Aeonium tabuliforme
Habitat:
Aeonium tabuliforme is native and endemic of Canary Islands (Tenerife), in particular, it grows on lavic slopes of volcanos. Endemic is a botanical term to define a species living only in a defined geographic location.
Description:
Aeonium tabuliforme is a perennial stemless plant from Canary islands, with a strange, amazing appearence. It’s composed of a stemless rosette, from 20 to 50 centimeters large, really flat and short, like a disk, or as if someone’s been pounding her off on the ground. Leaves are bright green, up to 25 centimeters long, pubescent, with acuminate edges. Aeonium tabuliforme’s flowering period is in late spring. The flowering changes the entire form of the plant. At the beginning of the process, the plant starts to look like a cone, or a volcano, until the inflorescence comes up. The inflorescence is a 30 centimeters long spike arising from the center of the rosette, from which develop many bright yellow flowers. Each rosette from which an inflorescence develop dies after the flowering period. New individuals grow from the suckers formed from the base of the plant.
Cultivation:
This plant is not so difficult to cultivate. It requires a sandy, well drained substrate, and a bright spot. It’s recommended to water it during the growth season (spring and summer), and to maintain the soil dry during the winter, to allow the plant to bear low temperatures. The coldest temperature acceptable for Aeonium to survive is 7ºC.
Propagation:
Aeonium tabuliforme can be propagated by leaf cutting, or simply detaching one of the suckers growing from the base of the plant.
Curiosity:
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.