By T. Eric Nightingale, UC Master Gardener of Napa County
I have recently become interested in the plant family Aizoaceae. It is a positively huge family, consisting of many sub-families. The plants under the Aizoaceae umbrella are mostly of the low-lying, groundcover type. For this reason, they are sometimes known as carpet weeds, although I have more commonly heard them called ice plants.
Some members of this family are small, almost rock-like, in appearance. These plants are informally known as mesembs, a nickname derived from Mesembryanthemoideae, one of the Aizoaceae sub-families. The plants we casually call mesembs are not all members of this sub-family, however.
Mesembs are truly unique and curious plants. They are relatively small, with a variety of odd shapes, colors and textures.
One type of mesemb you may recognize are the so-called stone plants, or Lithops. Lithops do in fact resemble the rocks among which they live, providing them with useful camouflage. They are native to arid southern Africa, where they survive on little water.
Lithops have evolved to hide from thirsty animals, as well as to better store their water. They do this by growing mostly underground, the tops of their leaves almost flush with the surface of the earth. This way, they are easily overlooked by predators and also shield themselves from much of the day's sun and heat.
The tops of their leaves are flattened and semi-translucent, allowing light to enter the inside of the plant, where it is used for photosynthesis. What a truly amazing adaptation.
Mesembs of the genus Aloinopsis are some of my personal favorites. The stubby leaves on these plants have odd, bumpy dots on them. The result is either a jeweled look or something resembling the texture of a dog's nose. To me they have always looked somewhat alien, as if they initially evolved among the rocks of Martian hillsides.
When planted among other succulents in a garden, Aloinopsis may easily be overlooked. This modesty changes in winter, however, when they flower. The yellow, orange or pink blooms shine vibrantly in the sun and are truly eye-catching. While they are generally similar to daisies in shape, the stamens of these flower form a cone at their center—another way that Aloinopsis is an attractive oddity.
Another of my favorite mesembs is Oscularia deltoides. It is a sprawling groundcover, almost vine-like. I like to plant it at the edge of a pot, letting it spill over. The leaves are an attractive blend of gray, blue and green and contrast nicely with the slightly reddish stems.
When I first saw O. deltoides I did a double-take, asking myself what I had just seen. The triangular, toothed shape of the leaves made it look more like a crystalline growth of some sort rather than a plant. I have also heard it compared to coral, a resemblance easy to see when it becomes large.
This mesemb is possibly one of the easiest to grow. In my experience it needs little water and seems to revel in hot sun. During the spring, when the plant is practically covered in pink blooms, it quickly becomes the focal point of the garden.
By now everyone in California has heard of the benefits of drought-tolerant gardening. Succulents do double-duty, however, in that they are also ideal for fire-wise landscaping.
As they are especially squat and water-retentive, mesembs are an ideal addition to any California garden. While some gardeners consider them more challenging to care for than other succulents, that's only because they have different needs.
Most mesembs have a short dormant period, either in winter or summer, when they need almost no water. If you water them then as you do the rest of the year, they may rot. They generally like a lot of sunlight but some are prone to burning if exposed to late-afternoon sun. And of course, as with other succulents, mesembs need loose soil with good drainage.
Once you get to know your plant, care is easy and maintenance is fairly low. All you have to do is relax and appreciate what these unique succulents bring to your garden.
Free Talk: UC Master Gardeners will discuss “Growing Summer Vegetables” at the Napa Public Library on Thursday, March 7, from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. Learn what you can grow in the summer, what to plant and when, and how to have a harvest all summer long. No registration required.
Workshop: The U. C. Master Gardeners of Napa County will present a workshop on “Growing Spring and Summer Vegetables” on Saturday, March 9, from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., at the University of California Cooperative Extension, 1710 Soscol Avenue, Napa. Do you want nutritious, easy-to grow and utterly fresh food from your garden this spring and summer? Learn what the garden needs to successfully produce spring and summer vegetables from seeds and plant starts. In addition to growing basics and hands-on activities, this program includes watering, fertilizing and harvesting tips, with a dash of Integrated Pest Management for pest and disease control. The delight of growing your own groceries is matched only by savoring them at harvest. Online registration (credit card only); Mail-in/Walk-in registration (check only or drop off cash payment).
Workshop: The U. C. Master Gardeners of Napa County will present a workshop on “Summer Vegetables” on Sunday, March 10, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., at Yountville Community Center, 6516 Washington Street, Yountville. Get tips for growing your own summer vegetables. Learn some basics, get keys to success, and do hands-on activities to learn about new varieties and review old favorites. Enjoy healthy vegetables taken straight from your garden to your table. The delight of growing your own vegetables is matched by savoring them at harvest. Online registration or telephone the Parks & Recreation Department at 707-944-8712.
- Author: JoEllen P Myslik
Succulents, ahhh succulents … the subject of my final presentation for my Master Gardener certification. It seemed like such a simple straight-forward topic. But once my ‘presentation partner’ and I started delving into details, it became quite clear that it is a very HUGE and broad topic! So then our task became, “how do we narrow this down to focus on something informative and interesting?”
So after much research, including nearly every book about the broad subject of succulents (or at least it felt that way!), we decided to provide an overview of the 3 types and then show examples of each type – focusing on one in particular, the seemingly ‘most popular’ or certainly prevalent in this area, the stonecrop family.
I will begin by quoting from a document provided by the Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek:
Succulents. Almost everyone is familiar with the term. Yet questions such as “is that Aloe a member of the succulent family?” reveal basic misconceptions on the part of many people as to just what a succulent is. The core of the problem here is that the term “succulent” is merely a descriptive term and not a scientific classification. Thus any plant that has evolved swollen water-storing tissues as a protection against desiccation is succulent by definition, regardless of what family it belongs to. A few families, such as the Crassulaceae (the stonecrop family, which includes plants such as the Hen-and-Chicks and jade trees) are composed entirely of succulents. But in many other cases, succulence occurs only in certain groups of a family of largely non-succulent plants.
The three types of succulents are leaf, stem and root, and as you might surmise from above (or perhaps already know), the plants store water in each of these areas, and in some cases two areas. An example of this is the jade tree, which is both a leaf succulent and a root succulent. And as you can see in the picture above, succulents come in all shapes and colors, which can add a lot of beauty to your garden or landscape.
I think one of the biggest lessons that we learned in researching this topic is that succulents are extremely forgiving and are therefore a great choice for any gardener … beginning gardeners will love the ease of planting them (break off a piece from your neighbor’s beautiful plant — with their permission of course! — and just put that right into the ground), and seasoned gardeners will appreciate their beauty and variety. Plus in these times of water-wise landscaping everyone will appreciate the fact they don’t require a lot of water very often. So, whether around your property or in pots, my research shows that succulents are nearly a perfect planting option!
Oh, but a word of caution, don’t be fooled by these beauties below as I almost was …. the invasive Ice Plant of the Aizoaceae Family. This plant offers a variety of beautiful flowers, tolerates blazing sun and spreads quickly, but the latter is exactly why you should avoid it! It will take over your entire yard, so buyers beware!