Sunday, March 15, 2015

Meet Anacampseros rufescens!

If you like "herbaceous small subshrubs" (thank you, Doreen Court, now say it 10 times fast!)  in your garden, you'll love Anacampseros rufescens:
Anacampseros rufescens, M Robb, 2015
I just love dwarf shrublets, and this one is very pretty. A. rufescens grows about 8cm tall. Mine is about 2cm. Not impressive? Well, it does grow out to form dense mats that cover larger areas of its home in South Africa. It has an impressive inflorescence with pink flowers that's about 10cm tall.  I hope mine will bloom here in the Tropics.

One interesting fact is that, as Anacampseros grows in the wild in lusher habitats to more droughty ones, it grows in smaller, more compact rosettes with smaller leaves. In other words, it miniaturizes itself as water grows more scarce. Smart! You can learn more about Anacampseros of all sorts in Dotort (intentional rhyme), Chapter 15. (You mesembs fantatics know which book I'm talking about.)

4 comments:

  1. Very very pretty shape and color :) Love it!

    I'm sure it will not only get much bigger this year but will also flower a lot.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you, Rika! I am looking forward to the flowers.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hello Marla! Your A. rufescens is much greener than mine, which has more of a brownish appearance. Of course I grown mine on the dry side with lots of sun. As they say in succulent circles, I grow it hard. In addition, my plants doesn't have such a lovely pot. It fits your plant perfectly. Now my old clay pots look positively boring. I'll have to work on that. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. I think it's mega-green because I've only had it a few weeks.... You know the growers really hop up the plants on fertilizer before they go to market. Thank you for your compliments on the pot!

    ReplyDelete