Description
Crassula ovata ‘Hummel’s Sunset’ (Golden Jade Tree) is a stout shrubby succulent with glossy leaves that take on spectacular colours when grown full sun and especially during winter, green with golden yellow and red margins. It is a stunning plant forming a wide, multi-branched shrub or small bonsai-like tree, but it is a little smaller, denser, and more compact than the species, growing slowly only to 60-120 cm tall with leaves about the same size as the common jade plant, Crassula ovata.
Leaves: Rounded, fleshy, about the same size as the common jade plant, Crassula ovata. The leaves have a golden yellow colour and the edges ochre or copper-red, especially during the cooler months of the year.
Flowers: Starry, white with a hint of lavender in a terminal cluster.
Blooming season: Late autumn.
Origin and Habitat
Garden origin (Nursery produced cultivar). The original natural habitat of this species is the eastern Cape in South Africa, also in KwaZulu-Natal and Mozambique.
Cultivation and Propagation
It is great for container culture and Bonsai cultivation, and the trunk becomes very thick with age and develops interesting patterns. In the greenhouse use a very draining compost. Plants should be well watered and allowed to dry thoroughly before watering again. Fertilize them once during the growing season with a balanced fertilizer diluted to one half the recommended strength. Prune up with age to reveal stocky trunk. Expect this plant to green for a while after replanting and or when over fertilized. Young plants will quadruple in size in one year only. It need full sun to partial shade. Must over-winter in greenhouse or indoors (with lots of light). During the winter months, plants are watered only enough to keep the leaves from shriveling. The most common reason for failure in growing these plants is overwatering. Seldom has any diseases only the mealy bugs like it, and tend to attack around the primary flowering time (winter to early spring), hardy to -1° C.
Propagation: It is propagated by leaf and stem cuttings. Offsets are readily available and cuttings roots easily, it also propagate by leaf-cuttings and often leaves fallen/broken off will self-sow at the base.
Bibliography
Major references and further lectures
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San Marcos Growers contributors “ Crassula ovata ‘Hummel’s Sunset’ - Golden Jade Tree San Marcos Growers <http://www.smgrowers.com\>. Web. 27 Sep. 2014.
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Doreen Court “Succulent Flora of Southern Africa” CRC Press, 01/giu/2000
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Stuart Max Walters “The European Garden Flora: Dicotyledons” (Part I) Cambridge University Press, 1989
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Gordon D. Rowley “The illustrated encyclopedia of succulents” Crown Publishers, 01/Aug/1978
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Eggli, Urs “Illustrated Handbook of Succulent Plants, Crassulaceae Illustrated Handbook of Succulent Plants.” Springer, Berlin 2002
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Hermann Jacobsen “Abromeitiella to Euphorbia” Blandford Press, 1960
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Hermann Jacobsen “A handbook of succulent plants: descriptions, synonyms, and cultural details for succulents other than Cactaceae” Volume 1 Blandford Press, 1960
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Toelken, H.R. 1997. “A revision of the genus Crassula” in southern Africa. Annals of the Bolus Herbarium 8,1-595.
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Dr J.P. Roux “Flora of South Africa” 2003
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Van Jaarsveld, E., Van Wyk, B-E. & Smith, G. “Succulents of South Africa.” Tafelberg, Cape Town. 2000
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John Manning “Field Guide to Fynbos” Struik, 2007
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Vera Higgins “Succulent Plants Illustrated” Blandford Press, 1949
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David Squire “Bonsai Bible” New Holland Publishers, Limited, 2008
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R. Fernandes in: “Flora Zambesiaca” FZ, Vol 7 Part 1, page 3 1983
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W. H. Harvey “Flora Capensis” Vol 2, page 327 1894
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Smith, C.A. “Common Names of South African Plants.” Dept. of Agricultural Technical Services, Botanical Survey Memoir No 35, Government Printer. 1966
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Leistner, O.A. “Seed plants of southern Africa: families and genera” Strelitzia 10. National Botanical Institute, Pretoria 2000
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Palmer, E. and Pitman, N. “Trees of Southern Africa.” A.A. Balkema, Cape Town 1972
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Werner Rauh “The Wonderful World of Succulents: Cultivation and Description of Selected Succulent Plants Other Than Cacti” Smithsonian Institution Press, 1984
