Image - Wikimedia / Joe Decruyenaer
Few short plants are as pretty as the Mesembryanthemum. They have a short lifespan overall, but because they grow so fast and multiply so well, it's easy to get a gorgeous, colorful effect in the garden year after year.
The care they require is not complicated, which is why they are great to grow not only in the ground, but also in pots whenever they are exposed to the sun.
Origin and characteristics of Mesembryanthemum
Image - Wikimedia / Ies
Our protagonists are annual, biennial or perennial succulent plants native to southern Africa and native to both the continent and other regions of Asia and Europe, generally prostrate in habit. They are popularly known as frosty, mesem, silver flower, frosty grass, dew, frosty, or silver.
The leaves are usually opposite, rarely alternate on floriferous stems, flat or semicircular covered with papillae. They bloom during the spring and, above all, the summer, with solitary flowers or in cymes, axillary or opposite to the leaves, pink, lilac, orange or yellow. The fruit is a capsule inside which we will find small and globose seeds of a dark color, usually brown.
Main species
The most popular are:
Mesembryanthemum crystallinum
Image - Wikimedia / Chmee2
It is a plant native to Africa, Western Asia and Europe that has broad, very papilous and green leaves that turn reddish or purple in summer. The flowers are white or pink, with a diameter of 3 centimeters.
Mesembryanthemum nodiflorum
Image - Wikimedia / Ies
Known as algazul, cosco, cofe-cofe or gazul, it is an annual crass plant native to the coasts of Spain, the island of Alboran, the Canary Islands and North Africa. The leaves are sub-cylindrical, papilous, green at first and turning purple later. The flowers are solitary, white.
How are they cared for?
To take care of these plants, you just need to know the following:
Location
It is important that they are in an area where direct sunlight hits them, since otherwise they will not grow well.
Earth
Image - Flickr / Arnold Unterholzner
- Flower pot: fill with universal substrate (for sale No products found.) mixed with perlite (for sale No products found.) in equal parts.
- Garden: You can plant them in the garden if the soil has good drainage. If it did not have it, you would not have to worry either because making a hole of about 50 x 50cm, covering its sides with shading mesh and then filling it with the substrate mentioned before you will not have problems. You can even put a first layer of clay (on sale No products found.) or volcanic clay (for sale No products found.) if you want the drainage to be even better.
Irrigation
Moderate to low. During the summer it will be necessary to water about 2, perhaps 3 times a week, but the rest of the year it will be enough once a week or every ten days.
In any case, do not wet the leaves or flowers as they could burn and / or rot.
Subscriber
From early spring to late summer it is necessary to fertilize the frosty with a specific fertilizer for succulents (cacti and succulents) liquid (for sale No products found.) following the indications specified on the product packaging.
It is important not to overdo the dose, since otherwise its roots will burn and you could lose the plant.
Multiplication
Image - Flickr / Boobook48
Mesembryanthemum are succulent plants that multiply by seeds and cuttings in spring-summer. Let us know how to proceed in each case:
Seeds
- First, fill a pot with drainage holes with universal substrate mixed with equal parts perlite.
- Then water conscientiously.
- Then, place the seeds on the surface of the substrate, ensuring that they are as far apart as possible.
- Then cover them with a very thin layer of substrate, and water again.
- Lastly, place the pot outside, in full sun.
Keeping the substrate moist (but not waterlogged), they will germinate in about two to four weeks.
Cuttings
It is the fastest way to get new copies. For it You simply have to cut a non-flowering stem with some leaves, and plant it (not nail it) in a pot about 8,5cm or 10,5cm in diameter with universal substrate and pearlite, or if you prefer pumice or akadama. Put it outside, in semi-shade.
If you water from time to time, it will root in a week or ten days.
Planting or transplanting time
In spring, when the risk of frost has passed.
Plagues and diseases
They are very resistant. The only potential enemies they have are the molluscs (snails and slugs), and fungi when overwatered. The former can be treated and even repelled with diatomaceous earth, but in the case of fungi, you have to control the watering a lot and never wet the leaves.
Rusticity
It depends on the species, but in general they resist frosts of up to -4ºC. If you have any doubts, write to us  .
Image - Wikimedia / Karen Pagel
What do you think of the Mesembryanthemum?