What are the characteristics of Aeonium 'Zwartkop'? Let me show you how to tell Aeonium 'Zwartkop' apart
Aeonium 'Zwartkop' is a succulent plant in the genus Aeonium, family Crassulaceae. Aeonium 'Zwartkop' is a cultivated variety with beautiful and unusual leaf colour. Let us take a closer look at this plant.
The original species of Aeonium 'Zwartkop', Aeonium arboreum, comes from the Canary Islands, and Aeonium 'Zwartkop' is a cultivated variety of Aeonium arboreum. The leaves form rosette leaf discs at the ends of the stems and branches, and the leaf disc can reach 20 cm in diameter. The leaves are blackish-purple, turning green in dim light, with a small point at the leaf tip and eyelash-like hairs along the leaf margin. The flowers form large racemes, the florets are yellow, and the plant usually dies after flowering. Aeonium 'Zwartkop' likes a warm, dry and sunny environment, tolerates drought, is not cold-hardy, and tolerates slight semi-shade. It can be planted in fertile soil that drains and breathes well. It grows in the cool season and goes dormant in summer, but not for long.
Aeonium 'Zwartkop' is like a mage from World of Warcraft, with a graceful bearing and something of a Gandalf about it, and is therefore deeply loved by succulent enthusiasts. Although it is habitually called "Zwartkop", there are in fact several different varieties of "Zwartkop". They differ slightly in leaf shape, and these are the varieties we often lump together or never bother to distinguish. Flower sellers will certainly never distinguish them carefully either. It is not easy to tell them apart when you look at them separately, but put them together and the differences become easy to compare.
(Round-leaf) Aeonium 'Zwartkop': the leaves are wide and short, and the leaf shape is relatively round. The leaf surface is very flat, the overall colour leans warm, and the colour is slightly lighter.
(Pointed-leaf) Aeonium 'Zwartkop': the leaves are longer, the leaf shape is somewhat squarer, and the whole leaf is like a sharp sword. The midrib is slightly concave inward, and both sides of the leaf margin curl upward. The colour leans cool, slightly purplish, and darker.
Aeonium 'Zwartkop' 'Moy': its obvious feature is that the leaf shape is relatively slender, narrow and long. The leaf surface is flat. Among these varieties, its colour is the darkest.
Variegated Aeonium 'Zwartkop': this should be a variegated form of the round-leaf Aeonium 'Zwartkop'. It is very easy to tell apart, so I will not go into the specific details. Its leaf shape is consistent with that of the round-leaf Aeonium 'Zwartkop'.
Original species of Aeonium 'Zwartkop': this is also very easy to tell apart, as its colour is green. The margins have a red border, and the underside of the leaf also has a faint red midline. However, this should only appear under strong light.
Growth habits of Aeonium 'Zwartkop' and key care points
Aeonium 'Zwartkop' likes a warm, dry and sunny environment, tolerates drought, is not cold-hardy, and tolerates slight semi-shade. It can be planted in fertile soil that drains and breathes well. In the spring and autumn growing seasons, Aeonium 'Zwartkop' grows quite pleasingly, and its water demand is relatively high as well, especially for older stems. If you find the leaves becoming soft, that is a clear sign of water shortage, and you should water promptly. In winter it can tolerate a low temperature of 5°C; below 5°C, the leaves are prone to warming and falling off.
Aeonium 'Zwartkop' goes dormant noticeably in summer. The main signs are: leaf drop and leaves curling up into a rose shape, especially in the variants of Aeonium 'Zwartkop', such as variegated Aeonium 'Zwartkop' and the original species of Aeonium 'Zwartkop'. In the high summer heat, dormancy is very obvious, and this state will basically continue until autumn.
High temperature and high humidity in summer are the mortal enemies of Aeonium 'Zwartkop'. The first priority is ventilation, the second is to start reducing the frequency of watering, and the third is to move it to a bright spot out of direct sunlight (indoors is not recommended, as ventilation is poor!). The main sign of poor growing is dry, withered leaves, starting from the lowest ones and withering all the way up. The cause is poor root growth brought on by high temperature and high humidity. High temperature is originally the dormant period of Aeonium 'Zwartkop', but humidity pushes it to grow, forcing growth in a season unsuitable for growth, and the result is a plant barely clinging to life. Although it is not that easy to kill, it is still better not to take that risk.
The above is my summary of the characteristics of Aeonium 'Zwartkop' and everything about how to tell Aeonium 'Zwartkop' apart. I hope this article can help everyone. Please also keep following us.