Greek hadros — thick, squat or sturdy, mischos — stem, referring to the stout flower stems.
Small shrubs, rarely herbs, usually fleshy, prostrate and slightly woody. Leaves fleshy, alternate and generally in clusters, not deciduous, sometimes scale-like (squamae). Flower clusters spike-like, occasionally branched. Flowers 5-parted. Sepals 5, triangular and pointed. Petals united into a tube, the spreading lobes joined at the base by a membrane. Stamens 10 in 2 whorls, fused in the lower flower tube. Carpels 5, usually free.
Closely related to Cotyledon. The major cultivated species are A. cristatus (Haw.) Lem., A. cooperi (Bak.) Berg. Syn. A. festivus C.A. Smith and A. maculatus (Salm-Dyck) Lem.
About 30 species from southern Africa, mostly SWKaroo and Little Karoo.
Stem cuttings and leaves, or seed.
Leaves alternate; flowers 5-parted, usually erect or spreading in spike-like clusters, petals fused, corolla tube-like.
Toelken (1978, 1985), Pilbeam (1998).
Source: (2002). Crassulaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 3. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 2. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.