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Cotyledon | |
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Cotyledon orbiculata (grey variety) | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Order: | Saxifragales |
Family: | Crassulaceae |
Subfamily: | Kalanchoideae |
Genus: | Cotyledon Tourn. ex L. 1753 |
Species | |
See text |
Cotyledon is one of some 35 genera of succulent plants in the family Crassulaceae. Mostly from Southern Africa, they also occur throughout the drier parts of Africa as far north as the Arabian Peninsula. Ten of its species are mostly confined to South Africa, where unlike Tylecodon , they occur commonly in both the winter and summer rainfall regions. [1] They may be found on coastal flats and rocky hillsides, or as cremnophytes on cliff faces. Their decussate, evergreen leaves are very variable in shape, even within some species, but the flowers are, apart from colour, very similar. [1]
Members of the genus are shrublets, generally succulent, with fleshily woody, brittle stems and persistent succulent leaves. [2] [3]
The leaves are opposite. Leaf pairs generally are oriented at 90 degrees to their preceding and following pairs, as is common in the family Crassulaceae, but the leaf habit differs from say Tylecodon (in which the leaves are borne in spirals and are deciduous).
The flowers are pendulous and tubular, borne at the tips of stout, rather long peduncles, mainly in short cymes. Calyx 5-partite, corolla 5-lobed. Petals united in a tube or urn that generally is longer than broad, their triangular tips more or less pointed and recurved, 10 stamens arising from corolla near base and projecting or nearly projecting from the corolla. Gynoecium comprises 5 carpels, nearly or quite free, each carpel tapering into a slender style with an obliquely capitate stigma. Each carpel contains many small (typically less than 1 milligramme when ripe) globular, brown seeds.
Together with Tylecodon , Kalanchoe and Adromischus it forms a sister clade to the family's basal Crassula clade. [1] Until the 1960s some 150 species were included in the genus Cotyledon, [4] but subsequently it was split into at least Adromischus , Dudleya , Rosularia , and Tylecodon , leaving probably less than two dozen species in Cotyledon. [5] Of these, about four are characteristically fynbos plants. [6]
Most plants in the genus, and those that used to be included in the genus Cotyledon, are poisonous, even dangerously so. Some have been implicated in stock losses among goats, pigs and poultry. However, many species have long been used in traditional medicine. They have been applied for many purposes, ranging from magic charms to removal of corns. [7]
Cotyledon spp. are grown as garden and indoor subjects, practically independent of irrigation in all but full desert conditions, though they cannot survive poor light or bad drainage. Pests that affect them include sucking bugs, members of the suborder Auchenorrhyncha such as the mealy bug ( Pseudococcus ), and similar insects. The inflorescences of the larger species are sometimes used as components of dried arrangements in floral design.
Species include (among others):
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The Crassulaceae, also known as the stonecrop family or the orpine family, are a diverse family of dicotyledon flowering plants characterized by succulent leaves and a unique form of photosynthesis, known as Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM). Flowers generally have five floral parts. Crassulaceae are usually herbaceous but there are some subshrubs, and relatively few treelike or aquatic plants. Crassulaceae are a medium size monophyletic family in the core eudicots, among the order Saxifragales, whose diversity has made infrafamilial classification very difficult. The family includes approximately 1,400 species and 34–35 genera, depending on the circumscription of the genus Sedum, and distributed over three subfamilies. Members of the Crassulaceae are found worldwide, but mostly in the Northern Hemisphere and southern Africa, typically in dry and/or cold areas where water may be scarce, although a few are aquatic.
KalanchoeKAL-ən-KOH-ee, also written Kalanchöe or Kalanchoë, is a genus of about 125 species of tropical, succulent flowering plants in the family Crassulaceae, mainly native to Madagascar and tropical Africa. Kalanchoe was one of the first plants to be sent into space, sent on a resupply to the Soviet Salyut 1 space station in 1979. Kalanchoe requires direct sunlight although it can survive with bright indirect sunlight. It only needs to be watered when the soil is completely dry.
Dudleya is a genus of succulent perennial plants, consisting of about 68 species in southwestern North America.
Pachypodium baronii, the Madagascar palm or bontaka, is a flowering plant in the family Apocynaceae. It has the habit of a robust shrub with a spherical or bottle-shaped trunk. It has several cylindrical branches at the top.
Pachypodium bicolor is a species of plant in the family Apocynaceae.
Pachypodium brevicaule is a species of plant that belongs to the family Apocynaceae.
Calyceraceae is a plant family in the order Asterales. The natural distribution of the about sixty species belonging to this family is restricted to the southern half of South-America. The species of the family resemble both the family Asteraceae and the Dipsacaceae.
Adromischus is a genus of flowering plants. They are easily propagated leaf succulents from the family Crassulaceae, which are endemic to southern Africa. The name comes from the ancient Greek adros (=thick) and mischos (=stem).
Cotyledon orbiculata, commonly known as pig's ear or round-leafed navel-wort, is a South African succulent plant belonging to the genus Cotyledon.
Tylecodon is a genus of succulent plants in the family Crassulaceae, native to southern Africa.
Kalanchoe pinnata, formerly known as Bryophyllum pinnatum, also known as the air plant, cathedral bells, life plant, miracle leaf, and Goethe plant is a succulent plant native to Madagascar, which is a popular houseplant and has become naturalized in tropical and subtropical areas. It is distinctive for the profusion of miniature plantlets that form on the margins of its phylloclades, a trait it has in common with some other members of Bryophyllum.
Cotyledon tomentosa is a species of flowering plant in the family Crassulaceae, native to South Africa. It is a succulent evergreen shrub with large chunky ovate fuzzy green leaves. Its autonymous subspecies is known as the bear's paw because of the prominent "teeth" at the tips of its leaves. It forms large orange bell-shaped flowers in spring. In its native habitat, the Little Karoo region of South Africa, cotyledons usually grow in rocky quartz fields where they have excellent drainage provided by very porous soil.
Acanthopale pubescens is a species of the genus Acanthopale of the family Acanthaceae. The species occurs in East and Southern Africa. Acanthopale pubescensis also known as Herayye in Ethiopia.
Tylecodon buchholzianus is a species of succulent plant in the genus Tylecodon belonging to the family Crassulaceae.
Umbilicus schmidtii is a flowering plant in the family Crassulaceae. The species is endemic to Cape Verde. It is listed as endangered by the IUCN.
Adromischus cooperi is a species of succulent plant from the family Crassulaceae. The genus name Adromischus comes from ancient Greek adros and mischos, and the species name from James Graham Cooper, an American naturalist and surgeon. The plant is endemic to the Eastern Cape of South Africa.
Kalanchoe longiflora, also known as tugela cliff-kalanchoe or long-flower kalanchoe, is a species of the succulent genus Kalanchoe, in the family Crassulaceae. An obscure shrub native to South Africa, it is known for its multi-coloured foliage and yellow flowers, which bloom in autumn to winter.
Plectranthus hadiensis is a perennial herbaceous plant of the family Lamiaceae.
Kalanchoe sexangularis, also known as bushveld kalanchoe, six-angled kalanchoe, or red-leaved kalanchoe, is a species of the succulent genus Kalanchoe, in the family Crassulaceae that is native to Southern Africa.