I’m not quite sure how to put our visit to The Huntington Botanical Gardens in to words. Amazing. Really amazing. Hands down the coolest horticultural experience I’ve ever had. Matti said I was in a daze for the first hour. Never have I seen so many cacti and succulents in one place. According to the website, they have 5,000 species of succulents and desert plants. They have 200 of the world’s 300 species of aloes. They’re old too! Some of them are really old. We started our visit at the Desert Garden Conservatory, where they keep their “vulnerable” plants like these Lithops. They look like cute little, succulent butts.
Hmm… I’ve been googling around a little, and I think the above is Alluaudia montagnacii. I’m not sure though. The only info I had was that it was in the Dideraceae family, which turns out only has four genera and eleven species (according to wikipedia). I do know that it’s from Madagascar and weird.
I don’t really know too much about these guys except that they’re spiky. There are tables and tables filled with spiky plants.
This guy kind of looks like a hand with a really long middle finger, but mammilla is latin for nipple. It’s native to the Pilcaya Mountains of Guerrero, Mexico.
Here’s what wikipedia has to say about these guys, “Conophytum is a genus of South African and Namibian succulent plants that belong to the Aizoaceae family. The name is derived from the Latin “conus” (cone) and Greek “phytum” (plant). The plants are also known as knopies (buttons), waterblasies (water blisters), sphaeroids, conos, cone plants, dumplings, or button plants.” I kind of want some. They’re winter rain growers, so maybe they could live outside here in SF. If you REALLY want to get to know Conophytums, you can buy the bible, The Genus Conophytum: A Conograph used for $234.52 on Amazon.
Kalanchoe tomentosa on cuddly steroids. We’ll be blogging about all the amazing outdoor gardens at Huntington soon. If you want to check out all 233 pictures we took click here.
Far Out Flora 