Smelly Plant of the Month: Senecio kleiniiformis



Senecio kleiniiformis

Senecio is a huge genus, but there aren't too many succulents to be found there. I have an S. serpens, whose white blossoms smell exactly like stinky gym feet. Yuck.

But this Senecio is different. S. kleiniiformis, also from Southern Africa, has bright yellow blossoms the same shape and size as S. serpens. But they smell...good! A beautiful perfume of honey-lemon wafts from these all day. It reminds me of the honey-lemon drops people suck on during the winter to keep the flu away. Since we're having an awful influenza season, and an early one, S. kleiniiformis seems like a good plant to be growing on the windowsill. It's a tough and hardy plant that likes full to filtered sun, waterings when its soil dries out, and lots of admiring humans to smell its flowers.

Silver Spider in a New Kind of Pot

You may remember my favorite Senecio, S. scaposus, from August. It's about doubled in size since then, so I repotted it in a much larger, heavier pot:



Senecio scaposus

 For these pots, I used my usual terracotta clay, made a 6" diameter pinch pot, stamped it, let it dry, then glazed it without firing to bisque first. Once the glaze was dry, I carved the pot, then fired it, so the glaze only shows in patches. This gives it a very weathered, ancient look, I think. The pastel tones also work very well with plants like the Silver Spider.  I'll definitely be making a few more of these, as the scaposus started growing again within a few days of landing in its new home. If that's not an endorsement, I don't know what is. Have a wonderful, creative weekend! I'll be back next week with some info on CAM photosynthesis, what a nerd....

Stormy, Stinky Monday

Here are the northernmost bands of Isaac coming in yesterday. Beautiful, though, aren't they?

Today we've got 100kph wind gusts and a whole lot of noisy rain! Nobody slept much last night, just too much howling from the winds. And we're only at the very edges of this thing. Isaac is a big boy!

So my somewhat perverse Senecio serpens decides to bloom in all this. It even leaned its flower stalk into the rainy window to get a better view yesterday.

I took a sniff of those cute little yellow/white, polka-dotted flowers, and what did I smell? Florals? Cookies? Sticky toffee cake? Noooooo. STINKY FEET. Like a teenage boy's gym locker! I kid you not. So I guess at least some Senecios use the same trick as Hoodias and Amorphophallus titanum (Corpse Flower), and stink it up to attract those fun little bugs that are Nature's Cleanup Crew and go for the dead stuff. Yuck. I hate Mondays....

The Silver Spider- Senecio scaposus

There are a whole lot of Senecios out there (around 1,500), and most of them aren't even succulents! But this one, known here as "The Silver Spider" (or "Silver Coral", which is less dramatic) is my favorite.

Senecio scaposus originated in (I'll give you 2 guesses but you'll only need one!) South Africa and lives in some of the driest spots down there. It's become very popular here because it can handle our hot, beachy climate without too many problems.

The Silver Spider handles the strong sun by growing a papery covering over its young leaves. As the leaves age, the covering starts to peel, revealing some green and allowing more photosynthesis to occur. The silver "paper" reflects the sunlight so the plant neither burns nor gets too hot, kind of like how many desert dwellers wear white, thin cotton or linen clothing. Here's a closeup so it's easier to see the "paper":

 They seem to like about as much water as cacti, a good drenching once a week, and sandy cactus soil and cactus fertilizer is fine. This one is stemless, and there are several other varieties of scaposus, one without paper but with lovely lime green freckles, and one that appears more stemmy. This one is S. scaposus scaposus, and I like it very much.