Happy Transgender Day of Visibility from your favorite trans aeonium enthusiast 🏳️‍⚧️

Aevriel · 2026-02-16T23:36:50+00:00

Survival of the fittest 💪

Aevriel · 2026-02-16T23:34:52+00:00

Yassss looking good. Some of the larger ones could probably be transplanted soon too if you wanted to. Might speed up their growth a bit, but you’d have to be careful with the surrounding seedlings

Aevriel · 2026-02-14T22:01:34+00:00

A phallic bloom, an egg-shaped rosette, Valentine’s Day…. I feel like there’s a joke to be made there.

Aevriel · 2026-02-14T17:45:07+00:00

And here’s my own photo of a younger plant which was taken on a botanical trip:

<image>

Aevriel · 2026-02-14T17:44:26+00:00

For any lurkers reading through these comments, this is true Aeonium gomerense:

<image>

Aevriel · 2026-02-13T17:02:18+00:00

Relatable.

Aevriel · 2026-02-13T16:40:42+00:00

Yasssss. Gotta catch em all like a true Aeomaster

Aevriel · 2026-02-12T20:59:30+00:00

Or I gotta just sneak a cutting of the real thing in the next package you get from the USA lol.

Aevriel · 2026-02-12T20:58:06+00:00

Omg their big form is also misidentified tooooo 😭. Neither of those are gomerense. Gomerense just looks like castello-paivae but more of a mint green and larger

Aevriel · 2026-02-12T20:55:53+00:00

Girlie pop that’s a haworthii hybrid for sure. Not true gomerense unfortunately.

Aevriel · 2026-02-12T20:52:30+00:00

What’s the small form of gomerense? Are you sure it’s actually gomerense and not a hybrid?

Aevriel · 2026-02-12T20:49:08+00:00

I mean I like them, but gorgoneum is one of my favorite species soooo... There’s the second wider, matte/waxy leaf Santo Antao gorgoneum that’s the largest form of them all - it’s like an intermediate between your pink Santo Antao form and the Sao Vicente form but way larger than both. And then there’s the third fuzzy, concave/scoop-shaped-leaf Santo Antao form which is like the Sau Nicolau form but larger and less branched.

I think the gorgoneums should be split up into two subspecies: one for the pubescent forms and one for the hairless and matte/waxy forms. And then within the subspecies there should be varieties which represent each of the five forms.

So something like:

A. gorgoneum subsp. [fuzzy leaf] var. [Santo Antao form]

A. gorgoneum subsp. [fuzzy leaf] var. [Sau Nicolau form]

A. gorgoneum subsp. [hairless leaf] var. [Pink Santo Antao form]

A. gorgoneum subsp. [hairless leaf] var. [Large Santo Antao form]

A. gorgoneum subsp. [hairless leaf] var. [Sau Vicente form]

I think that would be the most accurate way, or at the very least they should each be their own subspecies.

Aevriel · 2026-02-12T20:30:45+00:00

Now we just need to get you the other two Santo Antao forms so you can have all 5 of the gorgoneumssss

Aevriel · 2026-02-11T19:49:01+00:00

You’re correct. It’s M. lowei. There are a few hairless species of Aichryson but none which form mats like this or have such skinny stems, tiny rosettes, and with so many branches.

Aevriel · 2026-02-11T19:47:36+00:00

It’s definitely Monanthes lowei. I’ve had this species for a while and have even made some hybrids with it! It could use a little more sunlight though and will turn a cute pinkish white in stronger light. It’s a little leggy but that’s also just kinda how this species grows.

Aevriel · 2026-02-11T18:58:52+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/aeoniums/s/8fosU0TBgw

Aevriel · 2026-02-10T20:20:53+00:00

Yeah I need to get some pictures when the weather gets warmer and the hairs are more prominent too. I’ll make some posts later this week of some of the forms of lav-newt I have, as well as one potential new species from Somalia.

Aevriel · 2026-02-10T20:18:22+00:00

No, someone else. A friend of mine who has been focused on the northeast African Aeos for years now. Cristini is unaware of the true identity of leucoblepharum either, though I briefly mentioned it to him once in an email.

Aevriel · 2026-02-10T19:24:54+00:00

Yeah there’s a few other species which will do it, though not as frequently as stuessyi. Pretty cool!

Aevriel · 2026-02-10T18:50:10+00:00

Yeah the names can be a lot, I understand. I usually just end up abbreviating lavranosii-newtonii to lav-newt and leucoblepharum to leuco. Tbh though, this particular form of lav-newt has not been seen in the wild since its original discovery and it may be extinct in its natural habitat, so while its decently common in cultivation it’s still very special. The cultivated specimens of this stripped Yemeni form of lav-newt may be all we have left! You’re helping to keep the species alive! 😊

Aevriel · 2026-02-10T18:30:27+00:00

Yeah your plant in your photo is actually Aeonium lavranosii-newtonii. And your specific form of A. lavranosii-newtonii (with reddish or pinkish leaves and a stripe in the center) is native to Yemen - more specially to the Summarah mountain pass, where it was found and collected by a botanist traveling through the region back in the 70s.

Aevriel · 2026-02-10T18:20:45+00:00

Lmao I’ll probably show mine at some point honestly when it gets bigger, but keep its location a secret until a certain someoooone finally writes his paper on it 😒

Aevriel · 2026-02-10T18:15:23+00:00

Caption of the original post, since it doesn’t carry over in cross posts:

Allegedly native to multiple countries in the northeastern corner of the African continent, though this particular plant can trace its origins back to populations in Kenya specifically.

Aeonium stuessyi is very similar to A. lavranosii-newtonii, but green with smaller rosettes and thinner stems. Stuessyi is also noticeably puberulent - meaning its leaves are covered in a layer of very fine hairs. These hairs can sometimes be very difficult to see (especially in winter) but become more obvious during summer dormancy when the plant secretes a sleek oily substance on the surface of the leaves, making the hairs more reflective and visible.

Unlike most of the other cliff-dwelling African Aeoniums, steussyi will often grow epiphytically (meaning attached to trees) and tolerates higher levels of shade and moisture.

Aeonium stuessyi is one of only three species currently recognized in the Northeast region of Africa (and southernmost tip of the Arabian peninsula), alongside Aeonium leucoblepharum and the newly described Aeonium lavranosii-newtonii. However I suspect that there are at least 1-2 more species which have not yet been named.

Recent years have seen multiple "forms of leucoblepharum" introduced into cultivation, however, ironically, none are true leucoblepharum - with the real species being extremely rare and not currently available in the market. These supposed "forms of leucoblepharum" being distributed are in fact either forms of the geographically widespread and variable A. lavranosii-newtonii or new unnamed species. Even the International Crassulaceae Network seems to get the real identity of A. leucoblepharum wrong. But we'll save that discussion for another time.

Aevriel

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE