Bryophyllum Salisb.
Perennial herbs, subshrubs or shrubs. Lvs alternate, opposite or verticillate, free, simple and entire, toothed, or pinnatifid to pinnate, often with pseudobulbs or plantlets on margins, not crowded into dense terminal rosettes but borne along stems. Infl. of cymes usually arranged in thyrses, sometimes corymbose, generally with many fls, usually terminal. Fls 4-merous, ± pendulous. Calyx usually divided to much < 1/2 way, sometimes divided to c. ⅚; lobes equal. Petals united to form a tube > lobes, somewhat fleshy, greenish or purplish red; tube broadly cylindric to urceolate, 4-angled; lobes spreading or reflexed. Stamens 8, in 2 equal or unequal whorls, epipetalous, ± exserted. Scales free, linear to quadrate or semiannular. Carpels 4, ± connate at base. Seeds numerous.
Key
30-35 spp., Old World tropics, mostly Madagascar. Naturalised spp. 2.
Many spp. of this genus are noteworthy for the lf plantlets which are easily detached and produce new plants. In N.Z. they form the usual or only means of increase for those spp. in which they occur.
Bryophyllum is often included in Kalanchoe but differs in the key characters given above and by having styles > follicles, rather than usually < follicles as in Kalanchoe.
