Plants & trees
What succulent is this?
Succulence is a strategy, not a family — it has evolved dozens of separate times, which is why an aloe and an agave look alike and are not related. Sort by growth form first: a flat rosette, an upright column, a trailing stem, a clump of pads. Then the leaf shape and the flower place the genus.
Narrow it down
Showing all 28 succulents
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Echeveria
Echeveria species
A neat symmetrical rosette of thick spoon-shaped leaves, usually with a chalky farina bloom that fingerprints permanently. Flowers arch out on a curved stalk from the side, not the centre.
In the record 10,479 georeferenced records · half of them Mar–Aug · most distinctive in November · mostly from Mexico check on GBIF
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Hens and chicks
Sempervivum tectorum
Tight rosettes of pointed leaves, often red-tipped, ringed by offsets on short runners. Survives serious frost — the name means "always alive".
In the record 43,781 georeferenced records · half of them May–Jul · most distinctive in July · mostly from France check on GBIF
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Aloe vera
Handle with careAloe barbadensis
Thick grey-green spears with soft white teeth along the edges, oozing clear gel when cut. Offsets freely from the base.
In the record 98 georeferenced records · half of them Feb–Apr · mostly from Mexico check on GBIF
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Agave
Handle with careAgave species
A rigid rosette of thick fibrous leaves ending in a hard needle spine, usually with hooked spines along the margins. Leaves keep the imprint of the ones they grew pressed against.
In the record 120,762 georeferenced records · half of them Jan–Jun · most distinctive in November · mostly from Mexico check on GBIF
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Haworthia
Haworthiopsis and Haworthia species
Small dark rosettes either banded with raised white pearly stripes (zebra plant) or with translucent windows at the leaf tips that let light down into buried leaves.
In the record 2,109 georeferenced records · half of them Feb–Jul · most distinctive in February · mostly from South Africa check on GBIF
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Gasteria
Gasteria species
Thick tongue-shaped mottled leaves growing in two opposite ranks rather than a spiral, with a rough sandpapery surface. Tolerates far less light than most succulents.
In the record 2,207 georeferenced records · half of them Aug–Nov · most distinctive in November · mostly from South Africa check on GBIF
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Jade plant
Handle with careCrassula ovata
A small tree with a thick woody trunk and glossy oval pads in opposite pairs, edged red in strong light. Lives for decades and is frequently inherited.
In the record 2,321 georeferenced records · half of them Mar–Jul · most distinctive in February · mostly from South Africa check on GBIF
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String of pearls
Handle with careCurio rowleyanus
Threadlike stems hung with spherical green beads, each with a thin translucent window along one side. Flowers smell of cinnamon.
In the record 23 georeferenced records · half of them Jun–Oct · mostly from South Africa check on GBIF
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String of hearts
Ceropegia woodii
Fine purple threads carrying paired heart-shaped leaves marbled silver over dark green, purple underneath. Grows small round tubers along the stems.
In the record 139 georeferenced records · half of them Nov–Feb · mostly from South Africa check on GBIF
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Burro's tail
Sedum morganianum
Thick hanging ropes densely packed with plump blue-grey leaves overlapping like a plaited tail. The leaves drop at the slightest touch — and each one roots into a new plant.
In the record 52 georeferenced records · half of them Feb–May · mostly from Mexico check on GBIF
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Christmas cactus
Schlumbergera species
Flat segmented stems with scalloped edges, arching over the pot, with magenta or white flowers at the tips in midwinter. Needs more water and less sun than a desert cactus.
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Snake plant
Handle with careDracaena trifasciata
Stiff upright sword leaves banded grey-green with a yellow margin, growing in a tight clump from a rhizome. Tolerates deep shade and long neglect.
In the record 2,951 georeferenced records · half of them Feb–Jun · most distinctive in November · mostly from Brazil check on GBIF
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ZZ plant
Handle with careZamioculcas zamiifolia
Stiff arching stalks of thick waxy symmetrical leaflets rising from a potato-like rhizome. Survives months without water and very low light.
In the record 188 georeferenced records · half of them Jan–Jun · most distinctive in December · mostly from South Africa check on GBIF
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Ponytail palm
Beaucarnea recurvata
A swollen bulbous water-storing base topped with a fountain of long thin curling leaves. Neither a palm nor a tree — an agave relative.
In the record 551 georeferenced records · half of them May–Aug · most distinctive in August · mostly from Mexico check on GBIF
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Kalanchoe
Handle with careKalanchoe blossfeldiana
Thick scallop-edged leaves under dense flat-topped clusters of tiny four-petalled flowers in hot pink, orange, yellow or white.
In the record 325 georeferenced records · half of them Jan–Jun · most distinctive in March · mostly from Colombia check on GBIF
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Mother of thousands
Can injure youKalanchoe daigremontiana
Long arrowhead leaves fringed with rows of tiny complete plantlets that drop off and root wherever they land, including in the pots of every other plant in the room.
In the record 1,117 georeferenced records · half of them Jan–Jun · most distinctive in February · mostly from Spain check on GBIF
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Aeonium
Aeonium species
Flat plate-like rosettes of thin glossy leaves held on top of bare woody stems, black-purple in the popular Zwartkop cultivar. Grows in winter and rests in summer — the reverse of most succulents.
In the record 17,654 georeferenced records · half of them Jan–May · most distinctive in December · mostly from Spain check on GBIF
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Sedum and stonecrop
Sedum species
A very large genus of frost-hardy succulents from creeping ground-cover mats to the upright border sedums with flat pink flower heads in autumn. Star-shaped five-petalled flowers throughout.
In the record 1,146,952 georeferenced records · half of them May–Jul · most distinctive in June · mostly from France check on GBIF
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Living stones
Lithops species
A pair of fused fleshy leaves split by a slit, patterned to look exactly like a pebble, with a translucent window on top to let light down to buried tissue. A daisy-like flower emerges from the slit.
In the record 569 georeferenced records · half of them Feb–Jun · most distinctive in November · mostly from South Africa check on GBIF
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Prickly pear
Handle with careOpuntia species
Flat oval pads joined end to end, with large spines and — the real hazard — clusters of tiny barbed bristles called glochids at each areole.
In the record 331,834 georeferenced records · half of them Mar–Jul · most distinctive in November · mostly from the United States check on GBIF
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Golden barrel cactus
Kroenleinia grusonii
A near-perfect ribbed sphere covered in stiff golden spines along the ridges, with white wool at the crown. Grows slowly for decades.
In the record 110 georeferenced records · half of them Feb–May · mostly from Spain check on GBIF
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Bunny ears cactus
Handle with careOpuntia microdasys
Small oval pads in pairs like ears, with no long spines at all but dense tufts of white or gold glochids — which is why it is the most frequently regretted purchase in a garden centre.
In the record 2,557 georeferenced records · half of them Jan–Jun · most distinctive in November · mostly from Mexico check on GBIF
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Old man cactus
Cephalocereus senilis
A slim column wrapped in long shaggy white hair, which shades the plant from the sun. Sharp spines hide underneath the hair.
In the record 168 georeferenced records · half of them Aug–Dec · most distinctive in December · mostly from Mexico check on GBIF
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Euphorbia — pencil cactus and African milk tree
Can injure youEuphorbia tirucalli, E. trigona
Looks like a cactus and is not: euphorbias have paired spines on ridges rather than spines from a woolly areole, and every part bleeds copious white latex when cut.
In the record 5,377 georeferenced records · half of them Mar–Jul · most distinctive in April · mostly from South Africa check on GBIF
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Snake plant impostor: Sansevieria cylindrica
Handle with careDracaena angolensis
Stiff round spears rather than flat blades, banded pale green, often sold braided. Same genus and same mild toxicity as the flat snake plant.
