The New Zealand Plant Conservation Network

Species

Crassula ovata

Etymology

Crassula: From the Latin crassus 'thick', meaning 'rather thick'

Common Name(s)

jade plant

Authority

Crassula ovata (Mill.) Druce

Family

Crassulaceae

Flora Category

Vascular - Exotic

Structural Class

Dicotyledonous Trees & Shrubs

Distribution

Naturalised. North and Chatham Islands

Features

A large well-branched, compact, rounded, evergreen shrub 1-3 m tall with glossy, dark grey-green, oval, succulent leaves and rounded heads of pink flowers in winter-spring. The stem is stout and gnarled and gives the impression of great age, and its branches are also short and stubby but well-proportioned. Branches are succulent, grey-green in colour. In older specimens the bark peels in horizontal brownish strips. Leaves are 30-90 mm long and 18-40 mm wide, egg-shaped to elliptic, often with a red margin and a somewhat pointed end; in opposite pairs, the one pair arranged at right angles to the next, and they are clustered towards the ends of the branches. The bush is covered in masses of sweetly scented, pretty pale-pink, star-shaped flowers in tight rounded bunches during the winter. The flowers develop into small capsules and each holds many tiny seeds.

Similar Taxa

Crassula ovata is very similar to Crassula arborescens. C. arborescens has a distinct waxy bloom on its leaves and its leaves are almost spherical.

Flower Colours

Red / Pink,White

Year Naturalised

2002-5

Origin

South Africa

This page last updated on 28 Jul 2014