Butt plants, also known as Lithos, living plants, or pebble plants, are native to South Africa, which is surrounded by mountains and gets little rainfall creating an environment for succulents to thrive. These plants have derived their name due to their resemblance to pebbles, small rocks, or tiny butts. These plants grow slowly and require minimum care and maintenance, but overwatering or fertilizing may harm the plant, so understand the species properly and follow the watering schedule accordingly.
These succulents are perfect to accentuate the look of indoor and outdoor gardens because they grow in groups due to their small size. If you are flipping through in search of information regarding butt plants, you have landed on the right page. In the article, we have discussed about butt plants in detail.
Some of the Interesting Features of Butt Plants
People love to grow butt plants as it gives the feeling of growing a pot of cute baby butts. These plants have gray-green leaves, which turn pink when the new leaves start coming, looking more like a baby’s bottom which thrives in dry and less rainfall areas and grows up to 2.4 inches. These plants have their way of responding to stress related to water or light through changes in the color of leaves; the leaves turn red to protect themselves from sunburn when they get too much sunlight and the leaves turn red when they get less water.
Tips to Grow Butt Plants in the Garden
Whether you grow butt plants indoors or outdoors, make sure it receives sufficient sunlight. If you plan for an annual succulent garden, keep the plant out in the sun during summers, and if you live in a desert area or are in a scorching heat zone, try to keep the plant in the shade for some time to avoid burns.
Under normal circumstances, butt plants are happy under the full sun for 5 hours or more, but when the temperature goes beyond 50 degrees, it affects them and that’s the time to shift them to shade. It’s essential to communicate with your plants and try to understand the signal whether they want more or less water and sunlight.
Limitations of Butt Plants
Butt plants are good for accent plants grown alone or with other succulents in a pot or in the ground and are not meant for border plants due to their small size. These plants pose a great challenge to researchers because of their hiding features. Butt plants in their native area grow in a dry area where they copy stones to protect themselves from animals who might eat them.
Mistakes to Avoid When Growing Butt Plants
- Understand the growth cycle well and maintain the watering schedule accordingly because lithops don’t follow a consistent growth pattern, so watering untimely may kill the plant.
- Never keep them indoors for long because lithops require plenty of sunlight, proper ventilation, and humid air for healthy growth. Growing them in a closed space may harm or affect their growth.
- Don’t fertilize them because lithops are used to growing in rocky areas. If you can’t resist from adding fertilizer, add diluted cactus fertilizer.
- Never keep lithos in pumpkin because the plant will suffocate and eventually die.
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All You Should Know About Growing Butt Plants
These are the affordable plants available in garden centers; however, if you love gardening, grow it yourself either by propagating or growing with seeds or division.
Preparation
Prepare potting mix with potting soil and cactus mix, along with some pebbles. Make sure the soil mix is well-drained and airy. The first step is to spread seeds over the soil and cover it with a layer of sand. Keep the soil moist for robust growth. Once seeds start germinating(it may take a month), divide them into pots and water at an interval of two weeks. The division method to grow butt plants depends on whether they separate naturally or not. If they separate naturally, gently remove the plant and cut the root system, ensuring enough root is left for other plants as well in the pot, then re-pot them in big and deep individual pots.
Repotting Plants
Butt plants grow slowly, but they outgrow the pot when potted with other succulents or butt plants, which will lead to repotting. Apart from these reasons, there are other reasons as well for repotting, such as soggy and nutrient-deficient soil, pests, or diseases. Now, the next step is pot selection; select a bigger and deeper pot for better root growth, but not too big to ensure plants don’t feel suffocated.
How to Care
Caring is quite simple for butt plants. All you have to do is create a natural surrounding for butt plants, i.e., less water, lots of sunlight, and an arid climate. No matter where you keep these plants, they need a minimum of 5 hours of sunlight. Keep rotating the plant for even growth; water them once every two weeks or until the soil is dry. Talking about flowers, they take years to give flowers; however, withholding water during winters may help the plants to blossom soon, or add diluted cactus fertilizer right before the first water of the season.
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Different Varieties of Butt Plants
There are around 37 species of butt plants, each looking similar to each other in the shape of a butt. Let’s have a look at the species.
Lithops Verruculosa
This species is available in red, green, or gray color with unique red warts that give pink, yellow, or white flowers. It is also known as the Rose of Texas.
Lithops Ruschiorum
This variety looks like a stone or rock in different colors like white, gray, tan, and yellow flowers native to Namibia.
Lithops Viridis
This variety is available in grayish green color with pink, gray or green edges and yellow flowers. This variety is famous as a green rock plant.
Lithops Salicola
This is located in the high salt areas of South Africa and Namibia, known as salt-dwelling living stones. The leaves are gray with green spots, giving white or yellow flowers.
Lithops Optica
This is one of the unique succulent plants due to its purple-pink surface and the distinct feature of tolerance towards overwatering.
Are Butt Plants Toxic?
They are non-toxic to humans and pets. In fact, the water stored in their tiny leaves makes them a source of hydration, and leaves have a sweet smell. This doesn’t make it edible because chemicals and pesticides over the surface may cause harm if ingested. Even if you have grown it at home, the garden center may have treated it with chemicals. If, by mistake, kids or pets eat it, kindly call the doctor to check for any poisoning symptoms.
Conclusion
Plant lovers highly prefer butt plants due to their affordability and low maintenance. These plants enhance the indoor and outdoor surroundings with their uniqueness and charm. There are several types of butt plants, so select the one after considering the climate and the space because they require a good amount of sunlight and ventilation. I hope this article has helped you gather more information about butt plants.