In the record 295 georeferenced records · half of them Jan–May · most distinctive in February · mostly from the United States check on GBIF
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Panda plant
Handle with careKalanchoe tomentosa
Thick oval leaves covered in dense silvery felt, edged with chocolate-brown spots along the tips. Feels like suede.
In the record 134 georeferenced records · half of them Aug–Dec · most distinctive in March · mostly from MG check on GBIF
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Ghost plant
Graptopetalum paraguayense
Loose rosettes of pointed leaves with a heavy pinkish-grey bloom, on stems that lengthen and trail. Every dropped leaf roots, which is why it spreads across a whole bed.
In the record 97 georeferenced records · half of them Feb–May · mostly from Spain check on GBIF
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Hoya
Hoya carnosa
Thick waxy oval leaves on a twining vine, with spherical clusters of small star-shaped flowers that look like porcelain and drip nectar. Flowers from the same short spur year after year — never cut it off.
In the record 2,098 georeferenced records · half of them Mar–Jul · most distinctive in November · mostly from Taiwan check on GBIF
Nothing in this key matches every filter at once. That usually means one observation is off — a colour read in shade, or a size guessed rather than measured. Clear the filter you are least sure about and look again.
Succulent is a habit, not a family
Succulence — storing water in leaves, stems or roots — has evolved independently in more than twenty plant families. That is why the group contains plants with nothing else in common, and why a key has to work on form rather than relationship.
The families you will actually meet on a windowsill:
- Crassulaceae — echeveria, sedum, sempervivum, crassula, kalanchoe, aeonium. Rosettes and fleshy paired leaves; the largest group in cultivation.
- Asphodelaceae — aloe, haworthia, gasteria. Rosettes of pointed leaves, often with teeth or windows.
- Asparagaceae — agave, snake plant, ponytail palm. Rigid fibrous leaves, and slow.
- Cactaceae — every true cactus. Defined by the areole, a small cushion from which spines, flowers and new growth all emerge.
- Euphorbiaceae — pencil cactus, African milk tree, crown of thorns. Cactus-shaped, and defined by copious white latex.
- Apocynaceae — string of pearls, string of hearts, hoya, stapelia. Trailing stems and often milky sap.
The most useful thing in that list is the cactus definition. All cacti are succulents; most succulents are not cacti. The test is the areole — if the spines come out of a small round felted cushion, it is a cactus, and if they do not, it is something else wearing the same costume.
The pairs that get confused, and why it matters
| Pair | The test | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Echeveria vs sempervivum | Echeveria flowers on an arching stalk from the side; sempervivum flowers from the centre and that rosette then dies | Sempervivum is frost-hardy and echeveria is not — one lives outdoors, the other does not |
| Aloe vs agave | Aloe has soft white teeth and gel-filled leaves; agave has hard woody marginal spines, a terminal needle and fibrous leaves | Agave sap causes dermatitis and the terminal spines cause eye injuries |
| Cactus vs euphorbia | Cactus spines emerge from a felted areole; euphorbia has paired spines on ridges and bleeds white latex | Euphorbia latex causes serious chemical eye burns. Cactus sap does not |
| Christmas cactus vs desert cactus | Flat scalloped segments and rainforest origin versus ribs and spines | Watering and light needs are opposite; treating a Schlumbergera as a desert plant kills it |
| Bunny ears vs a harmless fuzzy plant | Tufts of glochids at each areole | Glochids detach on the lightest contact and are extremely difficult to remove from skin |
The euphorbia point is worth repeating because the plants are sold beside cacti and look like them. Ophthalmology literature carries a steady stream of case reports of corneal injury from Euphorbia sap, some with lasting visual loss. Gloves and eye protection when pruning, and immediate irrigation if it contacts an eye.
