Aeonium urbicum
€15,90
🌱 Morphology: An Aeonium with a shrubby habit, generally monopodial and unbranched, that can reach 1.5–2 m in height. It develops a thick, smooth stem, green or grayish, with characteristic rhomboidal scars from fallen leaves. At the end, it forms a large, compact rosette up to 30 cm, with thick, fleshy, light green to bluish-green, spatulate or oblanceolate, glabrous leaves with a ciliate reddish margin. It has fibrous roots. It is monocarpic: the stem dies after flowering and fruiting.
🌍 Distribution, habitat, and family: An exclusive endemic of Tenerife (Canary Islands), family Crassulaceae. It inhabits cliffs, slopes, escarpments, and rocky environments, from semi-xeric zones to laurel forest areas, and is extraordinarily frequent on walls, roofs, and old constructions, from which the epithet urbicum ("urban") is derived. It can also grow on palm and dragon tree trunks.
❄️ Cold hardiness: approximately USDA 9b–11b. For cultivation in Spain, we recommend keeping it above 5 °C, especially in pots. It can withstand occasional drops close to 0 °C if it is completely dry and protected, but frost can cause significant damage.
☀️ Lighting: approximate target of 15–25 mol·m⁻²·day⁻¹ DLI (PAR) during growth. It tolerates plenty of light and direct sun if acclimated, although in climates with very hot summers, it is advisable to protect it from the most intense sun during central hours. Insufficient lighting produces excessively long stems and less compact rosettes.
