Succulents and More™

A few days ago, my friend Justin, whose garden I wrote about recently , was in town. Knowing what a plant nerd he is, I took him to the UC Davis  Botanical Conservatory , and before we knew it, two and a half hours had gone by. That's what happens when you get sucked into a botanical vortex! I could have taken hundreds of photos of the plants in the greenhouses, but I was far too busy yakking. Still, I managed to take pictures of some weird and wonderful oddities. Huernia keniensis  var. globosa . In contrast to typical huernias where the flowers open up completely, the petals on this variety form a globe-shaped corolla . Maybe this is to enhance the carrion smell that attracts the flies which act as pollinators? The flowers you see in the photo above definitely exuded a heady perfume of meaty putrefaction. Alien-looking flowers on Dorstenia foetida , a caudiciform from Eastern Africa and Arabia Same Dorstenia foetida  flower from the front. Dorstenias have a distinctive...

I'll never forget how awestruck I was the first time I saw Puya alpestris in flower. It was at Annie's Annuals on July 23, 2011, so almost exactly 10 years ago. I couldn't remember the exact date (my memory isn't that good), but a quick search on my blog helped me figure it out. Here are two photos I took that day: July 23, 2011: Puya alpestris at Annie's Annuals July 23, 2011:  Puya alpestris  at Annie's Annuals I bought my own Puya alpestris  a year and a half later, on April 28, 2013, at the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden's spring plant sale . As you can see in the photo below, it was in a 1-gallon pot and quite small:  April 28, 2013: UC Berkeley Plant Sale. One of these Puya alpestris  ended up coming home with me. For reasons I cannot remember, or maybe for no reason at all other than general negligence, I didn't post any other photos of my Puya alpestris  on Succulents and More. I planted it in a large terracotta pot (11 inches in height × 15 inches...

I still remember the first time I saw a porcupine tomato ( Solanum pyracanthon or Solanum pyracanthum ). The vivid orange spines looked so vicious but at the same time irresistible. I simply had to touch them and when I did, I was surprised. As lethal as the spines looked, they were actually fairly soft.   I didn’t buy that plant because it was expensive, but this spring I found an inexpensive 4-inch seedling at Annie’s Annuals in Richmond. It’s easily tripled in size since April. Like its relative, the edible tomato ( Solanum lycopersicum ) it loves the heat.

At the most recent UC Davis Arboretum plant sale , I finally found a specimen of a plant I’d wanted for as long as I can remember: Mimosa pudica , commonly called “sensitive plant,” “humble plant,” “shameful plant,” or “touch-me-not.” I can’t remember where I first saw one, but many botanical gardens have specimens they allow visitors to interact with. Kids—young and old—are drawn to them like moths to a streetlight. If you’ve never experienced a sensitive plant, you probably wonder why it’s so special. Take a look at the animation below which I found on Wikipedia: Image source: Wikipedia Yep, you touch a leaf, and it folds up as if by magic. This action is called “seismonastic movement,” and it has to do with a loss of turgor pressure in certain cell regions. If “turgor pressure” is up your alley, you can read more about it here . There are various hypotheses as to why Mimosa pudica does this; the one that makes the most sense to me is that it alters the shape of its leaves...