Etiolation, and why your succulent stopped looking like the photograph
The commonest complaint about succulents is that a tight compact rosette has stretched into a pale straggling tower with widely spaced leaves. That is etiolation, and it is a light problem rather than a water or feeding one.
Most succulents come from high-light environments and need four to six hours of direct sun. A north-facing windowsill or a spot a metre back from a bright window provides a small fraction of that, and the plant responds by stretching towards it. Once stretched, the stem does not compact again — the plant grows on from where it is.
The fix is to behead it: cut the rosette off with a few centimetres of stem, let the cut callus over for several days in dry air, and set it on dry compost until it roots. The old stump usually sprouts several new heads, so one etiolated plant becomes four. Move all of them somewhere brighter, and increase light gradually — a plant moved straight from a dim room to full summer sun sunburns, and the scars are permanent.
Colour is the early warning. Many succulents are green in low light and develop red, purple or orange edges under stress from strong light, cold nights or drought. A plant that has gone plain green and soft is telling you it is not getting enough of any of those.
Watering, which is where nearly all of them die
Succulents are killed by kindness far more often than by neglect, and the mechanism is root rot rather than the water itself.
- Soak thoroughly, then let it dry out completely. Water until it runs from the drainage hole, then do not water again until the compost is dry all the way down. Small frequent sips keep the top wet and the roots thirsty — the worst of both.
- A pot without a drainage hole will eventually kill the plant. The decorative ceramic bowls succulents are sold in are the single most common cause of death. Repot, or use the bowl as a cachepot with the plant in a plastic liner.
- Use gritty compost. Half potting compost and half coarse sand, perlite or pumice. Ordinary houseplant compost holds far too much water for too long.
- Terracotta helps. It breathes, so the compost dries faster and the margin for error is wider.
- Water much less in winter. Most succulents rest when light levels drop; a monthly splash is often enough. Aeoniums are the exception and grow in winter.
Reading the signs: overwatered leaves are translucent, yellow, mushy and drop from the bottom of the plant. Underwatered leaves wrinkle, shrivel and go crisp from the bottom. Wrinkled is recoverable in a day; translucent and mushy usually is not.
Which are safe with pets, and which are not
Most succulents are non-toxic, and a few genuinely are not. Filter the key above by "toxic to pets" for the full list; the short version:
Avoid in a house with animals: every Euphorbia, kalanchoe of any species including mother of thousands and panda plant, jade plant, aloe, agave, snake plant, ZZ plant and string of pearls. Mother of thousands deserves particular caution because it scatters rooted plantlets across the floor.
Listed non-toxic: haworthia, gasteria, echeveria, sempervivum, sedum, graptopetalum, hoya, Christmas cactus, ponytail palm, lithops and true cacti — though a cactus is a mechanical hazard even when it is not a chemical one.
The mechanical hazards are worth naming separately, because they injure people rather than pets. Agave terminal spines cause eye injuries and are worth trimming on any plant beside a path. Opuntia glochids are almost invisible, detach on the lightest brush and are removed with adhesive tape or a layer of PVA glue peeled off when dry — tweezers rarely work. And euphorbia latex is a chemical hazard rather than a mechanical one, and the most serious thing in this section.
28 entries here cover the succulents actually sold in garden centres and grown on windowsills. The wider group runs to many thousands of species, and rare-plant collecting has driven serious poaching pressure on wild populations of dudleya, conophytum and several cacti — buy nursery-propagated stock, and be sceptical of unusually cheap wild-collected specimens.
What the observation record shows
Every entry in this key that carries a scientific name is matched against GBIF, the international register of biodiversity records, and against iNaturalist. That puts a hard number behind 27 of the 28succulents here: 62,382 georeferenced records across the 19 entries that resolve to a single species, spanning 9 families, the oldest of them collected in 1926. The snapshot was taken on 2026-09-04.
