The Kalanchoe
A Perfect House Plant For You
If you are living in a limited space apartment, Kalanchoe is the perfect house plant for you. It is very little maintenance in the home or in your office. They are also very attractive looking because its small colorful tiny flowers that can grow in an average 6 m tall.
Kalanchoe originated to Madagascar, an island somewhere in the Indian Ocean off to the Southeast coast of Africa. It has 125 species of its kind and belongs to the Family Crassulaceae, which widely known as succulent flowering plants. It can be grown asexually through planting its stem part.
It is considered as the leading pot crop in Europe like Germany, Denmark, Switzerland also in some other parts of Asia. Its genus name "Kalanchoe" came from Chinese and the specie name is named after Robert Glossfield, a German hybridizer who first introduced it.
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Basic Information about Kalanchoe blossfeldiana Poelln.
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Scientific Classification
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Saxifragales
Family: Crassulaceae
Genus species: Kalanchoe
Distribution: The species is found growing in the south and southeast part of the island where semi-arid conditions exist with rainfall less than 10-15 inches per year. Xerophytic plants and scrub-land typifies the vegetation in the area. The genus name, Kalanchoe, was derived from the native name for a Chinese species. The species name, blossfeldiana, was given in honor of Robert Blossfeld, a German hybridizer who in 1932 introduced it in Potsdam from its native Madagascar.
Overall: Most of the better cultivars available in the U.S. today are asexually propagated from terminal cuttings of named cultivars. The vast majority of kalanchoe growers order rooted or unrooted cuttings from specialists propagators. However, some larger growers produce stock plants for a continuous cutting supply.
General Description: Kalanchoe blossfeldiana is a glabrous, succulent herd or subshrub that may develop woody stems with age. It is native to Madagascar (between 12 and 25 latitude), a large island in the Indian Ocean off the southeast coast of Africa.
Credits: Kalanchoe - Auburn University - College of Agriculture
Watch How To Grow Kalanchoe Plants
Fun Facts:
No males have been found of one species of this genus which does flower and produce seeds, and it is commonly called, the "Mother of Thousands."