PlantFiles: Ghost Plant, Mother of Pearl Plant
Graptopetalum paraguayense

I got this plant from my great aunt, who received it from my great-grandmother. My great-grandmother brought the plant with her from Demopolis, AL to Loxley, AL. My mother and grandmother also took cuttings from the plant, so it's been in our family for four generations.

I have this plant in brick planters on the south side of my house, in full sun, and it thrives there. It can be kept indoors for a short time, but will get 'leggy' without bright sunlight. My plants bloom every year, small star-shaped flowers, but they do not self-seed. Not even sure if this plant produces any seed. Almost every leaf that gets knocked loose from the mother plant will sprout, and the individual leaves break loose easily.

Seems to be one of the hardiest of succulents. When my kalanchoes and other succulents are burned by frost or killed to the ground, the Grapto's keep going strong. It also survives drought well, even though it thrives in our moist and hot summers.

ahhhh, this is a wonderful plant in my experience, they are drought tolerant, heat and cold resistant and are all round easy to grow. i've had some survive down to 15 F with some protection (although i don't recommend it) they like some sun, but in the summer they do good with a little bit of shade... i water mine when the soil is dry, as for the potting mix they aren't picky at all; as long as it drains fairly well they're good to go! and they are easyyyyy to propagate just take a leaf off let it callous over for a day or two and put it in some sandy mix and keep damp... in a few weeks it'll have rooted. this is a great plant in my opinion. cheers

This plant must be one of the hardiest of the Echeverioideae.
I live in Cornwall, U.K., (Zone 9b), where we had an exceptionally hard frost of -8C (21F). This plant was growing outside in well-drained soil and was completely unharmed.

The U.K. is very cloudy and wet, which reduces the hardiness
of plants considerably so I was extremely surprised at this.

Definitely a plant to try outside in the more northerly parts of the Pacific coast.

From http://www.cactuscollection.com:

Graptopetalum paraguayense, native to Mexico, has glaucous blue gray leaves tinged with lavender. Rosettes become rambling to form semi-prostrate groundcovers. White star-shaped flowers with charming reddish speckling. Sometimes occurs as a variegated form or cristate form. Quickly grows to fill up larger areas in rock gardens. Can be used for hanging baskets. Porous soil with adequate drainage. Bright light to full sun. Water thoroughly when soil is dry to the touch. Is frost tolerant, but best to give protection to prevent damage.

Bought a cutting from a local nursery. The cutting had 15 leaves on it. Removed the leaves and laid them on the ground in a shady spot, watering them only sporadically. After about a month I have 13 new baby plants. Photo added to PF.

Got a cutting from my grandmother. If you look at the leaves, each one is about 137.5 degrees from the next largest one, the golden angle.

This plant loves the full sun here. I have one in the sun (see photos) and another larger plant on a shaded patio. The one on the patio does nicely in a raised planter, allowing the stems of the plant to cascade downward for a nice effect, but it seems to be more "scraggly" than the one in full sun. And the one in the shade hasn't bloomed, while the one in the sun has. John

I have quite a few of these plants growing is various places in containers in my garden I just leave them out all the time and it seems that the outher leaves turn brown and curl up over the center leaves in the winter and in the spring the dried leaved fall off and it just keeps on growing. I am going to take in the larger one this year to see if I can get some size on it.

The succulent leaves of this plant are silvery green They alternate along the stems and terminate in rosettes. A carefree plant that propagates easily from a single leaf.