Crassula arborescens
| Crassula arborescens | ||||||||||||
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Crassula arborescens subsp. arborescens |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Crassula arborescens | ||||||||||||
| ( Mill. ) Willd. |
Crassula arborescens is a succulent plant species of the genus thick leaf ( Crassula ) in the family of thick leaf plants (Crassulaceae).
description
Crassula arborescens grows as an upright and branching shrub. It grows to a height of 1.5 meters and has a single main trunk that can reach a diameter of up to 6 centimeters. The branches are thickened and colored gray-green. Shoots with leaves are 7 to 10 millimeters in diameter. Older shoots have a yellowish, brown bark that peels off. At the nodes they are divided into individual sections. The flat and obovate to obovate-round leaves are 3.2 to 7 inches long and 2.3 to 4.2 inches wide. They are colored glaucous, provided with a powder-like coating and spotted with easily visible crevices of water . The leaf margins are reddish and the leaf base is wedge-shaped. The tip of the leaf is blunt and has an attached tip, which can also be missing.
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The terminal inflorescence consists of rounded thyrses and is 5 to 8 centimeters high. He has a lot of dichasias . The 4 millimeter thick inflorescence stalk becomes 15 to 30 millimeters and the inflorescence stalk 10 to 12 millimeters long. The sepals are broadly triangular in shape. The star-shaped corolla has a diameter of 18 to 20 millimeters and is light pink or white in color. The lanceolate petals are 9 to 10 millimeters long and 2.5 to 3 millimeters wide. The stamens are 5 to 6 millimeters long and the purple-colored anthers are less than 1 millimeter in size.
Systematics and distribution
The distribution area of Crassula arborescens is in the South African provinces of the Western Cape , Eastern Cape and in the south of KwaZulu-Natal . The plants in the succulent caroo grow on dry rock surfaces. The flowering time at the natural site is in spring to midsummer.
The species was first described in 1768 by Philip Miller as Cotyledon arborescens ( synonym : Toelkenia arborescens (Mill.) PVHeath (1993)). Carl Ludwig Willdenow placed the species in the genus Crassula in 1798 .
The following subspecies are distinguished:
- Crassula arborescens subsp. arborescens (synonyms: Crassula cotyledon Jacq. , Crassula arborea Medik. , Crassula cotyledonifolia Salisb. )
- Crassula arborescens subsp. undulatifolia Tölken (1975); Differences to the stem species are the higher growth with up to 2 meters in height, shoots with leaves reach a diameter of 4 millimeters, the leaves are basically smaller, similarly shaped, but less succulent, on the leaves only indistinct water gaps are visible and the leaf margins are light wavy. The distribution extends only to the province of Eastern Cape and there on shady and sloping rock surfaces. The flowering time is in the middle of summer.
proof
literature
- Ernst Jacobus van Jaarsveld: Crassula arborescens . In: Urs Eggli (Hrsg.): Succulent lexicon. Crassulaceae (thick leaf family) . Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-8001-3998-7 , pp. 36 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Gardener's Dictionary Volume 8, 1768, online
- ↑ Species Plantarum. Editio Quarta. Berolini 4th edition, Volume 1, 1798 Berlin
