We can easily assume your love for succulents if you are a plant-loving peep! Let us introduce you to another pulpy plant, the Echeveria purpusorum. The leaves are dark green, brown, or red in color depending upon the amount of sunlight availability.
Moreover, these leaves have reddish spots, sharp-edges and the texture looks pretty similar to that of a baby lizard. These Mexican native diminutive succulents are about 6 inches in size. Suitable for both indoor and outdoor plantation, this peep likes to decorate your conservatories, windowsills, rockeries, containers, and pots.
You don’t need any green thumb or expertise to grow these succulents. Additionally, they are low-maintenance and easy-to-grow without any tricky demands. Still with us? Let us learn more about the maintenance of the Purpusorum Echeveria along with an introduction to its popular hybrids.
Echeveria Purpusorum Classification
Family: Crassulaceae.
Subfamily: Sempervivoideae.
Genus: Echeveria.
Species: E.purpusorum.
Genus Echeveria
Echeveria comprises of about 150 flowering plants. This genus was officially introduced in 1828 by A.P.de Candolle. Moreover, it was named after the Mexican artist of botany in the 18th century. These plants were native to Mexico and specific regions of America.
The plants are evergreen deciduous nature. In addition, the leaves are thick and usually bold in color, pattern, and appearance. Members of this genus are cultivated and hybridized on large scale. A large number of these beautiful Echeverias are the winners of the Royal horticulture award.
Echeveria Purpusorum Plant Features
- An average rosette is about 6 inches (15cm) tall with the same width on maturity.
- The leaves are about 4 to 5 inches with pointed edges.
- Just like the majority of other Echeveria rosettes, this one too is a slow grower.
Echeveria Purpusorum Flower
- The plant grows beautiful scarlet flowers with a yellow tint on the tips. These flowers grow on prominent stalk-like inflorescences, about 12 inches in length.
- This slow-growing plant rarely blooms. The warm days of late spring and summer are the blooming season in general.
Toxicity
Be careful peeps! This plant is toxic for both humans and animals. Make sure you don’t let kids and pets reach the houseplants.
Dormancy
The growth of the already slow-growing plant further decreases gets nil in winter. Don’t panic and avoid ‘over-caring’. All you need to minimize the watering up to once every seven to fourteen days and keep the plant warm. Moreover, avoid fertilizing. Just let the rosettes take some rest before the next spring.
Echeveria Purpusorum Hybrid
This Echeveria is hybridized on large scale to form several unique rosette-forming succulents. These plants show slight differences in appearance. However, the growing requirements of all of these are the same as mentioned in the next section.
Let us have a brief introduction to the popular hybrids;
Echeveria ‘Belle Etoile’.
These rosettes are dark-green in color with brownish spots and grow about 3.5 inches in size. Moreover, they grow on stems that become prominent on maturity. The adult peeps are standing on about 2.5 inches tall stems. On the other hand, the compact leaves of the juvenile acaulescent plant hide this stem until maturity.
Beautiful, bell-shaped flowers grow in pink to yellow shades to beautify the rosettes in spring and summer.
Echeveria ‘Dionysos’
This compact hybrid rosette has a confusingly close resemblance and similar growth zones as the parent plant. The leaves are dark-green, greyish-green, or pale-green with small brownish spots. The color of the leaves depends upon sunlight availability. These rosettes are about 4 inches in size.
The plant blooms reddish-yellow flowers of an inch in size on about 1-foot long inflorescence. Many nurseries even mistakenly confuse and exchange the labels of this plant with the parent. Howbeit, you can differentiate the Dionysos from the Purpusorum by the plumper look of the former. On the other hand, the parent plant has sleeker leaves with pointed apex.
Echeveria ‘Fabiola’.
This hybrid grows small compact rosettes having simple green leaves with reddish tips. 4 to 5 inches long stalk-like inflorescences grow pinkish flowers in the warm season. These plants are hardy in zones 9b to 11. (25 F to 50 F)
The other parent of this boldly colored Shamrock plant is unpopular, rather unknown.
Echeveria ‘Shamrock’.
The leaves are green and reddish in color. In addition, the undersides and edges of these rosettes turn red in the sunlight.
The size and all other features are the same as the parent plant.
Graptovera ‘Amethorum’
This is a rare hybrid, formed by crossing with the Graptopetalum amthystinum plant. The plant forms plum, greyish-green rosettes around 4 inches in size.
