Kalanchoe tomentosa, also known as the panda plant, pussy ears, or chocolate soldier, is a species of succulent plant in the family Crassulaceae. A native of Madagascar, it is widely cultivated as an ornamental plant due to its distinctive velvety, silver-green leaves with chocolate-brown markings. It has received the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.
Description
Kalanchoe tomentosa is a slow-growing, evergreen, semi-woody perennial succulent subshrub with an erect growth form. It can reach a height of 0.4 to 1 m (1.3 to 3.3 ft) and a spread of up to 0.9 m (3.0 ft), though it typically remains smaller in cultivation, around 30 to 50 cm (12 to 20 in). Young roots are red with white tips.
The most distinctive feature of the plant is its leaves, which are thick, fleshy, and oval-shaped, typically measuring up to 9 cm (3.5 in) in length. The leaves are arranged opposite or in a loose rosette and are densely covered with fine, silvery-white to grayish hairs (trichomes), giving them a velvety or felt-like texture. The leaf margins are scalloped and tipped with a series of dark brown to rusty-red spots or a continuous chocolate-brown rim, a characteristic that inspired the common name "chocolate soldier." In mature plants, young leaves appear whitish and erect, while older leaves become lighter green, less fuzzy, and more horizontal.
The flowers are small, tubular, and bell-shaped, measuring about 1 cm (0.39 in) in length, and are borne in panicles atop erect stalks that can reach up to 45 cm (18 in) in height. Flower colors range from greenish-white to yellow-green, sometimes with brown or purple petal tips. In their natural habitat, they bloom between March and June; however, indoor plants rarely flower. The fruit is a dry capsule containing numerous small seeds.
Taxonomy
The species was first described by the British botanist John Gilbert Baker in 1882 in the Journal of Botany, British and...
