books + infer about succulents by RATON

	Australian Calandrinia  This booklet has exceptionally high quality images of Australian succulent calandrinias in habitat. Covering many of the common and also some of the very rare.... more »»
	Australian Bottle Trees and Boabs  This booklet has many high quality images of Australian bottle trees and boabs, both in habitat and in cultivation. Comparing the various species and distinguishing features. There are five Australian species covered.....more »»
	Australian Gymea and Spear Lilies This booklet has high quality images of Australian Doryanthes in both habitat and in cultivation. The text explores the diversity within the genus and even within a given species... more »»
	Australian Succulent Orchids  Orchid flowers are seasonal and may not last that long. This is about the plants that are worth growing and knowing just for how they look any time of the year. This booklet has high quality images of Australian orchids in both .... more »»  latest 3 titles here .. please search side menu, then click' Australian native plant series' for more information on these titles, then if interested  to order please email us re availability, price and ordering              OR    Visit our EBay store to order: http://stores.ebay.com.au/Australian-succulent-plants-books
	Succulents for the Garden Succulents have come a long way since grandma's day when they were represented by a few spiny and neglected specimens in clay pots.... more »»
	More Succulents for the Garden More Succulents for the Garden is the second in a series of books which explains how these fascinating plants can be used in the garden.... more »» SOLD OUT
	Succulent Success in the Garden Succulent Success in the Garden is the third in a series of books which explains how these fascinating plants can be used in the garden. In this book a range of gardens are explored.... more »»
	Succulents: Care and Health Buying a succulent plant is the easy part. Now what? Where do I grow it? How do I take care of it? What do I need to do to keep it healthy? ....more »»TEMPORARILY OUT OF STOCK
	Succulents: Propagation If you think there is nothing more to learn about succulent propagation beyond pushing a few leaves into a pot then you are mistaken..... more »»
	Succulents For The Garden Series A series of books on succulents covering what they're called, how to grow them, how to use them creatively in the garden and lots more. Each book builds on the others, covering how to garden with succulents successfully.. more »» TEMPORARILY UNAVAILABLE
	Copiapoa In Their Environment Little information on the environment in which cacti naturally grow has ever been available to collectors and growers of cacti. This book, while mainly written for more experienced collectors of cacti who wish to know more about the much prized genus Copiapoa, should also appeal to beginning collectors of cacti and lovers of nature who wish to understand cacti in their dry, often desert, environments.. more »»
	Uebelmannia and Their Environment The genus Uebelmannia has always had a mystique about it since its discovery in the 1960's. While many collectors are familiar with the ever popular Uebelmannia pectinifera var. pectinifera, the other six taxa are less well known. Field work was carried out over three years.. more »»
	Pinguone, Kenya - Succulents and their Environment This book deals with a specific area of Kenya and focuses on its diverse succulent flora, mostly on the private ranch 'Pinguone', an area of 44,000 acres (20,000 ha) located in the highlands of Kenya.. more »»
	Echeveria Cultivars This long awaited book is aimed at collectors and gardeners alike and is currently recognized as the world's best book on echeverias. It covers an outstanding selection of over 130 different echeverias with large photographs showing plants under different growing conditions.. more »» *Reprints of this popular title are being organised in other languages, please enquire.
	Echeveria Cultivars - Korean  Due to high demand, this outstanding book, Echeveria Cultivars, has now been re-produced in Korean.  more »»
	Copiapoa 2006 Copiapoa 2006 follows the pattern of the previous book, Copiapoa in their Environment. This book by Rudolf covers all of the described species and their many subspecies and forms.. more »»
	Aeonium in Habitat and Cultivation Available November 2007, Aeonium in Habitat and Cultivation covers all the aeonium species in habitat. The second part of the book covers those species and hybrids which are commercially available... more »»
	Australian Succulent Plants  Australian Succulent Plants is an introduction to the beauty and diversity of Australian succulent flora. A fresh change from conventional attitudes and ideas about the diversity and beauty of Australian flora. With Australia's natural flora of well over 20,000 species, at least 400 are considered to have a notable degree of succulence. This book covers approximately one hundred species from forty genera. SOLD OUT more »»
	Haworthia for the Collector  SOLD OUT There have been several books published on Haworthia in the last twenty years, these have all focused on the plants in habitat or on taxonomic issues. This book focuses on the needs of the collector.... more »»
	Practical Guide To Australian Orchid Growing This small practical guide, written for everybody from the absolute amateur through to the hardened native orchid nut, fills a huge void in Australian orchid literature.... more »»
	Adenium: Sculptural Elegance, Floral Extravagance This authoritative and sumptuous book, authored by experts on growing and propagating this lovely plant is chock full of the latest information on the various species that make up the group.... more »»
	Tuberous, Cormous and Bulbous Plants This book is a very in depth look at a range of plants, including various succulents and other obscure Australian native plants.... more »» SOLD OUT
	Australian Native Plants  A comprehensive and popular book on Australian native plants. Very easy to use reference book with up to date information on over 1000 native plants.... more »»
	Succulents of the Transvaal This book has exceptional appeal to artists and lovers of botanical art alike with inspirational ideas and images to draw on.... more »» SOLD OUT

