Echeveria elegans, the Mexican snow ball, God's Throne, Mexican gem or white Mexican rose is a species of flowering plant in the family Crassulaceae, native to semi-desert habitats in Mexico.
Echeveria elegans | |
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Scientific classification ![]() | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Order: | Saxifragales |
Family: | Crassulaceae |
Genus: | Echeveria |
Species: | E. elegans |
Binomial name | |
Echeveria elegans | |
Synonyms | |
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Description
Echeveria elegans is a succulent evergreen perennial growing to 5–10 cm (2–4 in) tall by 50 cm (20 in) wide, with tight rosettes of pale green-blue fleshy leaves, bearing 25 cm (10 in) long slender pink stalks of pink flowers with yellow tips in winter and spring.[3]
Cultivation
Echeveria elegans is cultivated as an ornamental plant for rock gardens planting, or as a potted plant. It thrives in subtropical climates, such as Southern California.
It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.[4]
Like others of its kind, it produces multiple offsets which can be separated from the parents in spring, and grown separately - hence the common name "hen and chicks", applied to several species within the genus Echeveria.[3]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8b/Flowering_Echeveria_Elegans.jpg/220px-Flowering_Echeveria_Elegans.jpg)
Etymology
Echeveria is named for Atanasio Echeverría y Godoy, a botanical illustrator who contributed to Flora Mexicana.[5]
Elegans means 'elegant' or 'graceful'.[5]
References
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
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- Attila Kapitany, (2009). Knowing Echeverias, Cactus and Succulent Journal, Volume 81 Issue 2.