I'd like to know them

Paul

There was a posting something like this on here a few months ago, so perhaps someone else will pipe up with some good information who was involved in that discussion then.

Actually now that I think of it quite a few people seem to assume that the prickly pear (Opuntia) species found throughout outback Queensland are native, purely because they are so prolific and widespread. They are in fact a noxious weed, and there have been several measures taken against them in the past to prevent further spread. I think one of these measures was something to do with the introduction of a moth or some other bug?

Ah well, nevermind, I've started to ramble now.. time for some more coffee, methinks!

Lis :)

Now I will ramble a bit. I think Columbus took a cactus back to Europe with him and they had never seen such plants.

There are many places they were planted and have gone rampant, including Australia and the Mediterranean, but they all came from the Americas.

Aizoaceae: Carpobrotus - 4 native species, only slightly different from some of the S African and S American species; Sarcozona - 2 species, genus endemic, rather similar to Carpobrotus; Disphyma - 1 species, also in NZ and S Africa. There are other slightly less succulent native species in genera like Tetragonia (6 native), Gunniopsis (endemic, 14 spp.), Trianthema (11 native).

Portulacaeae: Many spp. of Calandrinia, now treated by some botanists as genus Parakeelya. These are quite succulent and have colourful flowers but are mostly annual and so seem to be disowned by succulent fanciers. Also 1 native Anacampseros sp.

Euphorbiaceae: a few Euphorbia spp. with succulent stems, e.g. E. plumerioides (also in Asia), E. stevenii, E. tannensis.

Asclepiadaceae: Sarcostemma - 3 native spp., true stem-succulents with twining or scrambling stems. But why not Hoya (7 native) and Dischidia (4 native)? - they have quite succulent leaves.

Chenopodiaceae: now here are a lot of succulent species, in genera such as Maireana, Sclerolaena, Enchylaena, Sarcocornia, Halosarcia, Tecticornia, Sclerostegia, Pachycornia, Suaeda, Salsola. But they tend to be either leaf succulents with dry twiggy stems, or saltmarsh plants and have no appeal to succulent fanciers.

Rubiaceae: why aren't the ant plants Myrmecodia (3 native) and Hydnophytum (1 native) regarded as succulents? They look pretty succulent to me.

And finally, there are a whole lot of plants in various families that have large perennial tubers. If we went by the current fashion of growing these exposed to the air, we could add quite a few Australian 'succulents'. Like a Dahlia is a succulent?

And then there are the monocots - Doryanthes? Bulbine? Borya? Xanthorrhoea even? (no less succulent than some Agave or Yucca spp.)

What is a succulent?

I also came across a web page (see link below) showing that there are Australian C&S enthusiasts keen to recruit more of our native plants with underground storage organs to the ranks of succulents. This could be carried to absurd lengths, e.g. mallee eucalypts with their huge lignotubers.

I think in the C&S world (which I merely dabble in, not a bona fide member), a succulent can be defined as: any plant that appeals to a succulent grower!