days I'm going to donate it to someone, someplace that can actually make use of it.

Anyhow, it states that the family counts about 1400 species in 33 genera. However, because the classifications are problematic, there may be more/different genera, subfamilies, different classifications, whatever. And different books/websites say different things. So 300+ sounds more manageable! Go for it!

I've been mixed up in the genera/species/family/ lingo/taxonomy before and should probably leave it to the experts. Either way, you should buy a ranch if you already don't live on one if your goal is to collect Crassula!

I should just give up trying to figure this stuff all out and just buy plants that appeal to me at the nursery. If I don't like them when they grow up, I'll just give them to someone who does.

Oh, if you ever want to donate, I am first in-line!LOL! Family is Crassulaceae. The easiest way to describe it is that in the case of Crassula (Genus) barbata (specie), I look at it like this Crassula is the "surname" and specie is the "name". There is actually about 149 species, but some are subdivided into subspecies and variations giving you around 330 in total. Tolken went further and put the Crassula species in 20 sections. The idea was that the species in a section would have some common links, for instance section Deltoideae has species that has the waxy top. This is little generalized but I hope you make sense of it.

{{gwi:692520}}

Ok here is my effort on untangling the scientific description of the Crassula corallina:

Perennials with prostrate or decumbent (grows along ground, rather than upright) for up to 8cm long, glabrous (without hairs), herbaceous (not woody) or rarely somewhat woody towards the base with thin tap root and many advantageous roots on the decumbent branches or with a swollen tuberous root with old leaves often remaining attached for a short while.

Leaves are sessile (without stalk or petiole), usually angular to obovate(reverse ovate, narrow base, wide above middle) to almost rhombic (3-fold face), 0.3-0.5 (-0.6) cm long, 0.2-0.5 cm broad, usually abruptly tapering into more or less bluntly acute (gradually tapering to a point) apices, cuneate (inversely triangular) to subpetiolate at the basis, more or less convex on both surfaces and thickest near the apices, minutely warted and covered with a greyish wax which often flakes on the exposure surfaces, grey-green to grey-brown, sheath membranous and up to 0.05cm long. Hydathodes scattered over exposed surfaces, mainly on upper parts, clearly visible.

Now Crassula corallina is devided into 2 subspecies where there is obvious difference:

Crassula corallina subsp. corallina (pic)
Differences: Produces fibrous roots up to 0.2 mm in diameter and advantageous roots (roots on the stem at leave base) along branches.

Crassula corallina subsp. macrorrhiza
Differences: Does not have advantageous roots along branches and a definite swollen taproot!

Hope this help a little further..LOL!

Ok. You're at the top of my list.
Penny