Kalanchoe tomentosa.
In Family Crassulaceae the Panda plant is native to Madagascar.
They are a perennial succulent subshrub up to nearly 1 m high.
The stem has a woody base and there are only a few branches.
Aerial roots may grow from the stems and branches.
The few to many alternate leaves have no petiole.
The blade base does not clasp the stem.
Up to 8 cm long and around 1 to 2 cm wide they are variable in shape.
They can be oblong, ovate or obovate to lance-shaped.
The tip is rounded and the base wedge-shaped.
Leaves can be pale to dark green, blue-green, grey-green or yellowish.
The distal half of the blade edge is red-brown and almost always has rounded teeth.
Teeth can be obvious to barely visible and the colouration a continuous line or just on the teeth.
The stems and leaves have fine hairs that are usually dense.
Hairs are variable and can be long or short and brown, white or reddish-brown.
Terminal inflorescences, up to 70 cm high only have a few short branches.
They are cymes with the terminal flower on each branch opening first.
The erect to horizontal flowers are on a stalk or pedicel up to 1 cm long.
There are small bracteoles at the base of the pedicels.
The 4 sepals in the calyx may have their bases fused for around 1 mm.
Around 5 mm long they are yellow-brown with purplish edges.
The corolla tube, up to 1.5 cm long is yellow at the base becoming more brown towards the top.
The 4 deep purplish-brown corolla lobes, up to 6 mm long have a mucro (short abrupt point) at the tip.
There are hairs on the inflorescence midrib, branches and bracteoles and the outer surface of the calyx and corolla.
The 8 stamens, on 4 mm long filaments are inserted onto the corolla tube.
One whorl inserts near the base of the tube, the other in the middle.
The pale green filaments hold the yellow anthers in the throat.
There are nectaries around the base of the ovary.
The ovary has 4 carpels around 1 cm long each with a 2 mm style.
The fruit are green then brown follicles around 1 cm long enclosed in the calyx.
The 4 follicles from each flower have numerous dark brown to black seeds.
The 1 mm seeds are roughly cylindrical and straight or curved.
Cultivars come with different coloured leaves – brown, dark brown, yellowish-green, blue-grey and silvery.
The flowers also vary from yellow to maroon.
J.F.
