The WALA Plant Library
Byrophyllum

Synonyms for Byrophyllum: Mother of Thousands, Devil's Backbone
Scientific Name: Kalanchoë daigremontiana
Family: Crassulaceae (Stonecrop Family)

Description:

The most striking feature of this plant is what gave it the common name Mother of Thousands. If you see lots of little plants scattered around a window ledge Bryophyllum cannot be far. Tiny plantlets, miniatures of the mother plant, develop along the margins of the serrated leaves, where they sit perched like hordes of little children. They drop off easily and, after landing on soil, quickly develop roots and grow into independent plants. The leaves and stems of the plant are green and fleshy and are covered with a shiny layer of wax. The entire plant is a huge water reservoir, the waxy layer preventing loss of water by evaporation. Bryophyllum therefore tolerates drought well. In fact its entire metabolism is adapted to drought. During the day, when it is hot, the plant effectively holds its breath and thus protects itself from loss of water by evaporation. At night the plant then breathes, collecting the carbon dioxide in a form bound to malic acid. The following day it then uses this carbon dioxide to carry out photosynthesis. This special type of photosynthesis, which is found in many cacti and succulents, is known as crassulacean acid metabolism.
Towards the winter, when the nights become longer than the days, Bryophyllum can also flower. Numerous pendulous, largely closed single flowers change slowly from green to pale mauve. When the flowers fade they are overgrown by the little leaf buds. It is as if these plantlets wanted to prove that they contribute more to the spread of the plant than the seeds.