mother-of-thousands, Kalanchoe daigremontiana

Mother-of-thousands is a good name for a plant that has all its bets successfully covered. These terrific flowers produce lots of seed at the top of three foot stalks. The leaves develop great numbers of plantlets along their edges that drop of and grow. And lateral stems sprout from the base, root, and send up more stems. These plants are not like so many prolific species. Picture baby sea turtles scurrying to the water. Oh no, here come the gulls. The thousands that are mothered here are not eaten. They are very poisonous, as are the rest of the plants. The one thing mother-of-thousands can't handle is frost. So northward it lives in our houses. I first met these as fascinating house plants. Mother-of-thousands started in Madagascar, and now is pan-tropical. With us it is wild in FL and HI. Brevard Co FL, 1/27/13. Stonecrop family, Crassulaceae.