Gasteria armstrongii

[Herts Mike]

[ralphrmartin]

Do you think it will eventually spiral? Or will it stay in 2 rows?

[Herts Mike]

I don’t really know Ralph. Perhaps it is slowly spiralling but from another angle it doesn’t look like it so much.

[Brian]

Note you appear to have this in a shallow pot (or is it camera angle deception?). I am partial to a glazed shallow pot. Gasterias as well. However I have not tried a shallow pot with my gasteria because they usually have long roots and seem to need depth of pot. Looks a mature & healthy pot, are you trying to bonsai it ?

[Herts Mike]

Yes it is a shallow pot but it grows quite happily in it.
What I wanted was a pot that complemented it’s shape.

[Tony R]

Mike, Ralph,
It looks like a good distichous G. armstrongii to me.
Nice clone.

True G. armstrongii will always stay distichous; compared with G. nitida which in time will spiral and form a rosette. Note the juvenile nitida plantlets look identical to armstrongii.

[Herts Mike]

Thanks Tony. I wondered what the name difference was for.

[ralphrmartin]

Nitida means shining in Latin (and so is Mike's armstrongii) but my G. armstrongii is quite matt in appearance...

Another difference - I find G. nitida very tricky to grow. But that's me.

[Herts Mike]

That's interesting Ralph. Thanks.

[JessieJim]

Is the position of this plant normal? I've never seen anything like it