Succulents have such peculiar looks—can you recognize this one?
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At the start of the year, I received a set of stamps a friend brought back from Hong Kong, China, featuring Australian succulents—truly an eye-opener. This set was issued on June 20, 2017, designed by Janet Boschen, a set of 4 stamps with a total face value of 4 Australian dollars. The stamps are in a realistic style, with photographic material from Australian succulent expert Attila Kapitany.
Philatelic item: "Succulents of Australia"
Attila Kapitany (left), Michele Kapitany. Both husband and wife are well-known Australian succulent experts, with over 35 years of research on Australian succulents. Their main work is "Australian Succulent Plants."
"What, Australia has succulents too?" I guess quite a few people would think that. In fact, not only does Australia have succulents, it's a severely underrated "succulent powerhouse." Herethe succulent species are rich and varied, with bizarre forms and fresh colors...In every respect, they are no less impressive than the hot spots everyone knows well, such as South Africa and Mexico. Taking this opportunity, let's talk about Australia's succulents.
Hmph, unless you're a professional, I'm afraid even 10 guesses wouldn't be enough to get it right. Forget it, stop guessing—just follow Succulent Jun and get acquainted with them.
NO.1
4-1
Face value: 1$
Calandrinia creethae
Purslane family Portulacaceae
Genus Calandrinia
Chinese translation name: Dila Hongnianghua (tentative translation)
This stamp set selected four succulents Made in Australia that look like alien creatures, using a concise and intuitive design approach to show the characteristics of the flowers and plants. Before the introduction, you definitely couldn't guess them—Crassulaceae? Euphorbiaceae? Asteraceae?
"With looks like this, they're actually related to the common purslane? You're kidding me, right?" I wouldn't dare. Just like the tall tree Averrhoa carambola (star fruit) and the low, lush Oxalis corymbosa (pink woodsorrel) in lawns are both members of the Oxalidaceae family.
This succulent currently has no formal Chinese name; the genus name Calandrinia was chosen to commemorate the Swiss scholar Jean-Louis Calandrini, and Chinese scholars translated it as "Hongnianghua genus," derived from the English name for these plants, "red maid." Combined with theirwax-drop-like leaves, for convenience of introduction, I've named them "Dila Hongnianghua."
Vivid colors. Image: Jean and Fred / Flickr
The most eye-catching thing about Dila Hongnianghua is thoseround, plump, fleshy leaves. To a food lover, this teardrop shape, bright red color, and tempting gloss are simplyjelly beans accidentally spilled on the ground by the Creator—so plump that you can't resist taking a bite. No wonder Dila Hongnianghua's English name is "Jelly Beans."
Dila Hongnianghua is an annual herbaceous plant. Their main stem is extremely short; the first layer of leaves grows flat against the ground in a ring, then several small branches extend from the center of the ring, spreading in all directions, and the small branches further divide into tiny branches, growing continuously,with a coverage area reaching up to one meter wide. The whole plant is like an alien fortress, constantly sending out armies to attack cities, conquer territory, and expand its domain—truly astonishing.
Leaves expanding their territory. Image source: northqueenslandplants.com
But most of the time, their leaves are an ordinary grass green. The stamps selected theirvividly red appearance, which onlyappears under large day-night temperature differences and ample sunlight. At this time, because chlorophyll is destroyed and decomposed, anthocyanins and carotenoids and other flower pigments gain the upper hand, so the leaf color gradually transitions from grass green to cream yellow, orange-red, until it is completely dyed a brilliant red.
Swipe left and right to see the process of turning from green to red. Image: Australia Succulents
Ifthere is insufficient light for a long time, the originally round and plump leaves will let themselves go, as if yanked hard, growing into a sprawling octopus monster that even their own mother wouldn't recognize, like this
A sudden burst of self. Image:
Their flowers are small and exquisite, with petals as thin as cicada wings and a color as pink as cherry blossoms. Whenever they bloom, specks of pink dot the desert—very beautiful.
A flowering Dila Hongnianghua. Image source: Jean and Fred / Flickr
Dila Hongnianghua is distributed in the central desert region of Western Australia, which is dry and rainless all year round. To adapt to the extreme environment, theirleaves are highly succulent, storing a large amount of water. In addition, most plants of the Calandrinia genus havethick underground roots like radishes, which not only supply water but also anchor firmly in the sandy soil, preventing them from being uprooted by fierce winds.
