shiapep
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What type of plant is this...?

I bought this plant at Lowe's, and it's labeled as an anacampseros rufescens. I read about those plants and began to care for him as instructed, but he didn't seem to be doing well. So, I looked him up again to try to figure out what was wrong and came across pictures of anacampseros rufescens. They're quite not what he looks like. Can any one tell me (or help me figure out) what he is?

This is a picture of him, when I first got him. I hope the link works.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1497417&l=a7651e0ddc&id=1105277822

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Kisal
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It looks like Anacampseros rufescens to me, although I'm not sure of the state of its health. (It's definitely one of the Anacapseros genus, if not necessarily A. rufescens. I think they all require pretty much the same care.) How much water do you give it, and what kind of light does it get? I can't be sure just from the picture, but it looks like it might have been over watered. Have the leaves been falling off?

They like full morning sun, but need some protection from the hotter midday and afternoon sun. They are also not a plant for cold weather, nor do they like heat, requiring good air circulation. It looks like yours is indoors, so temperatures shouldn't be too much of a concern, unless you put it right up next to the window glass.

Growth slows down in the fall and winter, which means they need even less water. It would like a cool room (about 50º F), and just enough water to keep the leaves from shriveling. It needs very well-drained, gritty soil, with a pH around 7. Any good commercial cactus/succulent mix should work fine.

Another member has been growing these from seeds, after their plant flowered. They might be able to give you some good advice, too. :)

shiapep
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Kisal wrote:It looks like Anacampseros rufescens to me, although I'm not sure of the state of its health. (It's definitely one of the Anacapseros genus, if not necessarily A. rufescens. I think they all require pretty much the same care.) How much water do you give it, and what kind of light does it get? I can't be sure just from the picture, but it looks like it might have been over watered. Have the leaves been falling off?

They like full morning sun, but need some protection from the hotter midday and afternoon sun. They are also not a plant for cold weather, nor do they like heat, requiring good air circulation. It looks like yours is indoors, so temperatures shouldn't be too much of a concern, unless you put it right up next to the window glass.

Growth slows down in the fall and winter, which means they need even less water. It would like a cool room (about 50º F), and just enough water to keep the leaves from shriveling. It needs very well-drained, gritty soil, with a pH around 7. Any good commercial cactus/succulent mix should work fine.

Another member has been growing these from seeds, after their plant flowered. They might be able to give you some good advice, too. :)
I took this picture when I first got him. Now, he's bent over, which I guess is the only real problem. He tilts towards the sun, which usually leave him swayed left or right, but now he's actually bowed.

What I read about care said to water him thoroughly when the soil is dry, so I've been doing that. I used fertilizer in his water (what I read said to fertilize him in late Summer and early Spring), and I diluted the fertilizer to half of what was instructed, since that's also what I read I should do.

He has been on the windowsill all day. Maybe that's the problem. He was fine before I moved on campus, sitting near the window all the time, though. I pulled him away from the window yesterday because I was worried and that was the only thing that I could think to do.

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Kisal
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How long do you wait between waterings? If the leaves are dropping off, that can be a sign of either too much or not enough water.

What method do you use to water it? If watering too frequently isn't the problem, then it's possible that the core of the root ball isn't getting any water.

It looks like it's in a cache pot. Am I seeing that right? The plant and the pot it's actually growing in must be removed from the cache pot before you water the plant. Then allow all excess water to thoroughly drain away, before you replace it in the cache pot.

Actually, I wouldn't use a cache pot for a succulent. I'd plant the plant directly in an unglazed ceramic pot, preferable terra cotta. That would allow the roots to breathe better, and the soil would dry out more quickly. JMO.

shiapep
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Kisal wrote:How long do you wait between waterings? If the leaves are dropping off, that can be a sign of either too much or not enough water.

What method do you use to water it? If watering too frequently isn't the problem, then it's possible that the core of the root ball isn't getting any water.

It looks like it's in a cache pot. Am I seeing that right? The plant and the pot it's actually growing in must be removed from the cache pot before you water the plant. Then allow all excess water to thoroughly drain away, before you replace it in the cache pot.

Actually, I wouldn't use a cache pot for a succulent. I'd plant the plant directly in an unglazed ceramic pot, preferable terra cotta. That would allow the roots to breathe better, and the soil would dry out more quickly. JMO.
I usually wait until the soil looks and feels dry, then water it so that the soil is completely moistened again. None of the leaves have been falling off, though.

I didn't know there were different methods to watering... :/ I just pour some water in and wait for it to sink down.
Usually, I water him in the cache pot, but hold him up so that the water can drain, and dump the water before putting him back. How big of a terra cotta pot would you recommend, though? If that's what's best, then that's what I want to get him.

