Identification: Mystery Succulent

Discussion in 'Cacti and Succulents' started by akstrach, Mar 14, 2022.

  1. akstrach

    akstrach New Member

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    Would love some time on identifying my mystery succulent! Collectively over the past year I've spent hours looking up varieties online with nothing seeming right.

    About 9 inches long, trails as is fairly heavy. Very resilient and drought tolerant, but loves regular moderate watering. The elongated fan shaped leaves are smooth and quite thick when mature, mostly growing out of the central trunk. New leaves include a reddish tinge that changes to light then dark green.
     

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  2. Eric La Fountaine

    Eric La Fountaine Contributor Forums Moderator 10 Years

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    This looks like a variant of jade plant to me (Crassula ovata). There are some cultivars with quite different leaf shape from normal.
     
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  3. wcutler

    wcutler Paragon of Plants Forums Moderator VCBF Cherry Scout 10 Years

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    Eric, I started a note to say the same, but then I noticed that the photos I was seeing of Crassula ovata had opposite leaves. This looks more like a jade plant to me than those photos did, but when I had one, I didn't know anything about leaf arrangements, and now I don't remember.
     
  4. Junglekeeper

    Junglekeeper Esteemed Contributor 10 Years

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    The mention of leaf arrangement reminded me of a past thread of a plant that looked like a jade but had opposite alternate leaves: Identification: - At last! What kind of succulent is this? It turned out to be a sedum. Perhaps this is one as well. The older leaves at the bottom of this plant appear to be more rounded than the young ones at the top which are fan-shaped. Is this true?
     
    Last edited: Mar 17, 2022
  5. wcutler

    wcutler Paragon of Plants Forums Moderator VCBF Cherry Scout 10 Years

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    Great link, Junglekeeper. I think you meant to write "but had alternate leaves". And you're the one who came up with the genus in that thread. Here's a photo of Sedum praealtum, which is what the plant in that thread was ID'd as. It has woody stems in one of the photos.
    Sedum praealtum - Cactus Jungle
     
  6. Junglekeeper

    Junglekeeper Esteemed Contributor 10 Years

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    Yes, of course. Must have been a brain fart. Error fixed.
     
  7. akstrach

    akstrach New Member

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    Thank you Eric for responding! I wondered if it could be that simple myself. It's good to know that different cultivars can vary so much
     
  8. akstrach

    akstrach New Member

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    Thank you Junglekeeper and wcutler! I had come across sedum as a possibility in my searches as well, I'll have to learn more about leaf arrangements. Truthfully, I couldn't say if the older leaves are more rounded? They tend to be somewhat shorter/closer to the stem and less leggy than the new growing leaves, but otherwise overall shape is relatively similar
     

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