One might question whether we really need to introduce another jade plant into cultivation, as it is already so ubiquitous in Mediterranean gardens and on windowsills throughout the galaxy. However, nary a single documented collection of this variable species is commercially available. We aim to remedy that with the introduction of this handsome clone collected by the late Michael Vassar, plant propagator and Curator of Floristic Gardens at the Huntington from 1997 to 2003. Many other Vassar collections have made it into the pages of the ISI offerings, and it seems fitting that his collection of this beloved and dependable species should be part of his horticultural legacy. This collection differs from commonly cultivated forms in its slightly rhomboidal, red-edged leaves and its exceptionally stout, bonsai-worthy form. In addition, it has slender-petalled lavender-pink flowers and, on intermediate diameter stems develops shaggy epidermal scales around the leaf scars that ring the stems. Rooted cuts of HBG 68016, MV 4426, collected August, 1990, 2 km up the road to Melville Dam off of the Cango Caves road, W Cape, S Africa. $10.
Eduardo Bosch points out that Cango Caves are near Oudtshoorn, which is near the eastern border of the W Cape but well within it, not in the E Cape as published.
Published in the Cactus and Succulent Journal, Vol. 76 (2), March - April, 2004