That evidence is not spread evenly, and it is worth knowing before you trust a narrow result. The five best-recorded succulents in this key hold 91% of all the records between them: Hens and chicks alone accounts for 43,781, while String of pearls has 23. A common thing is common in the data too, so when a filter narrows to one frequent entry and one rare one, the frequent one is usually the answer — and the record count is the quickest way to see which is which. The same skew applies geographically: 36% of these records come from France, so the key describes what is reported there far better than it describes anywhere else.
When these are actually reported
Half of every record for this group falls in April–July. A raw month count measures two things at once — when the organism is about, and when people are outdoors with a camera — and the second effect is large enough to give almost anything a summer peak. The line on the figure divides each month by the baseline for every species in every Orvik key, which answers a different question: relative to when people record anything at all, when are these succulents recorded? Values above 1.0 are the months that belong to this group rather than to the season. On that measure 10 of the 19succulents here peak outside the warm half of the year — Snake plant, Bunny ears cactus, Jade plant among them. Those are the ones a seasonal rule of thumb gets wrong.
Records behind each entry
Sorted by how much evidence exists, not by how likely you are to meet one. The peak month is the effort-adjusted figure, and it is left blank wherever the sample is too thin for the month-to-month wobble to mean anything.
| Entry | Accepted name | Rank | GBIF records | Research-grade | Half fall in | Peak, adjusted | Most reported from |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hens and chicks | Sempervivum tectorum L. | species | 43,781 | 10,352 | May–Jul | July | France |
| Euphorbia — pencil cactus and African milk tree | Euphorbia tirucalli L. | species | 5,377 | 13,030 | Mar–Jul | April | South Africa |
| Snake plant | Dracaena trifasciata (Prain) Mabb. | species | 2,951 | — | Feb–Jun | November | Brazil |
| Bunny ears cactus | Opuntia microdasys (Lehm.) Pfeiff. | species | 2,557 | 10,120 | Jan–Jun | November | Mexico |
| Jade plant | Crassula ovata (Mill.) Druce | species | 2,321 | 28,409 | Mar–Jul | February | South Africa |
| Hoya | Hoya carnosa (L.fil.) R.Br. | species | 2,098 | 6,367 | Mar–Jul | November | Taiwan |
| Mother of thousands | Kalanchoe daigremontiana Raym.-Hamet & H.Perrier | species | 1,117 | 12,628 | Jan–Jun | February | Spain |
| Ponytail palm | Beaucarnea recurvata (K.Koch & Fintelm.) Lem. | species | 551 | 4,645 | May–Aug | August | Mexico |
| Kalanchoe | Kalanchoe blossfeldiana Poelln. | species | 325 | 27,097 | Jan–Jun | March | Colombia |
| Snake plant impostor: Sansevieria cylindrica | Dracaena angolensis (Welw. ex Carrière) Byng & Christenh. | species | 295 | — | Jan–May | February | the United States |
| ZZ plant | Zamioculcas zamiifolia (G.Lodd.) Engl. | species | 188 | 10,149 | Jan–Jun | December | South Africa |
| Old man cactus | Cephalocereus senilis (Haw.) Pfeiff. | species | 168 | 729 | Aug–Dec | December | Mexico |
| String of hearts | Ceropegia woodii Schltr. | species | 139 | 739 | Nov–Feb | — | South Africa |
| Panda plant | Kalanchoe tomentosa Baker | species | 134 | 2,539 | Aug–Dec | March | MG |
| Golden barrel cactus | Kroenleinia grusonii (Hildm.) Lodé | species | 110 | 11,754 | Feb–May | — | Spain |
| Aloe vera | Aloe barbadensis Mill. | species | 98 | 48,174 | Feb–Apr | — | Mexico |
| Ghost plant | Graptopetalum paraguayense (N.E.Br.) Walther | species | 97 | 7,801 | Feb–May | — | Spain |
| Burro's tail | Sedum morganianum Walther | species | 52 | 2,515 | Feb–May | — | Mexico |
| String of pearls | Curio rowleyanus (H.Jacobsen) P.V.Heath | species | 23 | 1,868 | Jun–Oct | — | South Africa |