The underground root of Calandrinia crispisepala. Image source: Attila Kapitany / Australia Geography
These tenacious plants desperately draw water in the dry land, striving to reproduce and multiply, and also nourish other life: emu chicks peck at their leaves and rhizomes, obtaining precious water from them to get through the most vulnerable first 6 weeks of life. Not only animals—even the local Aboriginal people of Western Australia also harvest and cultivate them as a food source.
NO.2
4-2
Face value: 1$
Portulaca cyclophylla
Purslane family Portulacaceae
Genus Portulaca
Chinese translation name: Turtle-shell purslane (tentative translation)
Another strange purslane. The plant is prostrate and sprawling, with round or heart-shaped leaves, leathery and thick, fleshy and juicy. Their leaf veins are very prominent, forming irregular cracked and sunken textures,with the leaf surface slightly arched, like little turtles hiding among the gravel. For convenience of introduction, I'll temporarily call them turtle-shell purslane.
The leaf surface of turtle-shell purslane is usually grass green to dark green, and when in prime condition it approaches dark brown,quite similar to the color of the sandy soil in its place of origin, blending well with the surrounding environment to create a camouflage effect and avoid being eaten by other animals. If not for the huge, bright yellow flowers they produce, spotting them at a glance in the vast desert would sometimes not be an easy task.
Conspicuous large yellow flowers. Image: Attila Kapitany / Australia Putulaca
The underside of their leaves is fleshy and raised,densely covered with fine reticulated textures, and the leaf mesophyll tissue appearssemi-transparent pomegranate red, refracting an oily sheen in the sunlight.
Pomegranate-red fleshy leaves. Image: Attila Kapitany / Australia Putulaca
The flowers of turtle-shell purslane can reach 35mm in diameter, which counts as "huge" compared to the pinky-finger-sized leaves.The petals and stamens and pistils are all bright yellow, bringing a touch of vitality to the dark red sandy soil.
Image: Attila Kapitany / Australia Putulaca
Many succulents can be called "masters of disguise" in nature; because of their posture, shape, color, etc., they blend almost completely with the surrounding environment (gravel and stones), making them hard to tell apart. We call such plants "stone mimicry plants." These plants are mostly found in Africa and Mexico, such as the well-known Lithops, Haworthia, and Ariocarpus fissuratus. In Australia they are quite rare—most of the time, this "stone mimicry" ability is seen only in the Purslane family.
Image: Attila Kapitany / Australia Putulaca
NO.3
4-1
Face value: 1$
Tecticornia verrucosa
Amaranth family Amaranthaceae
Subfamily Salicornioideae
Genus Tecticornia
Chinese translation name: Sausage Tecticornia (tentative translation)
If even this plant can't overturn your common sense, then it has grown this bizarrely for nothing. This succulent, which looks like it would squirt juice if you bit into it, can grow into a small shrub about 60 cm tall. Their leaves are reduced, and the segments in the stamps that look smooth, tender, and cream-mint green, like "sausages," are theirhighly succulent stems, which can not only replace leaves for photosynthesis but also store a large amount of water at the same time, adapting to the extremely dry environment of their place of origin.
And the lotus-purple "pinecones" at the top of the "sausages" are actually their spike inflorescences, formed by several hard bracts arranged alternately opposite each other and tightly clasped together. As time goes on, they continue to grow to both sides. The white whiskers scattered on the bracts are their extremely tiny flowers, only about 1mm. This succulent producesseeds like millet, which are still collected by local Aboriginal people, ground into flour, and made into bread.
Image: Australian Succulent Plants
And the "peach" like part on top of the "pinecone" is their growing point. During the flowering period, the "peach" grows a short section of stem node upward, then divides new inflorescences to both sides. The inflorescences are nearly perpendicular to the stem, and are arranged decussately opposite the adjacent inflorescence below. In the middle of the inflorescence new growing points appear, and in this way they continuously grow stem nodes upward and divide inflorescences laterally; when not in the flowering period, the "peach" part continues to grow new stem nodes upward, sometimes also dividing side branches, gradually growing into a clump of small shrubs.
