![]() They are commonly known as Button Plants, Cone Plants, Dumplings, or Living Pebbles. The species are native to South Africa and southern Namibia, typically found in the arid and semi-arid winter rainfall areas. The name "Mesemb" is derived from the old family name Mesembryanthemaceae, now placed in Aizoaceae. ![]() From then on mistings can be reduced to every second and then every third day as the little plants grow.Conophytum is a genus of about 110 succulents that belong to the group of plants called Mesembs. Remove the glass and replace it with light shadecloth and mist once or twice a day for the next two weeks after which most seeds should have germinated. For the first 3-4 days cover the pots with a sheet of glass/clear perspex to keep the humidity levels high. Cover the seeds with a very fine layer of grit and water from below with a fungicide to prevent damping off. The small seeds can be sown in pots of fine, well-drained sand, any time during the spring and summer months when temperatures are warm. Each cutting must contain one or more heads along with a fraction of root. Take the cutting from a grown-up mother plant. Propagation: It can be reproduced both by cuttings and seeds. Pests and diseases: It is vulnerable to mealybugs and rarely scale. This plant may stay in the same pot for many years. It thrives in poor soils and need a limited supplies of fertilizer to avoid the plants developing excess vegetation, which is easily attacked by fungal diseases.Įxposure: Keep cool and shaded in summer, it needs full sun or light shade. Remarks: Conophytum calculus, start to produce obvious wrinkles when they need a drink and they can be used as marker plants to determine when the collection needs water.įertilization: Feed it once during the growing season with a fertilizer specifically formulated for cactus succulents (poor in nitrogen), including all micro nutrients and trace elements diluted to ½ the strength recommended on the label. Water regularly in winter after the previous year's leaves have dried up. Water minimally in summer, (only when the plant starts shrivelling), but it will generally grow even in summer if given water. ![]() Watering: It requires little water otherwise its epidermis breaks (resulting in unsightly scars). ![]() It can grows outdoor in sunny, dry, rock crevices (protection against winter wet is required) It can also be cultivated in alpine house, in poor, drained soil. Requires good drainage as it it is prone to root rot. All the forms of Conophytum calculus are easy to grow. To experience the fully opened bloom however, a night visit is required, as these heavily scented flowers are nocturnal to attract moth pollinators.Ĭultivation and Propagation: Conophytum calculus is a "winter" grower which is most active from late winter until later spring and heading for summer dormancy. Petals deep yellow or yellow-orange with brownish tips.īlooming season: In autumn, Conophytum calculus displays its flower from the ‘button hole’. During the summer season, plants aestivate and the body is gradually replaced by a new young pair of leaves.įlowers: Up to 12 mm in diameter. Habit: Plants forming more or less wide and compact mats up to 15 cm diameter with age.īodies (paired leaves): Nearly perfectly spherical to somewhat laterally flattened, about 16-20 mm high and rather more across (up to 24 mm Ø), with only a tiny a cleft about 4 mm across, chalky greyish green, pale blue-green or purple blue in colour, without dark dots or stripes (rarely with very scanty spots) and sometimes ribbed. It is obvious that the greater the reduction of the surface area, the greater the drought to which the plant is subjected in its native habitat. They are often called pebble or button plants as a result. Like Siamese twins, the single leaf-pair of a plant has become so closely fused together as to look like a pale-green globe. Note: Conophytum calculus, and others related globular-bodied species, represent the end of the line of development of Conophytums. It is indeed quite variable in size with small to large bodied forms. It is one of the most popular species of the genus (perhaps the most plentiful of all species) and easily recognizable by its spherical heads without dark dots or stripes. Description: The marble buttons ( Conophytum calculus) is a great looking, globular-bodied Conophytum, which forms clumps and yellow flowers.
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