Living stones - flowers
Lithops - unusual, unlike anything elsesucculents. Their name came from Greece and consists of two concepts: "appearance" and "stone." What can these words stand for? Only one thing: flowers like living stones.
In nature, there is a huge variety ofspecies, and each of them has its own color, shape and color. They grow on stony-sandy soil, completely merging with the local landscape. Imagine a territory of 500 thousand square meters. m in southern Africa, which turned into a garden of living stones.
William Burchell, who traveled through the desert, found and brought to Europe this miracle, at first took it for shingles.
How flowers look like living stones
Looks like cactus lithops on a fleshy cylindrical, which is divided by a deep cleft in half, it is from this that bright bright cute flowers appear.
The leaves have spots on their upper cushion that are unusual windows that absorb sunlight. This occurs at a time when the flower is covered with sand.
The coloring of lithops is very diverse, it is impossible to fit it into a certain palette. They are gray, blue, purple, brown, orange, etc.
Look at the photos of the lithops and you will be amazed at the simplicity and, at the same time, the refinement of these stones.
Flowers, similar to a small-petaled astra,appear when the plant reaches the age of three. It lasts for 3 months: in August it starts and ends in October. One flower lasts 5-10 days.
Cultivation
To achieve flowering, succulents need a certain care:
1. Living stones perfectly tolerate heat, direct sunlight, because their homeland is Africa and the differences of night and day temperatures.
In the summer, you need to place the plant on the very sun.
2. In nature, lithopses form real thickets. Instead of placing each specimen in a separate pot, take a large pot or container and place in it several plants of the same age.
3. Use a variety of shapes and heights of living stones, in order to make a beautiful desert composition.
4. For a good development and growth, such a family needs drainage.
5. When planting a cervical cervus, you need to sprinkle the soil. Plant live stones close to each other.
6. It is necessary to transplant the plant in the spring at the moment when new leaves appear.
7. Propagate the lithopses with seeds. This rather long process can be turned into an exciting acquaintance with an unusual representative of the world of succulents.
Excessive watering usually leads to the fact that a plant that copes with incredible natural conditions can die in the hands of an experienced cactus.
