Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Daisies Growing Out of a Succulent?

(This is a photograph I took of a Delosperma species growing amidst various Sedum and other succulents in a green wall application in Williamsburg, Brooklyn)

Question:
I have a plant on my terrace, looks sort of like an artichoke. For the first time since I've had this plant, it budded out and from the bud was born a perfectly beautiful daisy?
The other parts of this plant have sprouted their daisies as well and I would like to know what this kinds of succulent brings forth daisies?

Answer:
Believe it or not, a succulent that has a showy, daisy-like flower is not that unheard of at all. Because they are used to growing in challenging environments, such as arid and exposed deserts, it makes sense from a survival standpoint that cacti and succulents are very compact, often drought tolerant, and otherwise durable plants in the landscape. What people may not automatically think about is that because their natural environment may lack an over abundance of pollinators, cacti and succulents typically have very bright and showy flowers to be able to attract their respective pollinators from great distances. One such example is a plant botanically known as Delosperma, or ice plants as some refer to them. Delosperma are succulents that do most of their nutrient storage and water retention in their large fleshy leaves and they appear very much like your typical succulent. Once established the plants do flower and their blooms are wonderfully showy daisy-like flowers that can range from pink to purple. Now, I am not sure if the plant that you have written me about is definitely a Delosperma, but if you are able to email me a picture of it, please do and hopefully we can identify it to a more specific genus and/or species.

1 comment:

  1. Funny, I was just admiring the composite-ish flowers in this excellent photo of a mesemb.

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