Kalanchoe beharensis (Felt plant)

Kalanchoe beharensis Drake

Felt plant, felt bush, velvet leaf, velvet leaf kalanchoe, elephant’s ear kalanchoe

Kingdom	Plantae	Plants, but not fungi, lichens, or algae
Subkingdom	Tracheobionta	Vascular plants—plants with a “circulatory system” for delivering water and nutrients
Division	Magnoliophyta	Flowering plants, also known as angiosperms
Class	Magnoliopsida	Dicotyledons—plants with two initial seed leaves
Subclass	Rosidae	Roses, legumes, proteas, dogwoods, hydrangeas, mistletoes, euphorbias, grapes, many more
Order	Rosales	Rose family and eight others
Family	Crassulaceae	Succulents that store water in leaves
Genus	Kalanchoe	Modern Latin, from French, based on Chinese gāláncài
Species	beharensis

About plant names...

Felt plant is native to Madagascar. They are not found in the wild in North America.

Plants: Plants have a slender stem knotted with leaf scars, up to 5' (1.5 m) tall, rarely reaching twice that height. The stem starts out hairless, becoming hairier further up.

Leaves: Leaves are opposite, somewhere between triangular and lanceolate, up to 4" (10 cm) × 1¾-4" (5-10 cm), rarely reaching 8" (20 cm) in length. They are fleshy, with edges bending upward on older leaves, making them concave. Leaf edges are doubly crenate, and covered with dense woolly brown hairs, creating the impression of rusty or olive-colored felt.

Flowers: On a terminal spike 20-24" (50-60 cm) in height, flowers are arranged in a loose, elaborately branched corymb. Flowers are greenish-yellow.

Online References:

Kalanchoe beharensis at HEAR: the Hawaiian Ecosystems at Risk project

Kalanchoe beharensis on Cal Lamke's Cal's Plant of the Week, at the University of Oklahoma's Department of Botany and Microbiology

Kalanchoe beharensis at the Missouri Botanical Garden

2/26/2010 · San Diego Zoo, San Diego, California
≈ 3½ × 2' (1 × 0.7 m)

2/26/2010 · San Diego Zoo, San Diego, California
≈ 3½ × 2½' (1.2 × 0.8 m)

2/24/2010 · San Diego (Quail) Botanic Garden, Encinitas, California
≈ 23 × 24" (57 × 60 cm)

Kalanchoe beharensis description by Thomas H. Kent, last updated 25 May 2020.

2/24/2010 · San Diego (Quail) Botanic Garden, Encinitas, California
≈ 3½ × 2½' (1.1 × 0.7 m)

12/12/2020 · South Africa · By Benjamin Winslow

2/26/2010 · San Diego Zoo, San Diego, California
≈ 3½ × 5½' (1.1 × 1.7 m)

Blue Chalksticks (Senecio serpens) on right. · 2/24/2010 · San Diego (Quail) Botanic Garden, Encinitas, California

2/26/2010 · San Diego Zoo, San Diego, California
≈ 6½ × 5½' (2.1 × 1.8 m)

Range: Zones 11-12:

About this map...