Echeveria Purpusorum White Form
This is a popular variation and a well-known Echeveria. The leaves are paler with the specific dark markings of the natural plant make it look nothing lesser than an eye-candy. This plant with its unique color combination, short height, and compact body, can stand out among the others.
Colorful flowers grow on short stalks and are known to attract butterflies. Moreover, this plant is polycarpic and flowers many times throughout its life.
Echeveria Purpusorum Care
These are easy-to-grow succulents without any tricky requirements.
Quick Guide
Water: Watering after the soil gets dry.
Sun: Full Sun to Partial shade.
Humidity: Average.
Fertilizer: Once a month in spring and summer.
Let us have a deeper look at ‘How to take care of your Echeveria purpusorum plant’.
Water Requirement
The succulents usually need average to a little amount of water. The common ‘Soak and Dry’ method for watering succulents works on this well as well. Water the soil generously and oak the soil. Now, let its soil dry out before you water again. It is better to use lukewarm water and avoid it in colder form.
You need to understand and check the soil for estimating the watering schedule. In summers, water the plant once to thrice a week. Howbeit, about once in ten to fourteen days is enough in fall and winter.
Strictly avoid over-watering in all the Echeverias. Moreover, while watering the soil, always avoid watering the foliage. Soggy soil and wet foliage may lead to issues like fungus and root rot.
Sunlight Requirement
This plant can stay happy in a variety of levels from full to partial sun. These love to grow outdoors with plenty of sunlight. Indoor, you can keep it near a well-lit window sill to keep this peep healthy.
Temperature Requirement
The optimum temperature range for the majority of Echeverias is 65 to 75 °F. These peeps have admirable hardiness for high temperatures. The suitable temperature level for the winter is around 50 °F.
These plants have poor tolerance for cold and frost. So, people in colder zones should grow them in containers. This would help you to bring them indoors to some warm spot before the temperature falls below 20 F.
Humidity Requirement
These spiky peeps are ok with a variety of humidity levels. They will simply go well with the average moisture level of your growing zone.
Substrate Requirement
The succulent needs well-drained soil. These plants are the dwellers of rocks and mountains. So, free-draining and porous soil is what they love. You can use any common succulent potting mixture.
Fertilizer Requirement
Make these peeps enjoy the additional nutrition in the warm days. Fertilize once a month in spring and summer and never in the cold days. You can use a good quality house plant fertilizing mix. This will show good results for the healthy growth and flowering of these rare succulents.
Growth Zone
Ideal USDA Growth zones for the plant are zones 9a(minimum 20 °F) to 11.
Echeveria Purpusorum Propagation
Thinking about making some new succulents? Echeverias are commonly propagated by seeds, pups, and leaf-cuttings. Let us get to know in detail;
Propagation by Division of Chicks/ Pups
The majority of Echeverias produce baby plants or puppies. You just need to cut and plant them to get a new plant. However, the puppies are produced on maturity. For a slow-growing plant, you have to wait for years to have the puppies.
- Take a sterilized knife and cut the attached chick from the mother plant.
- Plant it in your desired place with suitable soil.
- Keep the baby plant in a warm place with plenty of sunlight.
- Water mildly right after the soil gets dry. Make sure you are not drenching the soil in the initial stage.
- After the first 2 months, you can simply follow the basic requirement guide, mentioned in the previous section.
Propagation by Leaf Cuttings
If the plant is not mature enough to produce the pups, this one is the next suitable method.
- Just cut some healthy leaves with the help of sterilized shears.
- Now, plant the leaves by keeping half or one third into the soil.
- Keep water spraying the soil and let it dry out between consecutive watering.
- The leaflets will start rooting after the third week. In addition, you will finally see the growth of tiny new leaves after the fifth week.
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Summary
Echeveria purpusorum is a rare short growing and rosette-forming succulent Echeveria. Leaves are thick succulents in green, pale green, or reddish, depending upon the availability of sunlight. In addition, they have brow spots and pointed tips.
Feel free to grow this short succulent both indoors and outdoors. An additional plus point is the low maintenance of this peep. Just keep it in full to partial sun and water after the soil gets dry. In the end, make sure you don’t neglect the toxicity of this peep. Keep it away from both kids and pets to avoid any kind of health issue.
