kids encyclopedia robot

Mexican snow ball facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts
Quick facts for kids
Mexican snow ball
Echeveria elegans - 1.png
Scientific classification
Genus:
Echeveria
Species:
elegans
Synonyms
  • Oliverella elegans Rose, 1903

Echeveria elegans, the Mexican snow ball, God's Throne, Mexican gem or white Mexican rose is a species of flowering plant in the family Crassulaceae, native to semi-desert habitats in Mexico.

Description

Echeveria elegans is a succulent evergreen perennial growing to 5–10 cm (2–4 in) tall by 50 cm (20 in) wide, with tight rosettes of pale green-blue fleshy leaves, bearing 25 cm (10 in) long slender pink stalks of pink flowers with yellow tips in winter and spring.

Cultivation

Echeveria elegans is cultivated as an ornamental plant for rock gardens planting, or as a potted plant. It thrives in subtropical climates, such as Southern California

It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

Like others of its kind, it produces multiple offsets which can be separated from the parents in spring, and grown separately - hence the common name "hen and chicks", applied to several species within the genus Echeveria.

Flowering Echeveria Elegans
Flowers of echeveria elegans.

Etymology

Echeveria is named for Atanasio Echeverría y Godoy, a botanical illustrator who contributed to Flora Mexicana.

Elegans means 'elegant' or 'graceful'.

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Echeveria elegans para niños

kids search engine
Mexican snow ball Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.