Faucaria tigrina

I wish Faucaria were more popular, I had no idea the genus even existed for the first few years I was growing succulents. I started taking the offsets from my plants to share with other people, everyone who likes succulents should have one of these. They look like tiny little toothy jaws, almost as if they were a carnivorous succulent. In fact, "Faucaria" is from the latin "fauces" meanin  "jaws" or "animal mouth." Sometimes the taxonomists are dead on. It should be pretty obvious why I like them at least.

Faucaria tigrina clump and an offset I divided.

Faucaria tigrina is from the Eastern Cape Province, Albany in South Africa. They are fall/winter bloomers, but still need full sun to open. They can go dormant during spring/summer, so I stop watering if they stop growing. These should be watered when dry throughout the rest of the year. I found that even if they go dormant, accidentally watering before you realize they're dormant won't rot them, so they're tougher than some other mesembs when it comes to rot sensitivity. I've seen some places on the internet report that they won't go dormant at all if you continue to water them year round, so there's always that too.

I haven't had any problems growing them in full sun (6+ hours a day) here, but I wouldn't recommend it for people growing closer to the equator during the hottest summer months. The leaves get a reddish hue to them in the summer, which is pretty, but no burning. Although these are stemless and usually grow in mats, over time they can form woody stems and develop some height too. I haven't seen one large enough to do this, so maybe if you grow the same plant and never divide it for 10+ years you might see some stem action.