My Kalanchoe beharensis leaves root anywhere, anytime, so I am not surprised by this. Every time a leaf is broken off, which is quite often, soon after I see roots on the leaf, no matter where it may be. One of many reasons I love Kalanchoes...

Christopher.

Many Kals make roots or babies when injured/broken/in danger of extinction (IMHO). Ha! :) I've seen it many times!

I would love to experiment, but Santa has YET to bring me Time in a Bottle, as requested every year! :P

If you do experiment, I'd love to see your findings, Tiffany!

Thanks for the responses. This seems counter-intuitive to the usual advice about keeping them dry, and other leaves I've seen rot if they get wet before turning out babies, and some K. blossfeldiana leaves rotted too. I've never heard of water propagation discussed here, though I don't by a long shot read every discussion.

So letting them callous first would not be necessary?

It is best to note the plant used in the experiment at that link is Kalanchoe pinnata. I think its common name is Life Plant. While many Kals do make offspring readily (on the edges of their leaves), I'm not sure many would pass this experiment. So, like I said, I'm curious to see your results. :) I think in the old days, folks would pin a leaf to a curtain & plantlets would grow (*maybe* how it got its species name, but that's just a guess!).

TY, Rosemarie! It sounds like you don't think all Kal species would necessarily respond well.

When you say pinned to curtain, do you mean by piercing, or by wedging the pin around it without?

Hopefully I can keep curiosity at bay until plants can go back outside since I now want to include 'pinned' in the experiment. I don't have room for this inside now, but that doesn't always stop me. Soil surface vs. bowl of water vs. pinned. Same window to gauge in even exposure.

The only thing that could go wrong is a disappointingly low number of species in the experiment. About 8-10 come to mind in residence here. Anyone who thinks the experiment should include a particular plant should definitely contact me to see if I have it, maybe sending me a cutting in the name of science if I don't. (For which I would gladly reimburse postage, or send something desired in return.) Speaking of which, I know I don't have K. pinnata - this experiment is stalled until then at least. I'm sure philanthropy, curiosity mixed with laziness, or even luck, will prevail. I have optimism!

See link below for fun, old article. I don't think it matters how you pin it. No, I don't believe all plants in Kalanchoe will do this. See the other common names used.

I do not own K. pinnata. :(

Optimism is good!

This article talks about pinning the leaf. They even show you correct pronunciation for Kalanchoe. A plus in my book! :D
http://www.nytimes.com/1984/12/27/garden/gardening-for-indoor-color-a-kalanchoe-plantz.html

Long ago, one person online wrote this:

furballs writes: Now known as Bryophyllum, this one might be B. pinnatum, formerly K. pinnata. Aka Air plant, Life plant, Mother of Millions. The mother of millions name is pretty common for many plants in this family, as with some others that produce little rooted plantlets on their leaves like this one does. Certainly tough, and you'll never run out, even if all you have left is one leaf ! I can remember having one leaf of this pinned to a curtain for months before it finally gave up, dropping babies all the time, seemingly living solely on air, hence the Air plant name.

Here is a link that might be useful: Kal pinnata article

You'll find the kalanchoe article at the link on p. 22, at the top left.

Pinning a Kalanchoe leaf to the wall (curtain, etc.) is an old botany-biology teaching gimmick used to hopefully challenge students to think about living things. Students would be asked to check the leaf for weeks to determine when they thought the leaf was dead. Often used K. daigrementoniana with plantlets, but K. pinnata might be better.

I have never heard of anyone placing a K. leaf in water and getting plantlets so congratulations. I would put a leaf in a dark place (desk drawer) and it seemed to work fine at getting results; just about any reasonable severe stress will work. Most Kalanchoe cannot produce any sort of plantlet no matter what you do.

Steve Jankalski prepared a listing of 18 Kalanchoe which produce plantlets (bulbils, gemmae, etc.) which is part of a review that covers the family Crassulaceae. Crassula multicava is widely grown and an example of a non-Kalanchoe which produces plantlets.

Interesting that you dealt with K. pinnata which does not produce plantlets unless induced (through stress). I've lost K. pinnata, but have lots of K. 'Magic Bells' which is close to it so will put a leaf in water as well as one in a drawer.

Does your K. pinnata have pinnate leaves? Yale

Missingtheobvious, thanks for pointing out which page the article was on! It mistakenly led me to believe that the link I posted would take you directly to it! Ha! I did not double check the link.

Yale, I believe Tiffany does not have a Kalanchoe pinnata. I think she's going to do experiments with the Kals she has & let us know the results. I gave that link to the leaf experiment on another post in the Name That Plant forum of someone asking the ID on a K. pinnata. Tiffany thought it would be fun to try.

Then, we got off on a tangent!

Yes, sorry, it's not my experiment in the link. I was just blown away by it, & filled with questions about it. It's true, I'm sadly lacking K. pinnata (which I never heard of until a few days ago and now seem to need since this came to my attention.) But I'm sure that will be fixed by the time I can start experimenting in the spring.

TY, Missing! I couldn't find it (then got distracted,) but have just read it. (It's amazing to me that a Kalanchoe could live in the soil recipe mentioned.) Try this. TY, Rosemarie & Missing for teaching me something new about Google, fascinating!
- Tiffany

myfss, could you find this list and/or direct me in the correct direction? I have been unable to find it. Please find referenced list below:

"Steve Jankalski prepared a listing of 18 Kalanchoe which produce plantlets (bulbils, gemmae, etc.) which is part of a review that covers the family Crassulaceae. Crassula multicava is widely grown and an example of a non-Kalanchoe which produces plantlets."

Zacherie,
Until Yale comes back to see this &to confirm or correct, I'll say there is such a paper by S.J. at the Yahoo group called Crassulaceae. It is now pretty much defunct & is run/moderated by S.J.

You won't be able to see the doc unless you become a member. If you are a member or do become one, you can find the paper under the Files section, the name of the paper is listed as Crassulaceae-viviparous.htm

It was written in May 2002, so many of the names listed have been reclassified since. Bryophyllum are now considered Kalanchoe once again. Seeing in your profile you are in the botany field, you will understand when I say the species names have also changed under the rules of Latinization of them. Some have been renamed. For instance, Bryophyllum 'Houghton's Hybrid' is now Kalanchoe x houghtonii.

In this list, S.J. has given a key, telling where on the plant the plantlets can be found growing. (very handy to know) You would have to do some homework to work out all the new names, though.

If you do not want to join that group, you can contact me via email on my profile page & I can email the doc to you. (I will try to remember to look at that rarely used email to check for the next few days.) Just now see you have EM addy I can send to~so I'll do that to get your EM addy to send doc...if that's what you want.

Nothing with water yet, but I needed to remove these leaves from one of my plants (blocking light from tiny companions.) I set them in a windowsill about 3 weeks ago. All of them still feel as firm as they did weeks ago. The one baby fell off when I picked them up. Fun!

Excellent job purpleinopp.

Hey Rosemariero:

Thank you for the list, it was exceedingly helpful and interesting.

The leaf is from Kalanchoe 'Magic Bells' and is indistinguishable from K. pinnate. It has been very slow in producing the few plantlets. I did not get any results in putting a similar leaf in water. Yale