Kalanchoe

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Plant Characteristics
Cultivation
Scientific Names

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Read about Kalanchoe in the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture 

Kalanchoe (from Chinese name). Crassulaceae. Sometimes spelled Calanchoe. Succulent glasshouse herbs or subshrubs, with interesting foliage and flowers.

Usually robust erect plants: lvs. opposite, fleshy, sessile or stalked, varying from entire to crenate and pinnatifid: fls. yellow, purple or scarlet, in many-fld. terminal paniculate cymes, rather large and often showy; calyx 4-parted, the narrow lobes shorter than the corolla-tube, usually falling early; corolla 4-parted and mostly spreading, the tube usually urn-shaped; stamens 8: carpels, 4.—More than 100 species, in. the Old World tropics and in S. Afr., and 1 reported from brazil. A few species are prized by amateurs. The fls. are lasting in bouquets. For the general handling of this class of plants, see Succulents; also cotyledon and crassula. They prop, readily by seeds and cuttings.


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Kalanchoe
Kalanchoe blossfeldiana
Kalanchoe blossfeldiana
Plant Info
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Saxifragales
Family: Crassulaceae
Genus: Kalanchoe
Adans.

Species
Around 125, see text.

Synonyms
Bryophyllum
Production of new individuals along a leaf margin of the air plant, Kalanchoe pinnata. The small plant in front is about 1 cm tall

Kalanchoe is a genus of about 125 species of tropical, succulent flowering plants in the Family Crassulaceae, mainly native to the Old World but with a few species in the New World.

Most are shrubs or perennial herbaceous plants, but a few are annual or biennial. The largest, K. beharensis from Madagascar, can reach 6 m tall, but most species are less than 1 m tall.

The name is sometimes written "Kalanchoë" to indicate that the final 'e' is pronounced.

Cultivation and uses

These plants are cultivated as ornamental houseplants and rock or "cactus" garden plants. They are popular because of their ease of propagation, low water requirements, and wide variety of flower colors typically borne in clusters well above the vegetative growth. The section Bryophyllum - formerly an independent genus - contains species like the "Air plant" Kalanchoe pinnata. In these, curiously, new individuals develop vegetatively at indents along the leaf, after the leaf has broken off the plant and is lying on the ground and not seldom even when it is still attached to the plant. Such young plants eventually drop off and take root.

Diseases

Main article: List of kalanchoe diseases

Selected species

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