Aeonium

Aeonium is a genus including about 35 succulent plant species with unusually glossy, waxy leaves arranged in rosettes. The species range from the low-growing A. Tabuliforme and A. Smithii that grow just a few inches across, to larger species that grow several feet across, such as A. Arboreum, A. Valverdense, and A. Holochrysum.

The rounded leaves of the rosette structures are so perfect that these species are sometimes mistaken for artificial plants. These signature rosettes can be a solid colour or variegated in white, yellow, red and green. Small, star-like flowers grow in clusters from the center of the rosettes, but they are not particularly showy.

Aeoniums can be planted in the garden at any time. These are rather slow-growing plants, and it may take as much as five years before they produce the little bunches of flowers from the center of the rosettes.

Most Aeoniums are monocarpic, meaning that the mother plant dies after flowering, but the pups (shoots) will continue to produce more shoots, as well.