Lithops
A catalog of the lithops in my collection, shown season after season.
Gotta Collect ‘Em All
Lithops are one of my favorite genera, but it’s taken me several years to really get their cultivation dialed in.
Now that I’ve been growing them successfully, with minimal loss (you can’t grow plants in quantity without losing some occasionally), and growing them very well from seed… It’s definitely time to document the plants in my collection! Most of these I’ve grown myself from seed, starting in 2021. I source my seed from growers in Europe, a reputable nursery in South Africa, and of course, the fantastic Mesa Garden nursery here in the US!
Latest Season: Fall 2024
My goal is to update this with a set of photos for the current set of lithops in my greenhouse at each growth season: fall, winter, spring, and summer dormancy.
There’s a pretty good chance this will turn into an absurd quantity of photos requiring multiple pages, but we’ll start with this one for now.
Lithops aucampiae ssp. aucampiae var. aucampiae
C255
I have this purely because the repetitive name cracks me up. It’s also a species where I have a super funky mutant specimen! Unfortunately, this summer, a mouse decided it would be tasty, and it’s very sad looking as a result.
Lithops aucampiae ssp. euniceae var. euniceae cv. “Bellaketty”
This subspecies is distinct from the aucampiae subspecies by the fairly consistent dark center of the leaf body, but the nominate form of this variety is usually brown! The books I have label this cultivar as one word, bellaketty, but I often see it listed for sale as “Bella Ketty”.
Lithops bromfieldii
C41
This species is full of texture and color, and is an extremely attractive little clone to grow.
I’ve held on to one of these; the 2022 group that I sowed wasn’t particularly robust, and I only had a couple make it to this size.
To my surprise (and delight), it bloomed earlier this fall, not long after my other bromfieldii did.
Lithops bromfieldii var. mennellii C
A fun variety of bromfieldii with a relatively light body and deep, red grooves.
I acquired these from Ethical Desert (based in Colorado) as seedlings, and they have been solid plants.
As the plants mature, they’re getting more and more texture on the top, which is particularly attractive with the stark contrast. They bloomed early in the fall, and since they were my only lithops to be blooming at the time, I’m optimistic to try collecting some seed for the first time!
Lithops dorotheae
C124
Where I know the Cole Number of my plants, I make a point to keep them tagged and documented, and won’t lump them together with non-Cole Numbered plants.
This is another specimen I’ve grown from seed, where I’m confident about the provenance of the seed (from similarly obsessed collectors in the UK).
Unfortunately, this summer that pesky mouse decided to try sampling many of my lithops – and this one was one of them. I am eagerly awaiting its division to see the newer leaves!
Sown in 2022.
Lithops dorotheae
These are the survivors of a batch of 5 I ordered off of Etsy a few years ago. They’re not a specific Cole Number, but they’re very pretty, and were great for refining my cultivation techniques.
Lithops dorotheae cv. “Zorro”
A super pretty cultivar that has proven to be very finicky for me to grow. These are both 2 years old, from the same seed batch, but as you can see compared to the C124 specimen above, they’re half the size.
Lithops fulviceps var. aurea
A multi-headed plant I picked up from the San Diego Cactus and Succulent Society show & sale about a year ago, and it’s been doing well.
The hardest part has been getting the lighting right; many of my lithops stretched a bit coming into the fall season this year, including this plant. The shade cloth combined with shade from nearby trees was too much, and only occurs when the sun is entering the winter angles.
This is also an early blooming species, but the flowers opened up after the bromfieldii, and they were the only ones blooming when their flowers opened.
Lithops gracilidelineata var. waldroniae C189
I picked this up about a year and a half ago, after my visit to Steve Hammer’s greenhouses. I’ve grown several Lithops gracilidelineata from seed, and have a few of the varieties for sale (at least as of this writing), but this is my favorite one. The pale background and deeply grooved, highly textured lines on the leaf faces is super pretty in my opinion.
Since growing several from seed, I’ve noticed that they don’t really develop the texture until they’re at least 2 or 3 years old.
They can also develop a more yellow background, depending on which clone you have seeds from. I chose my two hold-backs based on how deeply colored their lines were, and whether they were already showing at least some texture by year 2.
Lithops halii “Green Soapstone”
A pickup from last summer, this was overdue for a repot into a larger container to grow into.
This one started to stretch a bit with the shade in the greenhouse and how much I watered, so with the new pot and fresh soil I’ll have to be careful about watering frequency and sunlight.
Lithops julii ssp. fulleri C323
The only one of the seed batch to survive, the species is finicky but extremely pretty and well-worth the effort. Despite the small size and being only 2 years old, there’s strong pattern and texture already showing.
Like several of my other lithops, it was damaged by the mouse in my greenhouse earlier this year, but not as severely as some of the others.
