Haworthia truncata

I photographed this plant (Haworthia truncata) last week, but realised that the pot it was in had become oval-shaped as the growing plant had pushed the pieces of rock outwards against the side of the pot. It didn't look great. Shows the benefit of taking photographs.. I hadn't noticed before. So yesterday I re-potted the succulent, discovering in the process that the strongly growing roots had definitely reached the sides of the pot, and got the camera out again this morning.

I liked the unusual form and dark colour of this plant when I first saw several growing in a glasshouse at the Kirstenbosch National Botanic Garden at the foot of Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa. I never noticed it for sale in Christchurch, so when in Auckland about 3 years ago, we visited Coromandel Cacti, and I bought one there. When I got it home, I discovered I actually had two plants, with roots intertwined, so potted them separately and this is now the larger of the two. The flowers aren't particularly exciting; several small flowers occur towards the end of very long stems which flop all over the place. The remnants of these some of these stems can be seen in between the fleshy 'leaves'.

Reputedly these plants grow slowly, but mine have been doing quite well and have flowered each year I've had them.