Aeonium tabuliforme “cristato” is a nursery produced cultivar from the species “Aeonium tabuliforme”. This species is native of Canary islands.

Aeonium tabuliforme cristata is even more unusual than Aeonium tabuliforme. It mantains its weird flattened form, but the leaves are smaller, kind of more pointed, small, disheveled, and also the rosettes are not round, but elongated and they develop forming cute shapes like curls. The main tiny trunk is flattened, wavy. From it, many short branches develop. Each branch bears a rosette. The crested mode changes during the years: sometimes is more evident, sometimes less. White flowers appear in spring-summer on an elongated stem.

In temperate climates, Aeonium tabuliforme cristata can grow during almost all the year, but, in its natural environment, it goes dormant in summer and can look a little bit tired sometimes. Watering is not really necessary in winter: once a month is sufficient: or either you can water when you see that the soil has turned completely dry. In summer, water it twice a month. This plant doesn’t beat temperatures below 0ºC., so it’s easier to put it indoors. Aeonium tabuliforme cristata is happy either in sunny, or in partial shaded position. In summer it prefers partial shaded position, but not completely shaded. It requires a well-draining substrate.

The plants of the genus Aeonium are very efficient in the depuration of the environment and very robust. For these characteristics they are, among the plants, studied by NASA for future use inside the spacecraft. Its name derives from the greek word aionios, which means eternal, immortal, a name that has earned both for its strength and for its affinity with the Sempervivum genus. In fact the Aeonium  are plants extremely robust even for the standard of the great family of succulents; they can tolerate long periods of drought, as well as short periods of intense cold.