42 replies to this topic

[Andreas Eils]

Hi Chris,

the plants on the left side of the second 'Zorros' picture fit well to the name imho. The other ones look like usual Dorotheae. One in the upper middle of the first "Zorro" picture look a lot like my plant with the huge windows above.

The 'Zorros' are quite nice.


Andreas

Edited by Andreas Eils, 02 May 2011 - 14:55 PM.

[CactusChris]

Hi Yes - he calls it a protocultivar, it is still being stabilised so there are many 'normal' plants among the seedlings.

best regards
chris

[Carni]

Hi, what did you do to them ? They are dividing in some strange leaves, aren't they ? Excepted the 'Zorro'.

The second seedling looks very interesting, do you see any changes when they are getting their new skin ? It's amazing the differences we have in a seedling of seeds coming from the same plant !

[CactusChris]

Hi Carni,
The wierd ones are grown just alongside all the others. Once in a blue moon one sees these oddities and so very few are stable yet they are interesting. The dorothea has had more lobes than in the picture, the num,bers vary, and the multipunctata makes some multilobed heads, but not all. I also have a conophytum (bilbum I think) that reasonably makes 3 lobed heads, then it is followed by 3 two lobed heads - interesting.

best regards
chris

[Andreas Eils]

The show goes on:



Lithops hallii v. hallii C 22




Lithops gesinae v. annae C 78

You know something? I find the surface of my new substrate fits much better to the plants than the white-greyish pumice!



Lithops pseudotruncatella cv. "mundtii" C 99




Lithops julii ssp. fulleri v. fulleri C 161




Lithops julii ssp. fulleri v. fulleri C 122




Something green in between:   Lithops marmorata v. marmorata C 305




Lithops lesliei ssp. lesliei v. venteri C 47




Lithops lesliei ssp. burchellii C 308




Lithops lesliei ssp. lesliei v. venteri C 153 (syn. maraisii)




Lithops lesliei ssp. lesliei v. hornii C 364 seedling

[Andreas Eils]

And on....



Lithops karasmontana ssp. bella C 108




Lithops karasmontana ssp. bella C 108

I have four specimens of this subspecies. All of them look almost completely different!




Lithops vallis-mariae C 282 seedling




Lithops verruculosa v. verruculosa C 95 (syn. inae)




Lithops verruculosa v. verruculosa C 229B

Can you imagine I like these warts?


If you are finally sick of Lithops please let me know and I stop posting pics of them!


Regards

Andreas

[James O'Neill]

They are some of the weirdest plants. How, may I ask, do they reproduce? I saw you posted a picture of seedlings before, so seed is an obvious option. But do they divide, leaf cuttings, root cuttings, tc...?

[TheInactiveMoth]

Okay, they're cool and I like them, but I think that they can also look a bit disgusting at times.....
Don't worry, I still like them!

[Andreas Eils]

Hello James,

many plants divide when older and over the years form multiheaded cluster. I can show pictures of my L. otzenianas which have all doubled in the number of heads. But the process of renewing isn´t finished yet, so the "Otzenianas" have to wait for being photographed. :) You can propagate them by dividing such clusters. But never divide a single head which has only TWO lobes. It will die! All other kinds of cuttings which usually work well with CPs fail with Lithops. Dividing multiheaded clusters is the only vegetative method of propagation. The other (generative) is raising them from seed which takes a couple years (3 - 6) until you have a mature plant. Raising Lithops from seed is actually quite easy.

Yes, when the colours of the old lobes fade in late autumn and the lobes start to shrivel in December they don´t look that beautiful. They are best in summer and early autumn I think. The new lobes are smaller then the old ones at this time of the year. The new lobes have to grow during summer and autumn. In autumn Lithops usually flower.

Cheers

Andreas

[dchasselblad74]

Strangely beautiful plants....

[-Xeno-]

Very impressive plants, they have an amazing variety of patterns.

[Amar]

Very interesting plants indeed. But do they eat insects? No? HA!

[Andreas Eils]

Amar, on 12 May 2011 - 06:50 AM, said:

But do they eat insects? No? HA!

I´ll see if I can train them to also catch and eat insects!  


Andreas

[Andreas Eils]

Okay, a last update: Some more plants with new lobes!

On page one my L. dinteri ssp. multipunctata caused a discussion as it looked not typical for a Dinteri someone said. Maybe this one does more appropriately?



