English: Air Plant; Life Plant; Miracle Leaf; Goethe Plant; Mother of millions; Cathedral bells; Love bush.
Synonym: Kalanchoe pinnata; Cotyledon pinnata; Bryophyllum calycinum.
Names: Saião; Chinese: Kalan chau; Coirama, Brasil; Peru, Hoja del aire = air plant.
Indonesian: Sosor bebek.
Madagascar: Falatanantsifaona; Malainana; Rendadiaka; Sodifafana; Tsilafafa.
Philippines: Katakataka; Kataka-taka, meaning astonishing.
Region:
Madagascar; naturalized and invasive in tropical and subtropical areas, Asia, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, West Indies, Bermuda, Macaronesia, Mascarenes, Brazil, Suriname, Galapagos Islands, Melanesia, Polynesia, Hawaii.
Habitat: open settled areas, dry second-growth forests; roadsides; sunny position but tolerant of some shade; tolerant of a wide range of soils and conditions; drought tolerant; well-drained soil; on rock, in tropical evergreen and dry deciduous forests, montane forests; intolerant of frost, wet soil; from sea level to 2600 m.
Content: bufadienolide; phenanthrene; bryophillin A, bersaldegenin-3-acetate, bryophillin C; triterpenes, steroid, phenanthrene, flavonoid, flavones, chalcones, taraxasterol, aurones, phenolic acid, caffeic acid, syringic acid, malic acid, oxalic acid, ferulic acid; saponins, cicatrizant.
Culture: Goethe plant; Rudolf Steiner introduced it to Athroposophy.
Use: medicinal; ornamental, houseplant in colder areas; shampoo.
BotanyHerb; succulent; evergreen; perennial plant; 40 to 200 cm tall; spreads by small plantlets produced on the leaves; robust, tall, vigorous, difficult to eradicate, a weed.
Stem: fleshy; cylindrical; unbranched; more or less woody, especially near the base; more or less leafless when blooming..
Leaves: thick; fleshy; elliptical, curved; crenate or serrated margin; often reddish; simple at the base, imparipinnate at the top, 10 to 30 cm long; with three to five pairs of fleshy limb lobes; produce bulbils at the margin, between the teeth, producing roots, stems and leaves.
Inflorescence: terminal; panicle.
Flowers: many; pendent, red-orange, reddish.
Calyx: long tube, red at the base, veined with yellowish green or green spotted with reddish brown, with four very small triangular lobes at the end.
Corolla: tubular, with a pronounced constriction separating the subspherical part of the ovoid part, is terminated by four lobes, 5 cm long, yellowish with red-purple streaks.
Stamens, 8, ± 4 cm long, in two whorls, welded on the corolla.
Ovary: four carpels, slightly fused together in the center, slender styles.
Fruits: follicles; in the persistent calyx and corolla; ± 12 mm.
TaxonomyDescoings proposed to combine the three genera Bryophyllum, Kitchingia and Kalanchoe into the single genus Kalanchoe.
LiteratureDescoings B.; Le genre Kalanchoe (
Crassulaceae): structure et definition; J. Bot. Soc. Bot. France 33, 3-28; 2006.