fleshy leaves in spirals

by Aimee
(Birmingham, UK)

Stalk about 7cm long, 0.7cm wide, brown and quite woody. Smaller stalks off-shooting from this main stalk. These lead to clumps of fleshy leaves in spirals. Each leaf about 1cm long, each clump contains about 25 leaves. Spiral is about 2-3cm across. What look like roots, red/pink, are shooting out from all over the stalk. These are about 2/3cm long. Flowers in Summer were on a long fleshier stalk which had grown from the end of the main woody stalk. They were in a sort of 'spray', were small white bell-like flowers.


Drought Smart Plants reply;
Hi Aimee, this looks like one of the many species and varieties of Echeveria, some of my favorite succulents. I'm not sure of the exact type, due to your description of the white flowers. Many Echeveria have red, pink or peach coloured blooms, rarely white.

The pink root like things are in fact, roots. These plants will produce aerial roots when they're in need of repotting, but I would recommend holding off on that and instead, beheading each of the rosettes just below the leaf cluster. Set them on the surface of dry potting soil, and they'll root in a week or two and make several very nice compact plants.

Happy Succulent Growing!
Jacki


See these pages on the site for more:

How to Grow Echeveria

Echeveria hybrids

Echeveria species

Succulent Care

Succulent Soil

Succulent Plant Propagation