I love all Gasteria species. They're just cool looking. My space concerns leaves me to miniatures though. I picked this Gasteria gracilis variegata up from a vendor at The Philadelphia Flower show one year. This summer an animal dumped the pot over and chewed up the roots so I had to repot all the pups. I was pissed off, but at least it didn't eat them like it did a lot of my other plants.
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| Mom and her pups |
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| Close-up of the new babies |
I'm not sure if this is a common trait for these Gasteria, or if it's just my plant, but the variegation is extremely unpredictable. I've had pups with almost no variegation to 100% white ones that I couldn't separate. Those white ones would eventually separate on their own, then failed to make it long term, (due to complete lack of chlorophyll.)
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| Last years pups off the same plant |
See what I mean? These 2 examples are typical for the plant. At least the majority of pups have a fair amount of variegation. This summer they were in full sun for longer than I've kept them that way before. I'm not sure if it's my imagination, (but it seems to make sense,) all of this years new pups have a good amount of variegation. Maybe the plant isn't as unpredictable as I always thought, if my idea is correct. Less sun and they put out variegation all across the board from none to 100%, but an ideal amount of sun results in a good proportion of white and green? I don't know. This is all very unscientific and pure speculation. I'll have to try it in the same amount of sun next year to see if my theory holds up.
Nice. Also known as "beestong" (direct trans: Cow's tongue). Interesting discussion you have there, I always thought it to be very variable myself. But you may have a interesting point, keep us updated on next set! Oh the animal thing! I join you anger, cat's my problem! Cheers. LT
ReplyDeleteThanks for the info! Maybe it's not just me if the variegation on everyone's works like that. Animals outside, animals inside (I've got two cats too) you can't really win. I'm sure I'll have pictures of stuff with chewed leaved up eventually, they like some of the orchids.
DeleteI have one Gasteria 'Ox Tongue', and I think it looks and feels great, abit like an ox tongue if you know what I mean. Variegated plants are very cool, very bold and abstract, that's an interesting theory you have there. Be careful, some plants can be dangerous to pets too, vice versa. :-)
ReplyDeleteI've heard the "ox tongue" common name for these plants too, but I've never even seen an ox's tongue, so I'll take everyone's word for it, lol. I hadn't read anything about Gasteria being toxic to cats, is it? Not that they try to eat it anyway, one of them really only likes the orchids and they're non-toxic.
DeleteI'm not sure if Gasteria are poisonous, with a name like ox tongue, you'd think it's edible, right? But I do know that our dogs loved digging and eating stuff in the garden without knowing the consequences. Once they dug up and chewed some bulbs and looked sick for a few days afterwards; the consequences of mischievous pets, but they're smart, and usually learn from their mistakes, usually. Cats are crafty too, and have nine lives. :-)
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