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Pilea fairchildiana
Pilea fairchildiana is a rare succulent subshrub from the Constanza Mountains of the Dominican Republic, with thick, fleshy leaves that store water. It is endangered in the wild and grown mainly in botanical gardens, so the key is to keep it dry and well drained.
Pilea fairchildiana, previously known as Sarcopilea domingensis, is a succulent plant in the family Urticaceae. It is endemic to the Constanza Mountains of the Dominican Republic. It was thought to be under a monospecific genus (Sarcopilea), but with new phylogenetic information is now placed under the genus Pilea.
Pilea fairchildiana can be easily cultivated in a tropical climate with regular potting soil or highly basic pH soils containing limestone. Currently, the plant is being cultivated at Fairchild Botanical Gardens in Coral Gables, Florida, where it can be grown for ornamental and conservation purposes. The garden only has a single male plant but, male and female cuttings have been collected during a plant exploration trip to the Dominican Republic in partnership with Montgomery Botanical Center. They are now growing and may be able to start producing seeds for propagation and plant distribution in the upcoming years. As of now, the conservation status for this species is that it is endangered.
This succulent plant is usually found at elevations between 500 and 1,500 meters around well-drained cliffs above streams. The plant's biome is a tropical coniferous forest in the bioregion of the Caribbean and the island of Hispaniola. Its habitat is a Hispaniolan pine forest that is surrounded by lower elevations of Hispaniolan moist and dry forests. The soil that is in the pine forest is lateritic soils and can be found in limestone bedrock as well. P. fairchildiana is both dispersed and pollinated by the wind as that is very common for dioecious plants and because the flowers are not showy.
Aluminium Plant · Pilea cataractae · Pilea cavernicola · Pilea crassifolia · Pilea daguensis · Depressed clearweed · Pilea elegans · Lesser clearweed · Pilea glaucophylla · Pilea grandifolia · Friendship plant · Pilea jamesonia
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Pilea fairchildiana 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.
