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Crassula

Family: Crassulaceae

Crassula means "a little bit fat," a reference to the thickish succulent leaves, which are adapted for a specialized photosynthetic mechanism known as CAM - Crassulacean Acid Metabolism. Under drought conditions, CAM plants open their stomates at night and store carbon dioxide in the form of 4-carbon acids. During daylight hours, the stomates close, and the plants photosynthesize using carbon dioxide regenerated from decarboxylation of the 4-carbon acids. CAM is widespread in the family Crassulaceae, but also occurs in a wide variety of other plants, many of which are succulent.

Crassula arborescens - Silver Jade Plant, Silver Dollar, Chinese Jade

This plant is very similar to the more commonly cultivated Jade Plant, from which it difers by the silvery-glaucous (waxy) leaf surfaces and red-tinged leaf margins. Said to flower only rarely in cultivation, the plants in the UR greenhouse flower every winter.

Crassula arborescens - Silver Jade Plant, Silver Dollar, Chinese Jade

Notice the five separate carpels (apocarpous gynoecium).

Crassula socialis