Crassula falcata Wendl.

Horticultural & Botanical History

‘A figure of this plant having been given by Mr. Andrews, in the Botanist’s Repository, erroneously for Crassula obliqua, it is generally known by that name in our nurseries.  The eminent botanist M. Decondelle, in his Plantes grasses, has separated this species and Crassula coccinea from the rest of the genus, and erected them into a new genus under the name of Rochea, altered in Persoon’s synopsis to Larochea, being dedicated to the memory of M. De La Roche, author of a monograph on Ixia and Gladiolus.  This, genus has been adopted by Mr. Haworth, who has doubtingly added to it three other species, but as all of them, as far as appears by the character, differ in nothing from Crassula but in the cohesion of the petals at their base, and the genus is not taken up in the last edition of the Hortus Kewensis, we have judged it better to retain the name given it in the last-mentioned work. […] A greenhouse shrub, or more properly kept with other succulents in the dry stove.  Blooms at most seasons of the year.  [BM t.2035/1818].  Introduced to Britain in 1795.  [JD].  The name was given erroneously to Crassula obliqua in the Botanical Record.

History at Camden Park

Rochea sp. was first requested of Loddiges nursery on 6th January 1845 [MP A2933-2, p.28] and Rochea falcata was included among desiderata in a letter to Loddiges’ dated 16th April 1846 [MP A2933-1, p.147] although there is no record of receipt.  It was also requested of Kew Gardens on 1st February 1849 [MP A2933-1, p.177] and of John Lindley [MP A2933-1, p.182a] and James Backhouse [MP A2933-1, p.183] on the same date.  We have no evidence that it was received and grown in the gardens but it is ikely that it was.

Notes