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Kisal
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If you want to repot in an unglazed container, that would be okay. But it sounds like you're doing everything fine with the plant. It might just be getting too hot sitting on the windowsill. Can you move it away from the glass, so it won't be exposed to so much heat? It will enjoy the morning sun, but it won't do well in heat.

It's the rosette of leaves at the bottom that bothers me. They look dry and almost crispy. Are they? Or is that just their natural color? The plants I have seen have always had basal rosettes that looked green and plump.

I water my succulents by immersing the pot into water up to the rim. I leave the pot in the water until no more bubbles break the surface. Then, I set the pot aside and allow all the excess water to drain off. That ensures that the entire root ball is well moistened.

I have found that, because the surface of the soil is allowed to become quite dry, water poured on the surface of the soil will sometimes just run down between the pot and the root ball and out the drainage holes, leaving the plant to die from lack of water. Before I changed to the immersion method, I lost a few desert cacti due to this phenomenon. When you use the immersion method, the root ball actually soaks up quite a lot of water, so the plant has plenty of moisture to last between the infrequent waterings.

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BewilderedGreenyO.o
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I really love how that plant looks... I wish someone knew exactly what the plant was :? I don't think it looks anything like Anacampseros rufescens, strange that the pot was labeled that.

shiapep
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Kisal wrote:If you want to repot in an unglazed container, that would be okay. But it sounds like you're doing everything fine with the plant. It might just be getting too hot sitting on the windowsill. Can you move it away from the glass, so it won't be exposed to so much heat? It will enjoy the morning sun, but it won't do well in heat.

It's the rosette of leaves at the bottom that bothers me. They look dry and almost crispy. Are they? Or is that just their natural color? The plants I have seen have always had basal rosettes that looked green and plump.

I water my succulents by immersing the pot into water up to the rim. I leave the pot in the water until no more bubbles break the surface. Then, I set the pot aside and allow all the excess water to drain off. That ensures that the entire root ball is well moistened.

I have found that, because the surface of the soil is allowed to become quite dry, water poured on the surface of the soil will sometimes just run down between the pot and the root ball and out the drainage holes, leaving the plant to die from lack of water. Before I changed to the immersion method, I lost a few desert cacti due to this phenomenon. When you use the immersion method, the root ball actually soaks up quite a lot of water, so the plant has plenty of moisture to last between the infrequent waterings.
Those were dry. I removed those when I got him home. He's had one or two leaves dry like that since (I've had him for a couple of months), but is generally plump and green. I'll switch to the immersion method, though, just to be safe.

shiapep
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BewilderedGreenyO.o wrote:I really love how that plant looks... I wish someone knew exactly what the plant was :? I don't think it looks anything like Anacampseros rufescens, strange that the pot was labeled that.
That was my problem, too. And I don't know if the anacampseros rufescens starts out that way, then "vines" and grows into what the pictures show, but every picture I saw of them looked incredibly different from mine. :/

AoibheNeasa
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shiapep wrote:
BewilderedGreenyO.o wrote:I really love how that plant looks... I wish someone knew exactly what the plant was :? I don't think it looks anything like Anacampseros rufescens, strange that the pot was labeled that.
That was my problem, too. And I don't know if the anacampseros rufescens starts out that way, then "vines" and grows into what the pictures show, but every picture I saw of them looked incredibly different from mine. :/
The leaves look like anacampseros rufescens leaves to me but I've never seen any with that kind of growth. The only tall stems I've seen was when my original grew a scape and flowered. The scape had no leaves though.

A few pics of mine:
then:[url]https://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j11/ILuvBobbyNXander/plants/0520101312a.jpg[/url]
now:[url]https://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j11/ILuvBobbyNXander/plants/100_4056.jpg[/url]

Mine is doing well in an east facing window. I have it planted in a cheap plastic pot in equal parts cactus soil and perlite topped with gravel. I allow the soil to dry completely before watering and water the same way Kisal does, from the bottom up.

shiapep
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AoibheNeasa wrote:
shiapep wrote:
BewilderedGreenyO.o wrote:I really love how that plant looks... I wish someone knew exactly what the plant was :? I don't think it looks anything like Anacampseros rufescens, strange that the pot was labeled that.
That was my problem, too. And I don't know if the anacampseros rufescens starts out that way, then "vines" and grows into what the pictures show, but every picture I saw of them looked incredibly different from mine. :/
The leaves look like anacampseros rufescens leaves to me but I've never seen any with that kind of growth. The only tall stems I've seen was when my original grew a scape and flowered. The scape had no leaves though.

A few pics of mine:
then:[url]https://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j11/ILuvBobbyNXander/plants/0520101312a.jpg[/url]
now:[url]https://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j11/ILuvBobbyNXander/plants/100_4056.jpg[/url]

Mine is doing well in an east facing window. I have it planted in a cheap plastic pot in equal parts cactus soil and perlite topped with gravel. I allow the soil to dry completely before watering and water the same way Kisal does, from the bottom up.
Oh, wow. That's very pretty, but definitely not what mine looks like. Lol.
Do you know of any good sites I might be able to use to find him?

