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Gasteria glauca
Gasteria glauca, the Kouga gasteria, is a small succulent from rocky cliffs in the Eastern Cape of South Africa, with thick bluish leaves that form a dense, slightly flattened rosette. Keep it dry and bright, as it is a true succulent that rots in wet soil.
Gasteria glauca, the Kouga gasteria, is a succulent plant of the family Asphodelaceae native to the cliffs and rocky hillsides above the Kouga River, in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. It is most closely related to the species G. ellaphieae, G. vlokii and G. nitida. The flowers of all four species are also nearly identical, displaying the signature “gastric”, stomach-shaped blossoms that earn the genus the name of Gasteria. The blossoms are a favorite among pollinators, such as bees, lepidopterans, hoverflies, hummingbirds and sunbirds.
This species has thick and fleshy bluish—hence the term glauca, meaning "glaucous"—leaves, which are distichous in young plants but grow to become a dense rosette. Much like other Gasteria species, the growth habit of this plant appears to progress in an almost "horizontal" way, rather than in a truly circular rosette fashion.
Coast Oxtongue · Gasteria barbae · Bushveld Oxtongue · Suurberg Oxtongue · Gasteria bicolor · Klein Karoo Gasteria · Gasteria camillae · Keeled Oxtongue · Natal Oxtongue · Robertson Oxtongue · Doreen’s Oxtongue · Ellaphie’s Oxtongue
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Gasteria glauca by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
