u/AeoniumJohn

Here's my rubrolineatum, it's a reddish form with relatively few markings compared to some other forms. It predominantly gets the midstripe on the top of the leaves and some markings on the underside, but thats about it! (photos from a couple years ago)

'Kiwi' is one of the most commonly cultivated and sold Aeoniums, often seen for sale in big box stores, and as a staple of many succulent collections. But in my opinion, there seems to be a lot of misinformation surrounding this cultivar.

Firstly, Harry Mak first published this plant in Photo Album of Succulents in Color as Aeonium haworthii 'Dream Color'. The name 'Kiwi' was only published later by Schulz. Thus, the name 'Dream Color' takes precedence over 'Kiwi', and this plant should technically be called Aeonium haworthii 'Dream Color'.

However, this runs into an even bigger problem: a comparison of the reversion of Aeonium 'Kiwi' and Aeonium haworthii reveals that they are not the same! In fact, Aeonium 'Kiwi' is not a variegated form of Aeonium haworthii as was previously thought.

Aeonium haworthii typically has glaucous (waxy) leaves while the revert has non-glaucous, shiny leaves. (In fact, in the photo comparing the leaves, you will notice a slight thumbprint left in the waxy coating of the haworthii leaf from when I separated the leaf from the plant). You will also notice that 'Kiwi' leaves are somewhere intermediate of haworthii and decorum, being less broad towards the tip than pure haworthii, but not as slim as decorum. (note: Aeonium decorum is a variable species, the form pictured is not representative of all A. decorum).

In reality, I suspect that Aeonium 'Kiwi' is a variegated hybrid between Aeonium haworthii and Aeonium decorum.

Hey all, I just wanted to share the markings on the leaf undersides of this hybrid. 😄 These are passed down from the Aeonium simsii grandparent. A couple Aeonium species have idioblasts - specialized water storage structures - which appear elongated in the case of A. simsii (and a bit rounder on spathulatum and smithii). I'm a big fan of simsii hybrids and I've done a couple of these complex crosses with simsii. With each cross with species without idioblasts, the idioblasts become thinner and more numerous, until the simsii parentage is so diluted that they are no longer visible... I guess at some point they would not be considered idioblasts anymore. A. simsii has idioblasts on the top of the leaves, but this is much less visible in most of the hybrids. I hope to produce future hybrids with markings on the top of the leaves, perhaps crossing with simsii (again), or spathulatum/smithii could produce the results that I want...

I saw this form of Aeonium haworthii at the UC Berkeley botanical garden. It seems to be much smaller than the haworthiis that I've grown (rosettes smaller than 2") and with pointier leaves (kind of like decorum). Could this be haworthii introgressed with other species? Or just a dwarf form? Curious to hear everyone's thoughts...