BCSS - Forum

Can anyone help with IDs for these two? I've had them both for over 20 years but the labels disintegrated long ago. I think one may be Carruanthus (Poss ringens)
and the other could be a Bijlia???
But I'm not confident with either guess. The Carruanthus flowered in December and the other is flowering now. Sorry about the poor photos and the plants looking tatty they are awaiting some better weather before getting a re pot and tidy up.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

HI,

Your first image is Carruanthus but it looks more like peersii to me. The difference mostly seems to be in the flowering time, peersii flowering from spring to early summer while ringens flowers in late winter to early spring and having read that, perhaps it is ringens after all.

Your second plant is Argyroderma fissum, I would expect it to flower cerise normally but it does come with a yellow or orange flower in some instances.

Hope this helps

Suzanne

Thanks, Suzanne. Yes great help. The flower colour threw me completely. Reassuring that I wasn't too far off with the Carruanthus as well!

Paul

I agree with Suzanne's identification. Regarding Carruanthus and according to Hartmann (Aizoaceae. 2017. Springer), both species would separate by the number of teeth on leave margins (low or absent in peersii , many in ringens) and by the length of the pedicels (to 11 mm in peersii, overtopping the leaves in ringens).

My Carruanthus peersi has many prominent teeth, but it is "old stock" and likely to actually be C. ringens.

That looks very different from my plant which has no "keel" and weedy teeth!

Are hybrids a possibility? Unnatural ones presumably given the differing flowering times. Or are the plants quite variable? Mesems are a vast subject and as you can see not one I know much about.