Succulent Sunday: Mammillaria hernandezii,

These small hemispheres... these tiny Mexico cacti, Mammillaria hernandezii... these jewels of the Oaxacan desert -- imagine them in full, purple bloom. Imagine violet flowers rising, expanding until they rival the whole mother plant. Forget the flowers... look at the spines! arrayed like dozens of harmless, strange, multi-legged creatures which have been killed, bleached, and hot-glued upside-down on deep-green mounds.

Mammillaria hernandezii,  strange desert jewel

Succulent Sunday: Plants That Look Like Pebbles

Pachyphytum oviferum (left) and Graptopetalum amethystinum 

Look at these turquoise and pink pastels! These soft colors belong to a pair of living confectionary, species of Graptopetalum and Pachyphytum, which are members of Crassulaceae or the Stonecrop Family. They look almost edible, but these plants are treats for the eyes, not the mouth. Their thick leaves and soft stems evolved to store moisture as a hedge against drought and high daytime temperatures in their native Mexico. Part of the charm of these plants is the powdery (in botany, pruinose) coating on the leaves, which unfortunately is also easily smudged -- shown by the fingerprints on this G amethystinum.

Besides Pachyphytum and Graptopetalum, Mexico has several more genera of succulents which are all closely related, and are all capable of interbreeding or hybridizing: Echeveria, Sedum, and Cremnophila. Similar but more distant relatives include the common "Jade Plant", Crassula ovata, originally from South Africa and grown as a houseplant worldwide. 

MadProfessah says, "I just like them because they're pretty."

[This is the first guest post by Sentient Meat, known elsewhere on The Mad Professah Lectures as "The Other Half".]