The Living Stone

Interesting  Living Stone

Living Stone plant

Lithops is a genus of succulent plants in the ice plant family, Aizoaceae. Members of the genus are native to southern Africa and Namibia. stone-like appearance and are often known as pebble plants or living stones. Individual Lithops plants consist of one or more pairs of bulbous, almost fused leaves opposite to each other and hardly any stem.
The leaves of Lithops are mostly buried below the surface of the soil. Lithops in habitat almost never have more than one leaf pair per head, the environment is just too arid to support this. During winter a new leaf pair, or occasionally more than one, grows inside the existing fused leaf pair. In spring the old leaf pair parts to reveal the new leaves and the old leaves will then dry up. Yellow or white flowers emerge from the fissure between the leaves.

Amazing living stone plants

The flowers are often sweetly scented. The most startling adaptation of Lithops is the colouring of the leaves. The leaves are not green as in almost all higher plants, but various shades of cream, grey, and brown, patterned with darker windowed areas, dots, and red lines. The markings on the top surface disguise the plant in its surroundings. Lithops are obligate outcrossers and require pollination from a separate plant. Like most mesembs, Lithops fruit is a dry capsule that opens when it becomes wet; some seeds may be ejected by falling raindrops, and the capsule re-closes when it dries out. Capsules may also sometimes detach and be distributed intact, or may disintegrate after several years.