LauraRobichaud,
You asked the million dollar question. Why do some pups spring out and grow while some sit and do nothing. I have some pups that for one year stayed the same. Grew nothing. Not up or across or any new leaves, then the plant will produce a new pup that shoots out and grows 12 inches in 3 months. One extreme to the other.
Right now I am experimenting with a new idea. When it passed thru this winter, I will tell the world. Starting here of course. So far so good. This may change the way we grow our sans. Or I fail and say nothing at all. Ha ha.
Stush, waiting for others to post

I know what you're saying, Stsh, about slow growing pups. Doesn't this tiny pup appear to have mature leaves that are only a few inches tall? That's what struck me.

Can't wait to see how your experiment unfolds!

There was a small sans called "'Silver Princess' with leaves that maxed out for me at about 8". I thought I had a photo, but alas, no. I'm trying to revive the plant now and if sucessful, I'll post a photo.

Hope it does stay small and continue to produce more leaves and produce pups. If it was stunted, the new growth will start to return to normal. Some how we don't like normal do we?

Dale,
Didn't know such a plant existed. Would love to know more.
Stush

How is it now? Still small?

Yes, it's still small. It got a little wrinkled and lost one of its older leaves. The pup has plumped back up over the last few days. Of course, being winter, I'm just trying to keep it alive and somewhat happy until it can go outside when it's warm!

So it is just a dwarf or stunted?

This is interesting. I have a couple little pups that came from propagated leaves. I put them in this 'planter' (aluminum roasting pan, holes punched in bottom) last spring and they haven't grown more than maybe 1/2 inch, though the one that's not out of focus did make it's own tiny pup, back and to the right, from this angle. The leaf that spawned these lil' pups was a normal leaf from the large type Sans in this discussion. We will see what's going on under the surface when I unpot everything in this planter in 2-3 months.

So yours came from a rhizome and mine came from a leaf prop.

The only thing different about this planter is that I didn't keep it as moist this past summer as I usually would for Sans in a pot, pandering more to the other plants in there that can't take consistent moisture. Part of the Stapelia shriveled up too, too dry for it.

no idea if it's a dwarf or stunted. I guess time will tell.

Purple..very cool that such a little plant produced a pup. Please update us when you unpot this in the spring!

IKR! Ever since I started paying more attention to these, they keep doing 'new' stuff. The chunk I sent to my Mom's house has done that thing where a pup forms in the rosette of an existing plant. Will see if it's still alive today & get a pic. I think it's out in the cold.

Stunted (from thirst) is the word I'd apply to the ones I showed, but it's just a guess. Observing is a blast, even if what I see usually doesn't make sense.

If it was stunted I don't "think" it would make a pup maby it's unusually small. If you fertilize them in the summer and they stay small then I would take it as a mini sans. Good luck.