Synonyms:

Crassula corymbulosa
Crassula luederitzii
Crassula nuda
Crassula punctata
Crassula rodogyna
Crassula thyrsiflora
Crassula turrita
Purgosea corymbulosa
Purgosea pertusa
Purgosea punctata
Purgosea turrita
Sedum corymbulosum
Turgosea pertusa
Turgosea turrita

Habitat:

Crassula capitella subs. thyrsiflora is native to Cape Provinces, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal and Namibia where the plant grows on dry rocky slopes in arid areas in the shade of other plants.

Description:

Crassula capitella subs. thyrsiflora is a wonderful succulent belonging to the Crassulaceae botanical family. The plant is a perennial shrub, heavily branched that can reach up to 40 cm in height. The stem is short and the plant forms dense rosettes of leaves. The leaves are arranged in four ranks or sometimes in spirals. The leaves are fleshy, triangular pointed at the apex, flat on the upper face and convex on the lower surface. The most charming characteristics are the arrangement of the leaves and their color. The leaves are bright green normally but under stress conditions they can turn to reddish tones, mixing green and red with the white margins in magnificent shades. The drought conditions and the high irradiation seem to favor the change of color. Blooming occurs from the summer to the autumn and the inflorescence can be both unbranched or branched. The inflorescence has many flowers and has an indeterminate central axis with many opposite lateral axes. This particular inflorescence is called thyrse and the specific epithet thyrsiflora is due to this. The flowers are star-shaped, with oblong obovate petals, creamy white in color but occasionally tinged with pink. After flowering the leaves fall and root to the ground forming new plants.

Cultivation:

The plant has a slow growth rate but it easy to cultivate. The best sun-exposure is in bright place but is recommended to avoid direct sun-light in the hottest periods. The minimum temperatures that the plant can withstand are 7° C, below this temperature it begins to suffer so it needs to be placed indoors in the coldest periods. The perfect soil is a well-drained soil that let the water to drain away and avoid root rot. To achieve this feature, you can mix the pumice soil, clay and soil. Remember to use a perforating pot to drain excess water. Watering can be done regularly in Spring and Summer: during the vegetative period you can water the plant (every 7 days), checking that the soil is completely dry before watering again; in winter you should stop the watering to allow the plant to enter dormancy. If you want a faster and lush growth you can fertilize the plant once a month during the growing season with the specific fertilizers for succulents; stop fertilizing throughout the winter. If the pot starts to be too small for the plant you can repot the plant in a pot 2 cm wider. Repotting should be done early in the growing season with fresh new potting soil. Be careful to red spiders and mealy bugs.

Propagation:

Propagation can be done by cutting or by seed. By cutting you can make the cut during the spring and then let the cutting dry; after a few days the cut surface will dry and a callus will form, then place the cutting in a mixture of sand, soil and pumice. To increase the success of propagation you can make two or more cuttings at the same time. For cuttings it is recommended temperatures around 20 °C. By seed it is very simple to propagate the plant, it is enough to sow the seed in a sandy loam soil and keep it with a high level of humidity and at temperature of 14 C°.

Curiosity:

From its name you could say that it is the “succulent plant” par excellence: its name comes from the Latin crassus, that means fat. The crassula is a plant unpretentious but with a high vegetative strength: for this reason, it is sometimes used in a closed area for air purification, which is filtered by eliminating harmful substances.

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