The word succulent is widely used as a synonym for succulent plant. This describes the concept well, a succulent is a plant of which one or more of its organs (leaves, stem, roots) has developed the capability to store water. More precisely, a succulent can be defined as a plant that stores water in its tissues as a mechanism to survive periods of drought in the growing phase as well as the dormant phase (and not only in the dormant phase, like cormous and bulbous plants, which are not classified as succulents). This unique quality is the factor which stimulate the world-wide interest in succulents, firstly because this adaption resulted in fascinating and at times even bizarre growth forms, secondly because it makes it possible to transplant (and transport) even mature plants fairly easily. The well known mesemb or vygie family comes to mind, where in many cases, such as the ever popular lithops, the whole plant consists of only two thickened and fused leaves, which do not even resemble leaves any more. In other cases, like many of the euphorbias or milkweeds and the stapeliads or carrion flowers, leaves have disappeared totally, and only a succulent stem remains.

Succulents & Cacti

The question is often asked, why do we talk about succulents and not cacti? The answer is really simple, cacti is a group (family) of plants, mostly from the Americas which are (virtually) all succulents, in other words, all cacti are succulents, but not all succulents are cacti, very far from it in fact, for example, while southern Africa harbours more succulents than any other similar region in the world, none of them (with one exception) are cacti.

Southern African Succulents

Southern Africa has the worlds richest succulent flora, approximately 46% of the estimated 10 000 succulent species of the world occur here. The main purpose of this web site is to introduce you to this botanical wonderland.