Neat miniature Oaxacan Sedum sp.
Posted: Tue May 16, 2017 8:43 am
Greetings:
Some years back, a good friend traveled through southern Mexico photographing orchids and other interesting native plants. He stopped at a cliff face locality at 1750 m along Hwy 135D on the border between Oaxaca and Puebla and on the road to Tehuacan to photograph a colony of the carnivorous butterwort, Pinguicula aff. mirandae. Growing together with the pinguicula was a very handsome miniature lithophytic succulent that he collected a few small stems of.
He gave me some unrooted pieces about six years ago that I then grew out and distributed to several friends in Guatemala. I imported a small start several years back and have been growing it as a windowsill plant ever since. I have not been able to identify it since it is extremely reluctant to flower. Thus far only one person that I gave plants to has been able to flower it, but forgot to take photos or notes. It superficially resembles S compactum, but so do many other miniature Mexican sedums. Makes a great dish plant, but is structurally hyperfragile and sheds stems with wild abandon when touched. The plant has a marked seasonal dormancy from late November through early April in California. I would assume that in habitat growth restarts more or less around this time as well (= end of the dry season).
Stems are about 1 cm wide. Any thoughts as to possible identities based on locality?
Cheers,
Jay
Some years back, a good friend traveled through southern Mexico photographing orchids and other interesting native plants. He stopped at a cliff face locality at 1750 m along Hwy 135D on the border between Oaxaca and Puebla and on the road to Tehuacan to photograph a colony of the carnivorous butterwort, Pinguicula aff. mirandae. Growing together with the pinguicula was a very handsome miniature lithophytic succulent that he collected a few small stems of.
He gave me some unrooted pieces about six years ago that I then grew out and distributed to several friends in Guatemala. I imported a small start several years back and have been growing it as a windowsill plant ever since. I have not been able to identify it since it is extremely reluctant to flower. Thus far only one person that I gave plants to has been able to flower it, but forgot to take photos or notes. It superficially resembles S compactum, but so do many other miniature Mexican sedums. Makes a great dish plant, but is structurally hyperfragile and sheds stems with wild abandon when touched. The plant has a marked seasonal dormancy from late November through early April in California. I would assume that in habitat growth restarts more or less around this time as well (= end of the dry season).
Stems are about 1 cm wide. Any thoughts as to possible identities based on locality?
Cheers,
Jay