Lithops julii ssp. julii cv. Peppermint Creme C287A
While the nominate form of the species was finicky to grow, these little guys were pretty easy, and hardy! I sowed them in the spring, rather than fall, which meant they’ve always seemed a touch behind my other lithops.
That said, now that they’re established, they’ve been quite consistent, if slow to grow. I have several others that I’m holding onto to sell them until they split this winter and have a bit more size to them.
Lithops karasmontana C182
Another Steve Hammer acquisition, although more recent than most of my others, I bought this at the SDCSS Summer Show & Sale this summer. It was considerably more red and sunken in at the time, showing gorgeous summer stress coloration.
With how much it’s lightened up in my greenhouse, that was a pretty solid indication of my shade cloth being too much for good coloration on these. Combined with water and a pot with fresh soil, it’s quite happy and not as intensely colored. We’ll see if I get it back to the deep red when summer rolls back around!
Lithops karasmontana ssp. Bella SB2181
I thought at first that I did exceptionally well growing this species from seed, until I realized I had about two dozen of them surviving out of two different packets of 100 seeds each. Whoops.
I kept a couple that I thought were pretty, and one with a tiny bit of variegation. Since I can’t tell which one had the variegation anymore, I’m just holding on to all three.
Lithops karasmontana “Red Top”
One of two of this type I imported in the pre-COVID days, it was a single head when I first received it. The species is so hardy and easy to grow (given it’s not sunburnt to death, as my other one was) that it’s easy for it to stretch and etiolate. This one was too shaded last growing season, and stretched quite a bit. I’m being more cautious this time around, keeping it in more sun and watering it less. I’m hoping it’ll be a show-worthy plant after it divides this season.
I also enjoy seeing their development and changes over the course of the year. They’re quite hardy and forgiving, having been sunburnt once already and coming back looking nice. They somehow managed to dodge the mouse munches too, even though I did find droppings in their pots until I caught the thing.
Lithops lesliei “Kimberly form”
Snagged these a few years ago (2021?) as single-headed, well started seedlings from a grower in Colorado. Not as flashy as some of my other lithops, no Cole number, but I like the soft and subtle shades of these.
Lithops karasmontana ssp. Bella cv. “Ironstone”
Only two of the seedlings from this seed batch survived, but it’s a really pretty little cultivar. Like many of the other Karasmontanas, these also seem to be slow to start and hard to get going, but once they do they just take off. This one was in a pretty small pot and quite dry, so I’m hoping the new digs will make it happier.
Lithops optica “Green Form”
An Etsy purchase during COVID, this has been a slow but consistent grower in the years I’ve had it. Compared to the flashy “rubra”, it’s a more subdued hue, but it’s still a beefy little lithops.
It’s suffered from my learning curves as I graduated from “I’m not killing them anymore!” to “okay, they never look the same from year to year”, and I think this is the year I finally get the light exposure right as it splits and makes the new leaves.
Lithops otzeniana
I didn’t have a Cole number or anything species for this plant compared to my other Lithops otzeniana, and I’m not sure why I held on to this one in addition to the others.
Maybe it was a bit of prescience about offering up something sacrificial for that mouse to munch on, instead of my more favored species.
I’m sure I had a reason, and chances are I’ll remember what it is when it splits and I see the new leaf bodies.
Lithops lesliei ssp. lesliei var. lesliei cv. “Albinica” C36A
Try saying that latin name five times fast. Delightfully easy to grow from seed, and quick to reach a decent size. Mine are only 2 years old and beefy.
They also, apparently, are extremely delicious to mice.
I’ve been monitoring them closely since the mouse damage, and will have a blog post related to these and some of the other casualties after I see how they all respond this growing season.
Lithops salicola “Malachite form” C351
I placed this in a spot with too much shade when it was last dividing, and that combined with getting too much water (from that same poor placement) led to some etiolation and a bizarre sort of split you see here.
I have some “Sato’s Violet” seedlings, as well as others of the species, but they were harder to get started from seed. Very pretty though, and I’m determined to get the light exposure and cultivation more dialed in so the plant can grow more normally.
Lithops optica “rubra” C81A
These are extremely hard for me to grow, and I’ve tried multiple times with different sourced plants over the years. Ultimately the only ones that have survived for me are these, which I’ve grown from seed myself.
What I’ve read about the species and this particular clone is that they’re not fond of hot weather, and prefer to be cooler than other lithops species. For me, at least, this tracks – any other rubra I’ve grown has rotted or simply crisped away to nothing in the summer months.
Interestingly, these start dividing way earlier than any of my other lithops species.
Lithops otzeniana C128A
Another Etsy purchase during COVID, these have done well, although they do etiolate quickly if not kept bright enough when they’re producing their new leaf bodies.
They are also tasty to mice, although not quite as tasty as the Lithops lesliei, apaprently, as the mouse only sampled these instead of completely devouring them.
