Often grown as a houseplant, Kalanchoe daigramontiana has a few great common names, including mother of thousands, alligator plant, and devil’s backbone. The ability of the species to rapidly grow many leaf-borne plantlets earned it the first common name. One of my own common names is “mother of two”, and I can’t imagine being able to produce thousands more!
Producing but two offspring has left me often feeling overcrowded and out-competed for resources, yet I have watched my own potted Kalanchoe daigramontiana effortlessly produce one set after another of miniature versions of itself (and as a single parent, at that). Despite this astronomical accomplishment, my houseplant seems to always look healthy and elegant. How does Kalanchoe daigremontiana do it? The Plants are the Strangest People blog has a humorous article that suggests this species has “made some kind of deal with the devil”. If you own one of these as a houseplant, or worse yet, you live in a semi-tropical area and have one growing as a weed in your yard, you may suspect this to be true.
There is an irony to the reproductive success of mother of thousands. Somewhere along its evolutionary path, it has lost the ability to reproduce sexually; a gene normally used in the creation of seeds (LEC) mutated and now can only produce nonviable seeds. However, when this gene is present in leaf tissue along with a gene regulating for organ development, the species instead has the ability to create little clones of itself from spurs located at the leaf margins (see: Evolution of asexual reproduction in leaves of the genus Kalanchoe by Garcês et al., and Zhong et al.’s article). As these little clonal plantlets grow, they develop swollen bases that store water and nutrients, even producing roots while still attached to the mother plant. Once the plantlets have six leaves and well-developed roots, they detach from their mother, fall, and begin to grow on their own. These plantlets are much hardier than the seedlings of any other species that I have attempted to grow. I have seen them survive for weeks on a tiled countertop. They also have no trouble taking hold in cracks along my windowsill. Unlike my own children, Kalanchoe daigremontiana‘s offspring wait patiently in the hope that they will somehow be rewarded with a meagre base of nutrients and water; when given so, they efficiently use these resources without complaint.
Mother of thousands is a powerhouse of asexual reproduction. Not only does it develop the above-described plantlets, it also frequently develops roots along its main stem. As mature plants lengthen, they tend to get tall and lanky. They then fall over, bringing lateral roots along the stem into contact with the soil, where they will take root. These qualities make Kalanchoe daigramontiana invasive in arid and frost-free zones, and, to some extent, even in the home. After learning the hard way, I now keep all of my other houseplants well away from my mother of thousands, after having had to laboriously pick hundreds of plantlets (or at least 30ish) out of the leaves and spines of my other cherished plants. And speaking again of motherhood, Kalanchoe diagramontiana‘s many offspring may hurt your few: all parts of this species are poisonous, and care should be taken that the little dropping plantlets are not found by curious toddlers.
Found this article written by former BPotD student Tamara buried in old emails!
I also have this plant on my desk at work. I keep it contained by growing it in a fish bowl.
I have a question. I have a Kalanchoe gastonis-bonnieri that also develops plantlets. Though it has similar notches along the leaf margin, it only appears to develop the plantlets at the tips. So, are these also sexually sterile, since (perhaps) the same gene is involved in the asexual reproduction?
That would be my guess, though I suppose one can’t conclude it with any certainty until someone does the research on that particular species.
Wikipedia directs from this name to Bryophyllum daigremontianum. Does your posting it as Kalanchoe mean there is not agreement on that?
Yes, I tackled this while doing the editing on Tamara’s piece, but decided to leave it out. I couldn’t find anything definitive in terms of modern research, so I followed the convention by USDA’s ARS-GRIN taxonomists and the Royal Horticultural Society’s plant database. That said, I don’t know if there is any other genus that has such an equal amount of users of one name or the other (50% seem to use Bryophyllum, the rest use Kalanchoe.
I’d love to hear from someone who has the time to figure it out definitively, if such a things exists for this group.
Not a great photo, but a few flowers. Previously, I had a stem come up with a veritable crown of flowers. It was gorgeous! I call it “Mother of Millions” as it really can produce millions invasively and it rolls off the tongue easier 🙂
My plant has been in a pot outside for years. Grows very little considering and I found burn on it this summer. Assume husband got it wet in the hottest part of the season.
I have three different varieties of this plant — one with “babies” just at the ends of long slender leaves, one with roundish leaves with babies all around, and one with sword-shaped leaves and a pointed tip, also with babies all around.
I had many plants but at one point they all got something like powdery mildew so I got rid of all but a few hardy babies. Now I have all three varieties growing again in my greenhouse. Soon I’ll try them again as houseplants. What might cause that powdery mildew? Anyone know? I don’t want that to happen again.
Well, it does you no good to hear that mine growing in a humid-ish fishbowl have never developed such a problem, so I can’t help from first-hand experience.
I suspect you have 2 or even 3 different species. From what I can tell, even which species is which in cultivation can be confusing, as hybridization is also known to occur.
Surprised you say it is poisonous because they sell it here in Spain as a medicinal herb!