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Kisal
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It could be a species of Echeveria, and not an Anacampseros at all. While I'm not saying it is, you can see that the growth habit is similar to the Echeveria pictured below.

One thing to note about the OP's plant, however, is that, when the photo is enlarged, you can clearly see the fine fiber-like growths that emerge from the stems at the leaf nodes. That is a trait of Anacampseros rufescens. Many things can affect the growth habit of a plant, even the shape of the leaves and distance between the nodes, but little traits like those fibers are usually definitive ... IMO, anyway.

One of the problems with ID-ing succulents is that, based on studies of DNA, the various species are being switched around from one genus to another. The whole nomenclature is in a state of flux, and there is no 'governing body' to establish any kind of standard. So, when a genus is split up, some countries continue to follow the old naming methods, while others follow the newer protocol. Eventually, it all seems to sort itself out, if only because growers have to know that they are talking about the same plants. Until then, though, it can be very confusing.

I know that the genus Anacampseros has recently been split, with the genus names Anacampseros and Avonia being used for the plants native to South Africa, while the name Grahamia is applied to the species native to the Americas and Australia.

Echeveria_runyonii (note the absence of the fibers at the leaf nodes on the scape)
[img]https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/Echeveria_runyonii_HabitusInflorescences_BotGard0906.jpg[/img]

shiapep
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Kisal wrote:It could be a species of Echeveria, and not an Anacampseros at all. While I'm not saying it is, you can see that the growth habit is similar to the Echeveria pictured below.

One thing to note about the OP's plant, however, is that, when the photo is enlarged, you can clearly see the fine fiber-like growths that emerge from the stems at the leaf nodes. That is a trait of Anacampseros rufescens. Many things can affect the growth habit of a plant, even the shape of the leaves and distance between the nodes, but little traits like those fibers are usually definitive ... IMO, anyway.

One of the problems with ID-ing succulents is that, based on studies of DNA, the various species are being switched around from one genus to another. The whole nomenclature is in a state of flux, and there is no 'governing body' to establish any kind of standard. So, when a genus is split up, some countries continue to follow the old naming methods, while others follow the newer protocol. Eventually, it all seems to sort itself out, if only because growers have to know that they are talking about the same plants. Until then, though, it can be very confusing.

I know that the genus Anacampseros has recently been split, with the genus names Anacampseros and Avonia being used for the plants native to South Africa, while the name Grahamia is applied to the species native to the Americas and Australia.

Echeveria_runyonii (note the absence of the fibers at the leaf nodes on the scape)
[img]https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/Echeveria_runyonii_HabitusInflorescences_BotGard0906.jpg[/img]
"The OP's Plant"? Is that me? lol. Sorry, I'm not sure what "OP" stands for.... But, either way, mine does have those fibers. Does that mean it's some kind of anacampseros, but not rufescens?

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BewilderedGreenyO.o
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shiapep: Did you end up repotting him and changing his location? If so have you seen any changes? I've been trying like mad to figure out what your plant is specifically but to no avail yet :? The only thing people keep telling me is that it looks like it needs more sun and could probably use a repotting.
If it has changed at all in appearance can you please post an updated photo? That may help us to I.D. your plant. Healthy vs. Unhealthy may make all the difference in order to I.D. it. :D

I'm going to continue to work on I.D.ing your plant cuz I now want one! So don't think I've given up yet lol We'll figure it out eventually :)

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https://davesgarden.com/community/forums/fp.php?pid=8096411

I hope that link works. I'm trying to find him through another forum. I don't know how to post pictures directly onto this one.
When I started his thread, he was tilted down a lot further. He's starting to perk back up. I've had him off of the windowsill for the last couple of days. Maybe that's helping?

I haven't had a chance to re-pot him. I have a little pot, somewhere, and I think it's terra cotta, but I'm worried it might be too small. I'm pretty sure it's smaller than what he's in now, which is about 2.5" across and 3 inches tall. What do you think of that size?

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shiapep wrote:https://davesgarden.com/community/forums/fp.php?pid=8096411

I hope that link works. I'm trying to find him through another forum. I don't know how to post pictures directly onto this one.
When I started his thread, he was tilted down a lot further. He's starting to perk back up. I've had him off of the windowsill for the last couple of days. Maybe that's helping?

I haven't had a chance to re-pot him. I have a little pot, somewhere, and I think it's terra cotta, but I'm worried it might be too small. I'm pretty sure it's smaller than what he's in now, which is about 2.5" across and 3 inches tall. What do you think of that size?
I just got back from the store, so I'll be re-potting him directly. I'll keep you posted, once I do. Should I water him after re-potting?

