Most Common Succulent
Aloe vera is an evergreen succulent species native to the Arabian Peninsula. The thick leaves are filled with gooey flesh that stores water for survival in its native desert territories. Aloe vera has become a popular houseplant and is also incorporated into a wide range of cosmetics and skin-care products.
Looking like a miniature fairytale tree, Jade plant is one of the world’s most popular succulents. Native to southern regions of Africa, it is well adapted to the dry warm air of modern homes. It grows slowly but lives for so long that plants get passed from generation to generation. It is toxic to dogs, cats, and horses, and even mildly toxic to humans.
“Sempervivum” means “always living” in Latin. Adapted to droughts, baking sun, and cold winters of their native south European mountains, the Common houseleek can truly live through almost anything. It has been grown for centuries on roofs of European houses as it was believed to deter lightning strikes. Young houseleeks grow around the mother plant, earning it the alternative name “Hens and Chicks.”
Thanksgiving cactus is a flowering plant that blooms around Christmastime. It has bright colors and a large number of flowers, creating a rich and cheerful holiday vibe. Its flowers are terminal on stalk apexes and have a long flowering season of up to 3 months. The flowers are multi-colored, usually purple, white, orange, and bright red. Its stalk is also peculiarly shaped like a crab leg.
The Zanzibar gem is a flowering green plant native to eastern Africa. It also gets the name, emerald palm, because of its bright, glossy color. Today, the Zanzibar gem is grown around the world as a house plant, in part because it is easy to grow and care for. Though this plant is mildly toxic if ingested, its danger level is often overstated.
Elephant bush (Portulacaria afra) is a succulent native to South Africa, easily recognized by its small, rounded green leaves and crimson stems. This cute semi-evergreen succulent is cultivated as an ornamental, most commonly in xeriscaping, and as a bonsai plant.
Desert rose is widely cultivated as a houseplant or as bonsai for its beautiful flowers. As a succulent plant originating from the Sahara and tropical Africa and Arabia, it requires a minimum temperature of 10 °C to survive. Its sap was used to poisoning arrows in Africa.
Baby sun rose (Mesembryanthemum cordifolium) is a succulent species native to South Africa. Baby sun rose is primarily planted for ornamental purposes in gardens and urban spaces. This species is considered fast-growing and is often planted as ground cover in flower boxes and public areas. It can be easily propagated from cuttings and outcompetes weeds when grown in the same area.
Though its name suggests otherwise, the Lucky bamboo is not actually a bamboo plant. It’s a type of tropical water lily that is thought to bring good luck and prosperity to the home or office. This plant is commonly used in Feng Shui, and the correct placement impacts the flow of positive energy.
Pencil tree (Euphorbia tirucalli) is a small tree shrub that grows best in warm arid climates and is named for its pencil-sized succulent branches. Pencil tree is native to black clay soils in Africa and can be poisonous if ingested. It produces a latex compound that can be poisonous and cause blindness.
Queen of the night is a unique flowering plant. Its flowers are funnel-shaped and have clean white petals and an aromatic scent. Each flower blooms on a single quiet night and fades within hours, making the plant a veritable moonlight beauty.
Barbary fig (Opuntia ficus-indica) is a flowering cactus native to Mexico. Barbary fig is a widely domesticated species grown for agricultural purposes in arid climates throughout the world. This species is edible and planted widely as a fruit and vegetable crop. Barbary fig is commercially valued as food, animal fodder, an adobe ingredient, and is also planted to control soil erosion.
Ghost plant (Graptopetalum paraguayense) is a succulent native to the Mexican state of Tamaulipas and commonly grown as a houseplant or a garden plant. It features ornamental trailing rosettes that turn yellow-pink when grown in a sunny spot or greenish-to-bluish-grey in the shade. It is sometimes confused with another succulent, Echeveria.
Paddle plant (Kalanchoe tetraphylla) is a rare succulent plant species that requires low light to grow. It is considered a hardy succulent species. Paddle plant is native to Madagascar.
This perennial succulent is grown both indoors and out in sunny, dry soils or rock gardens. Pink-and-yellow flowers grow on stalks in the summer. The highly-unusual shape of its leaves is the result of careful selective cultivation that essentially turned the leaves upside-down.