 Chiastophyllum oppositifolium 'Jim's Pride'
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- common name: golden lambstail
- flowering season: late spring
- height: leaves 2 to 4 inches high; flowers several inches taller
- Light requirements: partial shade
- Soil requirements: well drained, average
- Water requirments: average to low
- Growth habit: a slow spreader or creeper
- How to propagate: tip cuttings in early summer, or by digging out a rooted side shoot
- Leaf type: waxy and succulent leaves of green and cream
- Ways to use it such as in a pot or otherwise: for a partially sunny rock garden or raised bed
- Special characteristics: the variegated leaves assume some pinkish coloring with the onset of cold weather in fall
- Other points of interests: rarely seen in the garden
This has a tongue-twister of a name, pronounced something like, kye-as-'toff-ill-um. Other names for it are golden lambstail and Cotyledon simplicifolia. It is an evergreen perennial with succulent leaves of green and cream that have a light tinge of pink in winter. Short six-inch tall sprays of pea-like golden flowers open in late spring to early summer. It grows low to the ground and spreads modestly. A plant will send out new shoots from below ground to form a clump. Native to the Caucasus, it is cold hardy to USDA Zone 6, or Zone 5 with protection. Partial shade is usually recommended, although here in the Pacific Northwest it can take full sun. An ideal spot would be a rock garden shaded from the afternoon sun where the soil is moist but well drained. This succulent member of the crassula family doesn't grow as vigorously as its green-leafed form. If you order this please do not keep it in a pot very long, but plant it in your rock garden or elsewhere in the ground. The reason is that it can be touchy with how it's watered in a pot and can rot quickly if kept too wet. |
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