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Kisal
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I'd be interested to know the condition of the roots. In the latest pic, the plant appears to have lost the entire basal rosette. :(

shiapep
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Kisal wrote:I'd be interested to know the condition of the roots. In the latest pic, the plant appears to have lost the entire basal rosette. :(
The roots looked fine, to me.... They weren't as spread out as the roots of the ivy I just re-potted, but.... Is there anything specific/significant that could be wrong that I would have noticed?

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BewilderedGreenyO.o
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Okie dokie my friends :)

Guess what I did today?? lol

I went to Lowes!! ;p

I purchased a couple things :D I purchased a Anacampseros lubbersil and a Anacamperos Rufescens. I've come to the conclusion that your plant is indeed a Anacamperos Rufescens, as just about everyone I've spoken to says that is what it is "and" due to the fact that it has most of the similar characteristics of a Anacamperos Rufescens. I've been told by a few people that your plant is indeed a Anacamperos Rufescens but that it is one in need of light. So here is what I'm thinking. I am thinking that the stem is long and the leaves are so spaced out because it is searching for light. You are absolutely right that your plant doesn't look like any of the google photos when you search Anacameros Rufescens because the ones you are seeing are ones with the correct growing conditions for the plant to grow at its peak. All of what I am saying is just my analysis after a large amount of research and multiple opinions of what your plant seems to be. :)

If you do however ever find out otherwise please do let me know :) I actually like how your plant looks LOL though it may be lacking light I think it really makes for an interesting looking plant. I was actually a bit disappointed to find that there wasn't an actual plant out there with the same characteristics as the one you have without restraining the plant from light = /

All in all I now have two brand new plants. My very first actual cactus looking succulents :) I will post pictures of them soon so you can see what they look like right now and I'll keep this forum updated as they grow. :)

shiapep
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Oh, cool. Thank you.

Is there any advisable artificial light I can give it? I'm in a dorm, so I only have one window. Therefore, he's either going to have to be stuck with that or compromise. I don't want to just stick him under my desk lamp and damage him, though. Any advice?

If your conclusion is correct, how long will it take for him to begin to look ..."normal"?

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BewilderedGreenyO.o
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well as far as indoor light goes I know that there are special plant lights out there but I really don't have any clue what they are all about lol. I have a backyard so I just put all plants that need sun out there. Which is most of them so far lol! :)

As far as your plant recovering and looking like a normal one it may not happen unless you cut it back and start all over which I wouldn't recommend doing until someone else with more succulent plant "know how" tells you to lol

shiapep
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BewilderedGreenyO.o wrote:well as far as indoor light goes I know that there are special plant lights out there but I really don't have any clue what they are all about lol. I have a backyard so I just put all plants that need sun out there. Which is most of them so far lol! :)

As far as your plant recovering and looking like a normal one it may not happen unless you cut it back and start all over which I wouldn't recommend doing until someone else with more succulent plant "know how" tells you to lol
Someone on the other forum I posted on did. lol. I don't really WANT to cut him back.... I like him. lol.

If he's getting the appropriate light and watering, now, will keeping him like that hurt/damage him?

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BewilderedGreenyO.o
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I wouldn't think so... I would think that as long as he has what he needs to survive he should just continue to grow... though he may start to grow a bit differently and may change a bit once you give him what he needs.

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You could also take one or two of the leaves and start a new plant. :)
BewilderedGreenyO.o wrote:All in all I now have two brand new plants. My very first actual cactus looking succulents Smile I will post pictures of them soon so you can see what they look like right now and I'll keep this forum updated as they grow. Smile
Looking forward to pics! :D

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BewilderedGreenyO.o
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My Brand New Succulent Babies :)

Anacamperos Rufescens

[img]https://i618.photobucket.com/albums/tt261/NySnap/Plants/P6160093.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i618.photobucket.com/albums/tt261/NySnap/Plants/P6160094.jpg[/img]

Anacampseros lubbersil

[img]https://i618.photobucket.com/albums/tt261/NySnap/Plants/P6160095.jpg[/img]

[img]https://i618.photobucket.com/albums/tt261/NySnap/Plants/P6160096.jpg[/img]

You can't tell on the Lubbersil photos that it also has those fine fiber-like growths that emerge from the stems at the leaf nodes but it does!! :D It was the only Lubbersil they had and the only other Anacamperos Species there besides the Anacamperos Rufescens which there seemed to be plenty of. So I felt pretty lucky to get the Lubbersil variety as well :D

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Very pretty! I had not seen the lubbersii before. I see your rufescens has similar growth to the OP (though not as spread out). Mine has never had growth like that though I haven't had it for very long. Thanks for sharing Greeny! :)



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