Lithops dinteri ssp. fredericii - C 180




Lithops helmutii - C 271




Lithops dorotheae - C 124




Lithops dorotheae - C 300




Lithops karasmontana ssp. bella - C 285




Lithops terricolor - C 346 (syn. localis)




Lithops otzeniana - C 128




Lithops otzeniana acf. 'Aquamarine' - C 128A (acf. = aberrant colour form)




Lithops otzeniana - C 280




Lithops otzeniana - C 350




Lithops marmorata var. marmorata - C 365 (syn. framesii)






Lithops optica acf. 'Rubra' - C 287




Lithops salicola - C 351


Thanks for watching!

Bye

Andreas

[maxxima]

Oh WOW! I love these! I think I may get addicted soon. I especially love the ones in the end, the ones resembling brain. Also Verruculosa is very very interesting!

[Andreas Eils]

Hi there again, Anıl!

Yes, I though the same when looking closer to the surface of the Lithops salicola C 351.

Sadly almost ALL of the nice Lithops I´ve shown here are DEAD now! They grow fine for me for about six months and then suddenly I slide into a catastrophy!

I was called a "troll" in a German cacti forum because I shew some of my nice Lithops and then just ten days or so later I numbly reported of the sudden decay of many of them! That ironically was the result of following the advices of professional growers! Take deep containers when you grow Lithops and take pure pumice as medium. *Hahahahahaha!*

The reason was very simple: Indoors there is not so much air movement then outside or in a greenhouse and composts dry out much slowlier. I used a 16 cm deep balcony box to put my Lithops in all together --> "Lithops are best grown in company!" Of course; they can easily feel lonely!
After six weeks first bodies suddenly collapsed! I knew I have to water sparsely! The surface was bonedry. The upper 7 cm were bonedry, but the lower 9 cm were still moist and the roots of the Lithops have intensely expanded - taking all the available space! And you know: As long as there is moisture Lithops and other Mesembs suck it in. Finally some plants burst and others rot!

The plants I´ve posted here have mainly died after my application of grain alcohol against spider mites!

The "Otzenianas" are all dead except acf. "Aquamarine". And to my very surprise Lithops optica acf. "Rubra" C 287 and C 81A - which are reported to be extremely picky - have survived the grain alcohol attack!

Strange world but I´m happy about that fact sometimes!

Best regards

Andreas

Edited by Andreas Eils, 14 September 2011 - 14:24 PM.

[mobile]

I only grow one Lithop, which I thought I had lost in spring. It had produced its skin; however, after many many weeks it showed no sign of opening. I had been told not to water until the skin had cracked open but figured that the plant had died anyway so decided to give it a watering. Within a day of doing so the skin had split and this is it today:

Pseudotruncatella C70

[Andreas Eils]

Hi Carl,

looking very good! Where do you grow it? You surely own a greenhouse, don´t you? ;-) I have two C 70 one year old seedlings which seem to have survived my grain alcohol application.

I first really believed I´ll lose ALL of my Lithops even including all of my self sown seedlings. D. naureeniae has reacted the most sensitive onto this unintended alcohol intoxication! It doesn´t look that bad anymore for all species and I am happy especially the Coleorums recover, but who knows. Lithops can suddenly collapse months later from trouble.

Actually its correct to start watering again when the old lobes have shrivelled to a skin and new lobes are visible and have broken through the cleft between the two old lobes. Not every specimen behaves normally though. And there are some species or varieties like L. optica and particularly acf. "Rubra" which cannot take bone dry soil for a longer period.

There are so many nice things beside CPs... But sometimes I believe growing CPs was in fact the easiest for me compared to other botanical treasures!

Kind regards

Andreas

[mobile]

Hi Andreas,

This one lives on a sunny windowsill. It was a sort of 'unwanted' plants, as I wanted to purchase another succulent from a supplier who had a minimum order value, so to reach that value I added the Lithop. I have since grown quite fond of it though I'm sorry to read that you lost plants... maybe you should add some cola to the vodka next time

[Andreas Eils]

Damn, why didn´t I think of that before? COLA! Cola contains a lot of artificial food additives such as E 322, E 144 and E 605! The last one is reported to be able to kill insects. E 605 combined with Vodka...I have just to find out the correct mix ratio...

Cheers!

Andreas