Not quite right Lithops

[iann]

Some of my Lithops aren't quite right. This L. schwantesii "kuibensis" has an interesting blue shade that probably means it was close to death, maybe still is. The old leaves were badly damaged, either from the hot summer or the cold winter, but the plant produced a new pair with this odd shading.

Here it is a more normal colour in a previous season, although struggling with its flower.

I have one L. salicola 'Sato's Violet' that I wasn't even sure was L. salicola when it was a seedling.

It is redder, smoother, and has a somewhat clearer window than a traditional 'Sato's Violet'.

I had suspicions that it was a stray L. olivacea 'Red Olive' seed, but as an adult it clearly is just a slightly odd L. salicola. L. 'Red Olive' is even redder, even smoother, and has much clearer windows.

Commercial seed of L. 'Red Olive', including MSG and BCSS seed, more often than not doesn't produce good red plants. Here is one example, although it turned out to be an unusual plant that divides more quickly than it really has energy for. Despite all those heads, it doesn't even start to fill a 2" square pot. Like 'Red Olive', it is somewhat ambiguous whether it is var olivacea or var nebrownii. 'Red Olive' is generally assumed to be from var nebrownii and I've had it show up randomly in batches of var nebrownii, but many of the failed 'Red Olive' plants look like var olivacea. Perhaps that is just a symptom of pollination from non-red plants.

Here's another Lithops that isn't a cultivar. It is known as L. julii 'Red-Violet' (presumably ssp fulleri), although apparently never properly published. Some non-red plants from the same seed suggest it may have a hybrid origin involving L. salicola 'Sato's Violet'. Even one or two of these seedlings hint at L. salicola.