Kalanchoe Adans.
Herbs, usually biennial or perennial, sometimes annual, sometimes subshrubs or small shrubs. Lvs usually opposite and decussate, free or connate at base, simple, entire, toothed or rarely pinnatifid, not crowded in terminal rosettes. Infl. a corymbose, paniculate or thyrsoid cyme, usually terminal with many fls. Fls 4-merous, ± erect. Calyx divided from c. 1/2 way to almost the base; lobes equal. Petals somewhat fleshy, forming a tube > lobes; lobes free, erect to reflexed, white, yellow to deep red, or sometimes purplish; tube rather narrowly cylindric, 4-angled. Stamens 8, in 2 unequal whorls, epipetalous, usually included. Scales free, very variable in shape. Carpels 4, slightly connate at base. Seeds numerous.
70-100 spp., Old World tropics, especially southern and E. Africa and Madagascar, 1 in tropical S. America. Naturalised sp. 1.
Several ornamental spp. of this large genus are commonly in cultivation in N.Z., especially the well-known house plant Kalanchoe blossfeldiana Poelln., with its large, scarlet, corymbose infls, and the very different K. tomentosa Baker, panda plant, with its large white felty lvs with prominent brown teeth.
