The Main Plant entry for Kalanchoes (Kalanchoe)

"Most are shrubs or perennial herbaceous plants, but a few are annual or biennial. The largest, Kalanchoe beharensis from Madagascar, can reach 20 feet tall, but most species are less than 3 feet tall.

Kalanchoes are characterized by opening their flowers by growing new cells on the inner surface of the petals to force them outwards, and on the outside of the petals to close them.

These plants are cultivated as ornamental houseplants and rock or succulent garden plants. They are popular because of their ease of propagation, low water requirements, and wide variety of flower colors typically borne in clusters well above the vegetative growth. No males have been found of one species of this genus which does flower and produce seeds, and it is commonly called, the Mother of Thousands; the Kalanchoe daigremontiana is thus an example of asexual reproduction (not so common for leaves). These plants are the food plant of the caterpillars of Red Pierrot butterfly. The butterfly lays its eggs on the leaf and after hatching the caterpillar goes inside the leaf and eats the leaf from inside."

Taken from wikipedia's page at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K...

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