As they mature, the fleshy stems near the ground slowly shrink, finally leaving only dry-wood-like xylem, and at this time the whole plant also turns a verybeautiful pink-purple。
The states of Sausage Tecticornia at different growth stages. Image: Australian Succulent Plants
Sausage Tecticornia is distributed in the saline-alkali zones of Western Australia and the Northern Territory, where it is dry and rainless all year round, and almost no plants can survive. Only after the brief annual floods does this plant rapidly sprout and grow.
Sausage Tecticornia growing rapidly like an alien creature. Image source: Australian Succulent Plants
More than 30 species of the genus Tecticornia have currently been discovered, the vast majority unique to Australia, with only Tecticornia indica widespread in the tropical coastal areas around the Indian Ocean. You may also have often seen a weirdo with the scientific name Halosarcia bulbosa, which looks like steamed bun skewers from a barbecue stall—this is actually also a succulent of the genus Tecticornia. In 2007, the genus Halosarcia and three other genera (Pachycornia, Sclerostegia, Tegicornia) were all merged into the genus Tecticornia.
NO.4
4-4
Face value: 1$
Gunniopsis quadrifida
Aizoaceae
Genus Gunniopsis
Chinese translation name: Stuart's pig face (tentative translation)
Compared with the "bizarre trio" that appeared earlier, this last one seems much more ordinary. It is a perennial low shrub, much branched, often growing into a large clump. The biggest feature of this Aizoaceae succulent is itsrod-shaped fleshy leaves and star-like white flowers。
Their fleshy leaves are arranged alternately opposite each other, and with the naked eye one can distinguish ice-crystal-like blister cells containing cell sap with salt. Why is this so? Because they grow in the inland salt lakes and saline-alkali zones of central-western Australia. To adapt to the harsh environment, they close their stomata during the hot daytime, maximally suppressing transpiration to reduce water loss from the body, while excreting absorbed salt into the blister cells.
Image: Australian Succulent Plants
Unlike other Aizoaceae succulents that can produce brilliant flowers, Stuart's pig face can only produce plain white flowers, and the flowers have no distinction between petals and sepals, only a perianth composed of four lanceolate lobes, with anthers peach-red or white.This succulent is also one of the natural foods of Australian Aboriginal people, and can be eaten raw or cooked—simply Australia's "ice plant."
Image source: ExplorOz
Image: Australian Succulent Plants
In Australia, nearly 400 species of plants can be called "succulents."Of course, this is not a botanical concept; whether something is succulent or not is a consensus reached by the horticultural world. For centuries, because they were not mainstream categories circulating in the horticultural world, plus their rebellious looks and scattered, remote distribution, Australia's succulents have always been overlooked by the horticultural world. Even those professional botanists or naturalists have paid little attention to such plants.
The four succulents that had the honor of appearing on stamps this time are alsojust four little soldiers in Australia's great succulent army. More bizarre and fun species remain to be further discovered and studied. I hope that in the future, stamps on such themes can be issued as a complete collection, so that people all over the world can pay attention to and understand these Australian succulents that are comparable to alien creatures.
Australia's army of strange and varied succulents. Image: Australian Succulent Plants
After reading this, don't you super! duper! want to grow succulents? Hold on—these rare succulent varieties are not easy to grow, so let's first take good care of the common succulents. It's right in the toughest summer for succulents—how are your succulents doing?
There's no harm without comparison—first take a look at the succulents of this article's author@JinjideDuorouat home:
They're truly pink and tender, soft and adorable!
Think about your own sickly, pitifully green succulents at home - aren't you just so jealous? Why can other people's succulents look so beautiful, while your own are still struggling on the edge of life and death? Have you ever thought about it - maybe it's your care routine that's the problem!
Unlike spring and autumn,summer is the critical moment that decides whether your succulents live or die, and how to get them through it safely is a real issue. How to make them grow soft, cute and adorable is an even bigger challenge!
Figuring out solutions on your own takes forever, so why not listen tothe experience of a succulent expert! Tonight at 19:30, Calendar Girl has invited succulent expert@JinjideDuorouto explain practical tips to help succulents get through summer, plus anextra-long Q&A sessionto solve the problems everyone runs into when growing succulents.
Save your succulents - start by listening to the talk, scan the code to sign up now!
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Crassulaceae, Sedum pachyphyllum 'Ivory'