My Cheiridopsis denticulata when I first brought it home – October of 2019
Cheiridopsis denticulata habitat
Native to South Africa, as nearly all mesembs are, these are found in Namaqualand and the Richtersveld – the northern Cape area of Africa and even up into Namibia.
They most often grow in small groups of single species in dry, sandy riverbeds. They get wet winters, similar to us here in San Diego, and even see some rain in fall and spring – making them more forgiving of extra water compared to your typical Lithops.
Some plants have the namesake teeth-like bumps on their inner edges, making the leaf pairs resemble the jaws of some bizarre and vaguely gummy alligator, but others do not. These teeth are what give the plant its latin name, denticulata, and the name applies with or without the bumps.
I’ve noticed my own plan varies in displaying the teeth, sometimes having them, sometimes not, as you’ll see in later photos.
Cheiridopsis denticulata in cultivation
I’m surprised these aren’t more commonly available, given how easy the plant has been to grow – but perhaps it’s lack of awareness of how neat they are. Not as easy as a blue ice plant, or as simple as an echeveria, but they’re beautiful in their own way.
They’re so hardy and sturdy that I’ve planted them in-ground, based on inspiration from a fellow grower in our area – someone who lives at a higher altitude but still sees considerable success with his garden.
Cheiridopsis denticulata blooming at the front, February 2021
Soil for Cheiridopsis denticulata
These are enormously forgiving…when given the right soil. While the photo above shows a lot of plants with pumice on top, the soil they were planted in was more of a mix.
My Cheiridopsis denticulata was potted in roughly 50% cactus and succulent soil, and 50% pumice, and absolutely thrived with this. You may even be able to pot them in straight cactus and succulent soil if you’re in a particularly dry climate (looking at you, mountain growers). If your area is more humid, lean more into adding more pumice to your mix.
While my other species of potted Cheiridopsis are in the mix I more often recommend, which includes orchid bark, my experience with this species indicates it being forgiving enough to not need extra fussing.
Pot type and size
Should you worry about how big of a pot you use, or whether it is in plastic or ceramic or terra cotta?
Avoid over-potting them into particularly large pots, opting for only 1 – 2″ larger than what your plant is currently in. My plant was in a 5″ round pot, and I moved it up into a 6″ pot.
Like other mesembs, they grow once a year – one season of dividing their leaves. Unlike other mesembs, however, they very rapidly create new branches, and will expand if given space. Keep pot sizes reasonable, but these will be happy with regular repotting into ever larger pots.
Blooming in the greenhouse, late Feburary 2023
Watering Cheiridopsis denticulata
As I’ve been pointing out, these are relatively forgiving plants. That doesn’t mean you can simply water them like a houseplant or as you see fit.
Seedlings need more water than mature plants, but once they’re a year or two old, they’ve typically developed enough size and maturity to be watered more sparingly. In summer, they need very little water, but in my climate they do still need some. I typically only water them when I see visible wrinkling of the flesh of the leaf bodies, which has been enough to keep them happy and healthy through extremely hot summer months.
Cheiridopsis denticulata in-ground, early February 2024
You can see some central leaf bodies starting to show the toothy jaws the species is named for.
Same plant, late February – access to more soil, regular water, plentiful sunlight and cool weather encouraged plenty of leaf divisions and blooms.
This area gets watered at the same time as my aloe slope, and the in-ground lithops planting. In winter, this is whenever we’re not getting regular rain (maybe once a month?) and in summer, I aim for at least every 2 or 3 weeks. If there’s a heat wave looming (100F+), I make sure to water weekly.
Light for your Cheiridopsis denticulata
This plant thrives with nearly full sunlight, and I wouldn’t recommend it for windowsill cultivation unless you have particularly large, south facing, or otherwise unusually bright windows. As context for this recommendation (even in hot summer weather!), I’ve had this particular plant in full sun in-ground for the last year.
No shade, no protection, and it has thrived. The area its in gets full sun from about 11 am to sunset, and even during our late summer heat wave of 10 days with highs over 100…it was fine.
Same plant, mid-March 2024. Notice two more blooms coming in!
In your care, you’ll have to watch for the typical signs of etiolation. Growth should be dense and compact, with the leaf bodies being so close and densely packed it’s nearly impossible to see between them. If you can see branches, or stems, of your Cheiridopsis denticulata, it’s not getting adequate light and is stretching.
These grow in flat, almost carpet-like clumps in habitat, and you should see similar behavior in cultivation.
A note on this , however: they do produce new pairs of leaves in cycles. There’s a short, squat leaf body they produce, and a long, toothy leaf body pair.
I’m not sure what, exactly, triggers the alternating leaf growth, but I do see it happen consistently.
You can see in the Cheiridopsis at right that the top part of the plant is producing the short, stubby leaf pairs, while the section at the bottom is full of long leaf bodies. The longer leaf bodies seem to accompany blooms, and this year I’ll be able to see for sure if the short bodies vs long bodies are more likely to bloom.
You can also see some of the sun stress in the form of darker leaf bodies and pink blushing on the tips of the leaves. You can also see some signs of too much sun, and too much heat, in the yellowing on the longer leaf bodies at the bottom of the plant.
You can also see some seed pods opening up – I’d watered this area the night before, and the little sunburst seed pods stayed open as long as the humidity was high.
September 2024
I’ve never successfully collected seeds from my mesembs, so couldn’t recommend how best for you to do so – but this species does seem to be quite self-fertile, and a bloom almost always results in a seed pod.
Beautiful bloomers and fun to grow
If you’re on the fence about expanding your collection to include Cheiridopsis, these are a beautiful, fast-growing species that reach an impressive size in a remarkably short time.
I love their huge, cheerful blooms that start appearing in late winter, and the larger your plant, the more of them you can expect. I was delighted to see mine producing multiple rounds of blooms this year (2024), and I’m excited to see what the coming spring will produce.
If you’re in a climate that only sees some frost each year, consider trying these in the ground. The SDCSS member whose own garden persuaded me to try these in ground (the esteemable Brian Shepherd) gets nighttime drops down to the 20s, and has had years with occasional snow fall! I believe he does shelter his plants with shade cloth for particularly hot years, and even frost cloth for the risk of snow – but it’s a manageable handful of days a year at most.
They start well from seed, and I hope to have seedlings available soon – or even seeds from my own plants, once I’m confident in collection and their viability.
Thank you for following along with me, and I hope you give this underrated (but enticing) genus a try!
