Wednesday 13 April 2011

My mimicry mesembs (say that 5 times fast!)

The original plan was to share some pictures of my various mesemb seedlings, but it has been overcast, dark and rainy all freaking day. Not good picture-taking light.

So instead I give you a tour of my older mimicry mesembs*. Gifts from my mesemb mentor, a wonderful individual who is so enthusiastic and willing to teach a noob like me...and brave enough to send me home with plants from his collection to hone my skills on. Poor things.


A whole, whopping, 6 plants.

Clockwise from the top right:
Lithops pseudo-truncatella, 7 months old
Lithops gracilidelineata, 1 year old
Lithops aucampiae, age unknown
Argyroderma species, 1.5 years old
Fenestraria rhopalophylla,7 years old (!?! according to the label anyway)
Gibbaeum heathii, 1 year old

Some closeups. Sorry the two smaller lithops are so washed out - need to practice my Tiny Plant Photography Skill.

Lithops pseudo-truncatella
 
Lithops gracilidelineata
 
Lithops aucampiae, currently shriveling up in preparation for moulting. I hope.
 
Argyroderma, looking nice and happy.
 
 Fenestraria rhopalophylla, also called "Baby's Toes", but as I'm not a (human) baby fan, and for personal reasons have a love of the word fenestrate (actually, defenestrate), I prefer the scientific name, or: "Neeb Plant"
 
Gibbaeum heathii, cute, green, central divide always clamped tightly together. In my twisted mind it is the virgin of the mimicry mesembs.

I'm hoping I'll luck out during my trip to Brampton later this month and score some adult lithops from a nearby nursery. Or even better, be able to make it down for the Toronto Cactus & Succulent Club's Annual Show and Sale in June...will be a long shot though. If not I'll just have to be patient for a few years and hope I can manage to not kill all of my seedlings.

* a rather loose term to describe a group of South African succulent plants in the family Aizoaceae which tend to mimic stones as a camouflage mechanism. If you are really craving more detail on the subject: A Layman's Guide to Mimicry Mesembryanthemums

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2 comments:

  1. Heather13 April 2011 at 21:47

    I think my favourite little guy is the Argyroderma. She totally looks super happy, sort of like this: \o/

    Also, Neeb plant is an adorkable name and much better than 'Baby Toes'. :D

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  2. Heather (Fuss)14 April 2011 at 05:44

    Aside from the lithops, the Argyroderma is one of my favorites too - such a good looking plant (hopefully s/he will stay that way!).

    If Brian doesn't post here with the explanation of why I call that plant the Neeb Plant, I'll make a quick post on it later today. But as it was his literary prowess that resulted in the tale, he gets first dibs on the retelling.

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