BCSS - Forum

Thanking Jim_Mercer for the honour of winning the January 2021 photo competition on Namaqualand.

I like compact plants. A nicely grown flat globular disc like Gymnocalycium berchtii or a Massonia longipes shamelessly demanding precious horizontal space in your greenhouse, are high on my favourites list.

So for February 2021 I would like to introduce the topic of flat plants. Not fat. But flat. The flatter the better, but anything that is far more wide than tall or runs the risk of getting covered completely by grit being blown onto it as an adult plant, is welcomed.

Don't get too much flatter than that!

Will take some better photos at the weekend.

Well, flat it is then!

Plant is wider than tall and look how flat that open flower is! It’s difficult to get flatter than Epiphyllums!

Lithops - this one is tiny, I got it as an unnamed freebie from a seller in France. I think it might be a pseudotruncatella Volkii if I had to guess. Please let me know if you know the name.

Had an attempt at some better photos today. The other plant in my conservatory that feels flattest is this, It feels flatter in real life than it looks in the photos!

Then my flattest Lithops, And then I added two that are flat but in the other direction... The last was sold as Optunia fragilis 'Wizard' but I am sure it is a hybrid.

Of course I should also show some of my flat plants.

Mammillaria heyderi:
Resnova megaphylla:
Rebutia rauschii, a bit weathered. It has plumped up more in the past year:
Lophophora williamsii, looks like a seedling, but at the time the picture was taken it was already over 15 years old:
Gymnocalycium deeszianum, sown in 2008:
Lophophora williamsii very dehydrated at the start of spring so this one is even below soil level, sown in 2009:
It can't get much flatter than an Ariocarpus kotschoubeyanus even when fully turgid:

I found two photographs of my Gymnocalycium sp. (mihanovichii? friedrichii? I need to read about them again) from about a month ago, it's not necessarily horizontally flat, but the ribs are flat for sure! Not staged or anything, so just sharing to share.

And a honorary mention of Echeveria 'Belle Etoile' after my recent propagation attempts, I doubt you'll find a flatter one!

MatDz wrote: ↑Sun Feb 07, 2021 6:38 pm And a honorary mention of Echeveria 'Belle Etoile' after my recent propagation attempts, I doubt you'll find a flatter one!

20210207_183814.jpg

That's cheating!

Aiko wrote: ↑Sun Feb 07, 2021 6:41 pm

MatDz wrote: ↑Sun Feb 07, 2021 6:38 pm And a honorary mention of Echeveria 'Belle Etoile' after my recent propagation attempts, I doubt you'll find a flatter one!

20210207_183814.jpg

That's cheating!

Mildly!

Aiko, what’s in like living in a 2D world? I’ve never seen such flat plants haha, they are great

Also Mat, is there any room for new growth on that beheaded plant? the existing leaves look really compact together