Description

Aeonium arboreum, the tree Aeonium,^[2] tree houseleek, or Irish rose, is a succulent shrub which grows in arid to subtropical climates and is in the flowering plant family, Crassulaceae. ^[1]

Growth habit and size of Aeonium arboreum 

Aeonium arboreum grows as a branched shrub and reaches stature heights of up to 2 meters in ideal conditions, but usually about 0.5m tall in a garden environment.

Stems of the tree Aeonium

The more or less upright or ascending, smooth stems have a diameter of 1 to 3 centimeters.

Leaves of the tree houseleek

Their leaves are in flattened rosettes with diameters of 10 to 25 centimeters at the end of the stem axes together. Young leaves are pressed tightly together. The obovate to oblate lanceolate leaf blade is pointed toward its apex and wedge-shaped at the base. It is 5 to 15 inches long, 1 to 4.5 inches wide and 1.5 to 3 millimeters thick. The green, usually purple-colored, glossy leaf surface is almost bare. The leaf margin is set with curved eyelashes.

Flowers of the Irish rose

The conical to ovate inflorescence has a length of 10 to 25 centimeters and a diameter of 10 to 15 centimeters. The inflorescence stem is 5 to 20 inches long. The flowers sit on a 2 to 12 millimeters long, slightly fluffy flower stem. Its sepals are also slightly fluff-haired with a pointed top and wedge-shaped base that is smooth and shiny green, red or purple. The yellow, narrow oblong to lanceolate, pointed petals are 5 to 7 millimeters long and 1.5 to 2 millimeters wide. The stamens are bare. It bears rosettes of leaves and large pyramidal panicles of bright yellow flowers in the spring.^[3]

Plant Care and Cultivation of Aeonium arboreum 

Aeonium arboreum grows in sunny or slightly shaded places on weathered volcanic soil.^[5] The purple cultivar ‘Zwartkop’ (‘Schwartzkopf’) has gained the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit.^[6] and a variegated form is grown as cultivar ‘variegatum’.

Distribution of Aeonium arboreum

The plant is endemic to the western Canary Islands of Tenerife, La Palma, El Hierro, La Gomera and Gran Canaria. The populations found on the Iberian Peninsula, the Moroccan coast and the Mediterranean are likely to be considered neophytes.^[4] In temperate regions it needs to be grown under glass.

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References

Notice of Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License:
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article “Aeonium arboreum”, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.