RATON just loves succulents ....

succulents

Succulent plant 

Not to be confused with cactus; botanically cacti are succulents but not all succulents are cacti.

Succulent plants, such as this Aloe, store water in their fleshy leaves

In botany, succulent plants, also known as succulents or sometimes fat plants, are plants having some parts that are more than normally thickened and fleshy, usually to retain water in arid climates orsoil conditions. Succulent plants may store water in various structures, such as leaves and stems. Some definitions also include roots, so that geophytes that survive unfavourable periods by dying back to underground storage organs may be regarded as succulents. In horticultural use, the term "succulent" is often used in a way which excludes plants that botanists would regard as succulents, such as cacti. Succulents are grown as ornamental plants because of their striking and unusual appearance.

Definition

There are a number of somewhat different definitions of the term succulent. One difference lies in whether or not roots are included in the parts of a plant which make it a succulent. Some authors include roots, as in the definition "plants in which the leaves, stem or roots have become more than usually fleshy by the development of water-storing tissue."^[1] Others exclude roots, as in the definition "a plant with thick, fleshy and swollen stems and/or leaves, adapted to dry environments".^[2] This difference affects the relationship between succulents and "geophytes" – plants that survive unfavourable seasons as a resting bud on an underground organ.^[3] These underground organs, such as bulbs, corms and tubers, are often fleshy with water-storing tissues. Thus if roots are included in the definition, many geophytes would be classed as succulents.

Plants adapted to living in dry environments are termed xerophytes; thus succulents are often xerophytes. However, not all xerophytes are succulents, since there are other ways of adapting to a shortage of water, e.g. by developing small leaves which may roll up or having leathery rather than succulent leaves.^[4] Nor are all succulents xerophytes, since plants like Crassula helmsii are both succulent and aquatic.^[5]

Those who grow succulents as a hobby use the term in a different way to botanists. In horticultural use, the term succulent regularly excludes cacti. For example, Jacobsen's three volume Handbook of Succulent Plants does not cover cacti,^[6] and "cacti and succulents" is the title or part of the title of many books covering the cultivation of these plants.^[7][8][9] However, in botanical terminology, cacti are succulents.^[1] Horticulturists may also exclude other groups of plants, e.g. bromeliads.^[10] A practical, but unscientific, horticultural definition is "a succulent plant is any desert plant that a succulent plant collector wishes to grow".^[11] Such plants less often include geophytes (in which the swollen storage organ is wholly underground) but do include plants with a caudex,^[12]which is a swollen above-ground organ at soil level, formed from a stem, a root or both.^[3]

A further difficulty is that plants are not either succulent or non-succulent. In many genera and families there is a continuous sequence from plants with thin leaves and normal stems to those with very clearly thickened and fleshy leaves or stems, so that deciding what is a succulent is often arbitrary. Different sources may classify the same plant differently.^[13]

Appearance

Evolution

Many succulents come from the dry areas of the tropics and subtropics, such as steppes, semi-desert, and desert. High temperatures and low precipitation force plants to collect and store water to survive long dry periods. Succulents may occasionally occur asepiphytes - "air plants" - as they have limited or no contact with the ground, and are dependent on their ability to store water and gain nutrients by other means; this niche is seen in Tillandsia. Succulents also occur as inhabitants of sea coasts and dry lakes, which are exposed to high levels of dissolved minerals that are deadly to many other plant species.