Bryophyllum pinnatum

Bryophyllum pinnatum, also known as the air plant, cathedral bells, life plant, miracle leaf, and Goethe plant is a succulent plant native to Madagascar, which is a popular houseplant and has become naturalized in tropical and subtropical areas. It is distinctive for the profusion of miniature plantlets that form on the margins of its phylloclades, a trait it has in common with some other members of its genus. It is a succulent, perennial plant, about 1 m (39 in) tall, with a fleshy cylindrical stem and a reddish color for the youngest and it flowers most of the year. The specific epithet 'pinnata' is the declination of the Latin pinnatus, meaning 'winged, pinnate'. The 'leaves' of this species are actually leaf-stem combinations called phylloclades. They are thick, fleshy, elliptical in shape, curved, with a crenate or serrated margin, often reddish. Simple at the base of the stem, the phylloclades are imparipinnate at the top, 10–30 cm (4–12 in) long , with three to five pairs of fleshy limb lobes. The phylloclades are remarkable for their ability to produce bulblets. At their margin, between the teeth, adventitious buds appear, which produce roots, stems and leaves. When the plantlets fall to the ground, they root and can become larger plants. This is a fairly common trait in the subgenus Bryophyllum. The fruits are follicles (10-15 mm ) which are found in the persistent calyx and corolla. The terminal inflorescence is a panicle, with many pendent, red-orange flowers. The calyx is formed of a long tube, red at the base, veined with yellowish green (or green spotted with reddish brown), with four very small triangular lobes at the end. The tubular corolla, with a pronounced constriction separating the subspherical part of the ovoid part, is terminated by four lobes which reaches 5 cm (2.0 in) in length. It is yellowish in color with red-purple streaks. The eight stamens, each about 4 cm (1.6 in) long, are in two whorls, welded on the corolla. The ovary has four carpels, slightly fused together in the center, with slender styles. Bryophyllum pinnatum has become naturalized in tropical and subtropical areas, inhabiting warm and temperate climates from sea level to 2,600 m (8,500 ft), occupying sites on rock in tropical evergreen and deciduous forests, as well as montane forests. It is found in parts of Asia, Australia, New Zealand, the West Indies, the Philippines, Macaronesia, the Mascarenes, the Galapagos Islands, Melanesia, Polynesia, and Hawaii.In many of these, such as Hawaii, it is regarded as an invasive species.Much of the reason for the widespread naturalization of this plant can be traced to its popularity as a garden plant. The writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who was an amateur naturalist of some repute, was 'passionately fond' of this plant and liked to give the baby plantlets as gifts to friends who visited his home. He also discussed his air plant at length in an essay titled Geschichte meiner botanischen Studien ('History of my botanical studies'). The plant Kalanchoe pinnata was harvested by Pierre Sonnerat in Isle de France (Mauritius) and communicated to Lamarck who described it in 1786 as the Cotyledon pinnata. Subsequently, the Paris naturalist Christiaan Hendrik Persoon reclassified it in the Kalanchoe (calling it Calanchoe pinnata 1805-1807, with an orthographic variant). At the same time, in London, the botanist Richard Anthony Salisbury described the same plant from a specimen received from Bengal, under the name of Bryophyllum calycinum, and at the same time created the new genus Bryophyllum.