€26,50

🌱 Morphology
  A robust, slow-growing, compact-rosette cultivar of Gasteria excelsa, characterized by dark green, triangular, and progressively arched fleshy leaves with very abundant white speckling that forms irregular patterns and transverse bands. Adult leaves can be long and wide, with a slightly channeled upper surface and a convex underside equipped with an offset keel. The margin is particularly characteristic in G. excelsa: white, semi-translucent, leathery, and very sharp, sometimes finely toothed. Young plants have leaves arranged in two rows and are more densely tuberculate. As in the species, the leaves are brittle and fragments can produce new plants. The name ‘Kalinyanga’ is marketed as a cultivar.

🌍 Distribution, habitat and family
The cultivar comes from cultivated material of Gasteria excelsa, a species endemic to the Eastern Cape, South Africa, widely distributed from Port Alfred northeast to the Msikaba River, from nearly sea level up to about 1,400 m. It lives mainly in Albany thickets and Eastern Valley Bushveld, in protected and shaded places, especially under shrubs and on south-facing rock walls, in well-drained substrates of shale, mudstone, quartzitic sandstone, or dolerite. It belongs to the family Asphodelaceae, tribe Alooideae, section Longiflorae, series Multifariae.

❄️ Temperature — USDA 9a
It tolerates minimum temperatures down to −7 ºC in dry, protected cultivation. In its natural habitat, frosts are infrequent, so for cultivation in Spain, it is recommended to avoid low temperatures coinciding with a damp substrate.

☀️ Lighting
It prefers bright shade to partial shade, especially filtered light. Excessively intense lighting can cause reddening and stress to the leaves. Approximately 10–20 mol/m²/day of DLI PAR is recommended.

💧 Growth cycle and irrigation
Opportunistic. Gasteria excelsa can be kept with irrigation throughout the year, although in nature rainfall is predominantly summer-based. It is recommended to water when the substrate is practically dry, increasing supply during periods of active growth and reducing it at low temperatures.

🌸 Flowering
The species develops spectacular, highly branched panicles that can reach 1–1.9 m in height and up to 2.4 m in diameter, with numerous flowers. The flowers measure approximately 22–26 mm, are pink—rarely white—with the characteristic swollen base of Gasteria and greenish striations. Natural flowering is concentrated between November and February, during the austral summer. The flowers are pollinated by nectarivorous birds. In cultivation, plants obtained via cuttings can flower at approximately 3–4 years.

🌿 Nutrition
During the active growth period, Desert CHOICE® Aloes, Haworthias & Co. is recommended, with a high content of potassium and bioavailable calcium. It is applied with irrigation, reducing or suspending fertilization during periods of lower activity.

12x12 cm gourmet black pot

This is an inimitable xerophyte grown in Madrid in a technological square pot, with substrate activated with mycorrhizal fungi and biofungicides.

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