Echeveria elegans

Echeveria elegans, the Mexican snow ball, 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
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Saxifragales
Family: Crassulaceae
Genus: Echeveria
Species:
E. elegans
Binomial name
Echeveria elegans
Synonyms
  • Oliverella elegans Rose, 1903[2]

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]

Through scientific studies, researchers have found that the leaves of the Echeveria elegans has the presence of phytochemicals, such as alkaloids, glycosides, steroids, tannins, and saponins that can be potentially used for modern medicines.[5]

Flowers of echeveria elegans.

Etymology

Echeveria is named for Atanasio Echeverría y Godoy, a botanical illustrator who contributed to Flora Mexicana.[6]

Elegans means 'elegant' or 'graceful'.[6]

References
  1. Rose, J.N. 1905. North American Flora. New York Botanical Garden 22: 22
  2. Rose, Bull. New York Bot. Gard. 3: 2. 1903
  3. RHS A-Z encyclopedia of garden plants. United Kingdom: Dorling Kindersley. 2008. p. 1136. ISBN 978-1405332965.
  4. "Echeveria elegans". Royal Horticultural Society. Retrieved 25 July 2013.
  5. Nair, Suresh Kumar; Ganesan, Kumar; Sinaga, Melese; Letha, Neethu; Banu Gani, Sharmila (January 2016). "Preliminary phytochemical screening of different solvent extracts of leaves of Echeveria elegans Rose, an endangered Mexican succulent herb". Journal of Global Biosciences. 5.
  6. Gledhill, David (2008). "The Names of Plants". Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521866453 (hardback), ISBN 9780521685535 (paperback). pp. 149, 151
  • Attila Kapitany, (2009). Knowing Echeverias, Cactus and Succulent Journal, Volume 81 Issue 2.


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