| Sedum and stonecrop | Sedum L. | genus | 1,146,952 | 315,712 | May–Jul | June | France |
| Prickly pear | Opuntia Mill. | genus | 331,834 | 539,811 | Mar–Jul | November | the United States |
| Agave | Agave L. | genus | 120,762 | — | Jan–Jun | November | Mexico |
| Aeonium | Aeonium Webb & Berthel. | genus | 17,654 | 48,671 | Jan–May | December | Spain |
| Echeveria | Echeveria DC. | genus | 10,479 | 43,518 | Mar–Aug | November | Mexico |
| Gasteria | Gasteria Duval | genus | 2,207 | 4,019 | Aug–Nov | November | South Africa |
| Haworthia | Haworthiopsis G.D.Rowley | genus | 2,109 | 10,255 | Feb–Jul | February | South Africa |
| Living stones | Lithops N.E.Br. | genus | 569 | 2,140 | Feb–Jun | November | South Africa |
This table is assembled from open data and is free to reuse with a link back to this page. The snapshot behind every Orvik key is published as one downloadable file on the open field data page, with each source's licence terms.
Questions people ask about this
Is my plant a cactus or just a succulent?
Look for areoles — small round felted cushions from which spines, flowers and new branches all emerge. Only cacti have them. Euphorbias, which look convincingly cactus-like, have paired spines directly on the ridges and bleed copious white latex when cut. All cacti are succulents, but most succulents are not cacti.
Why has my succulent gone tall and leggy?
Not enough light. The plant is stretching towards a window and it will not compact again. Behead the rosette with a few centimetres of stem, let the cut callus over for several days, and set it on dry compost to root; the stump usually sprouts several new heads. Then move everything somewhere brighter, increasing the light gradually so it does not sunburn.
How often should I water a succulent?
There is no schedule — water when the compost is dry all the way through, then soak it until water runs from the drainage hole. In a bright warm room that might be weekly in summer and monthly in winter. Small frequent sips are the worst approach, because they keep the surface wet and the roots dry. A pot with no drainage hole will kill the plant eventually.
What is the difference between an aloe and an agave?
Aloe leaves are soft and filled with clear gel, with soft white teeth along the edges. Agave leaves are hard and fibrous, ending in a rigid needle spine, usually with hooked spines on the margins. It matters practically: agave sap causes contact dermatitis and the terminal spines cause eye injuries, while aloe gel is a traditional skin remedy.
Which succulents are safe for cats and dogs?
Haworthia, gasteria, echeveria, sempervivum, sedum, graptopetalum, hoya, Christmas cactus, ponytail palm and lithops are all listed non-toxic. Avoid every Euphorbia, all kalanchoes including mother of thousands, jade plant, aloe, agave, snake plant, ZZ plant and string of pearls. Cacti are chemically harmless and mechanically not.
My succulent leaves are wrinkling. Too much or too little water?
Too little. Wrinkled, shrivelled, crisp leaves starting from the bottom mean the plant is drawing on its own reserves, and a good soak usually fixes it within a day. Translucent, yellow, mushy leaves that fall off at a touch mean too much water and root rot, which is far harder to recover from and often needs the plant beheaded and re-rooted.
How do I get the spines out after touching a prickly pear?
The large spines pull out with tweezers. The real problem is glochids — the tufts of tiny barbed bristles at each areole, which are almost invisible and come off on the lightest contact. Press adhesive tape onto the area and pull, or spread a layer of PVA glue, let it dry and peel it off. Handle Opuntia with tongs or folded newspaper, never bare hands.
Still not sure? Point a camera at it
A filter narrows succulents down to a shortlist. Orvik reads the photo itself and names the species, with the look-alikes ranked underneath so you can check the call yourself.