DATE: 2018-04-05
AUTHOR: John L. Godlee
y Kalanchoe delagoensis cuttings are finally propagating. After a very cold and dark winter the bits of stem and leaf are starting to produce new shoots and hopefully will continue to grow into the Summer.
I got the cuttings from ISCED, the research institute I was working at in Angola. They had one of these plants in a big pot and I'd never seen them before.
I'm really quite impressed that the little cutting survived being put in a cardboard box and jiggled about with no light for 72 hours. Also the temperature shock must have been quite intense, going from ~25C down to ~10C.
Here is a photo of what a full grown individual looks like:
One of the most interesting things about this plant, and what drew me to it when walking around ISCED was the way it propagates in the wild, with these tiny plantlets that start to grow roots sometimes even before they break off from the mother plant.
Apparently it's native to Madagascar, and is very drought tolerant, so maybe if I can adjust it to European temperatures I can keep it alive long enough so that it creates its own baby plantlets.
