Cactus Crassula Barklyi

The crassula I bring you today without any doubt is one of the most curious and original ones I have brought you. It is Crassula Barklyi and is commonly referred to as cactus tail of a rattlesnake, and it is well understood that it has this name because of the shape it makes, which is certainly reminiscent of the tail of this reptile. It comes from southern Africa and it has to be said that it is one of the rarest crass plants. It grows up to ten centimeters high and branches off from the base.

It is slow-growing, its leaves are folded so that they pile on each other, and as it grows and the stem pulls, they open. While closed, they form very solid pillars. It is one of the few species that survives smoothly inside the house if it is located in a well-lit room.

If you have it outside, you have to put it in a place where it has direct sun, as it is the most ideal for it. We must take into account irrigation, if we do not provide it with too much water, as this will be fatal and will kill off the plant. In this case, the way of irrigating is somewhat different from some other variety, because from October to May it has to be irrigated a little, and from May to October irrigating every fortnight is sufficient. If it need water, you will notice it easily with the leaves, which you will see sprinkling a little.

About the flowers there is not much to say, they are extremely small, white and have no stem. They usually appear in winter. It holds minimum temperatures up to seven degrees negative, but it is not necessary to expose it to this cold, ideally keeping it at ten degrees positive.

Finally, they are susceptible to cottony mealybug or fungal diseases apart from the excess water that will only rot this strange plant.