Author:
Qjure
Book:
Qjurious
Type:
Info
Chapter:
3-662.11.13
Crassula expansa
Synonym: Crassula fragili.
Name: expansa means expanding, spreading; fragilis means delicate, fragile, brittle.
Region: Angola, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, Madagascar.
Habitat: on rocky slopes; humus-rich pockets in rock crevices; mostly in moist shady situations or in bush, riverine forests, or open savanna on termite mounds; altitude 50 to 1800 metres.
Use: ornamental, beautiful looking succulent.
Habitat: prefers full sun, full to partial sun; grows better outdoor; prefers a warm climate; prefers well-drained soil.
Botany
Herb; succulent; delicate; untidy; sprawling; perennial or also annual; succulent; 25 cm tall, 50 cm diameter; propagation by cuttings, leaves, offsets or seeds; vary from densely tomentose to glabrescent.
Stem: thin; red-brown; from a short woody base;
purple-brownish below, herbaceous and green above.
Leaves: green to light green, membranaceous on drying; elliptic, spathulate or obovate, always flat, narrowing into a subpetiolar base; subsessile, rarely distinctly petiolate; acute or nearly so to obtuse or rounded at the apex; fresh to pale to dark green, sometimes with a purple pattern; mostly with short stiff hairs on both faces, rarely glabrous, slightly connate at the base; hydathodes scattered over the upper leaf surface; oval; flattened discs; with fine whitish hairs; small; with hydathodes scattered on the upper surface; strongly dorsiventrally compressed to somewhat convex on both surfaces;indumentum present on stem, leaves.
Inflorescence: terminal thyrses.
Flowers: white to mottled red; tiny, small; tubular, star shaped; petals 5; blooming midsummer to fall.
growing from a short, woody base; 5-merous, white or pale pink, 2-3.5 mm long; pedicels filiform, elongating in fruit up to 30 mm; blooming from November to January.
Calyx: 1 to 3 mm long, green, hispidulous; sepals linear or linear-lanceolate, obtuse, connate at the base for 0.3-0.6 mm long.
Corolla: 2 to 3 mm long, white or pale pink, petals ovate, oblong to bovate, somewhat contracted towards the obtuse apex, smooth, with the median nerve hispid outside.
Androecium: filaments 1 to 2 mm long; anthers 0.2 to 0.5 mm long.
Gynoecium: styles to 1 mm long.
Fruits: follicles; ± 3 mm long.
Seeds: finely covered with short rough points.