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All of the four karasmontana seed capsules have dried up by now and react to water. Still, I'm going to leave the seeds inside for some time. Click for a larger pic to see how thin the membrane is.

Speaking of weird shapes. You might remember this lesliei from this post . It looked ridiculous back then, with the heads looking in different directions. A year later it had a much better appearance but there was still some weirdness shining through. This year it had a new surprise prepared. It has grown a 3rd head but in a very unusual manner. See for yourself: Figure 1 If you're new to lithops I'll explain what's unusual about it. If one head of a lithops is turning into two heads they look like a four-leaf clover at first, the fissures building a line (figure 1).  Figure 2 What's wrong on this picture is that the one new head is twisted (figure 2). I guess this plant is just a rebel, doing things its own way. I gladly welcome the weirdness as long as the plant is healthy. On a side note, I bought it on a Succulent Expo as a hybrid lesliei Fred's Redhead x lesliei v. minor C6A. It doesn't seem to have much from a Redhead and I'll still need to see the...

I was most excited to see this one seedling regenerate. As mentioned before I've had a "greenie" germinated among the regular lesliei v. mariae C141 in October 2010. It was weirdly shaped all the time but with this leaf-change it's clear how special it really is. 

I've tried to capture the smoothly green beauty of the bromfieldii Sulphurea many times but it just eludes my camera. Too much sunlight and it's being reflected excessively, too little sunlight and the colors don't appear right. These plants like to be observed in real life. :)

... in all forms and colors. This one looks so cozy.  These guys should have white flowers one day.

I've sown these beautiful gracilidelineata sometime 2009. There were seeds with four cole numbers C189, C261, C309 and C373 all in one pot but separated. Long story short, it got knocked over and the small seedlings got mixed up. Now, two years later, the survivors are doing well and, interestingly enough, look very uniform so that I'm guessing only one cole number survived. The question is which one? I bet on C261. What do you think? (click for xxl)

Proceeding on the regeneration report 2012, a lot is going on these cold sunny days. One of the flashy karasmontanas 'Top Red' gives a glimpse of its new leaves. The new lobes of the schwantesii C248 are very beautiful as they shine in the sunlight. Fulviceps 'Aurea' are almost done. Gesinae is far along as well. Helmutii has a long way to go though.

You know I'm a lesliei fan, right? I think one of the oh so many reasons is how very young seedlings have the color and pattern of the adult plants with their very first "real" leaves already. They're tiny but all grown-up. ;) PS: With so much sunlight coming through the window they seem to grow in front of your eyes these days.

I've mentioned the julii seedlings (cv. 'kōsōgyoku', sown on the 29th of July, 2011) in the previous entry but they're so small I'm not able to take a proper picture. Nevertheless I'd like to show you this little guy. It isn't that rare for the small seedlings to have three lobes but it is the first time it happens to me :) The patterns are very faint at this stage but if they continue to grow at this rate they should grow into something very beautiful soon.

I'm pretty bad at growing julii, or maybe just at growing white-flowered lithops since I really can't figure out those salicola guys, still some are doing well and even the seedlings seem to grow nicely this time. This one has skipped a year but is now growing two heads.

Only a couple of sunny weeks and the lithops are showing their new leaves more and more every day. The dorotheae are working through the old leaves really well but there's still no hurry in watering. ;) I'm especially looking forward to watering these two and seing their interesting patterns clearly once they start to grow and get rid of the wrinkles.

I always thought if an adult lithops decides to change it's skin two times in one season it was getting way too much food and is now acting out. This mightn't be the only reason. Out of some kind of disbalance this fulviceps has now 3 sets of leaves, even though it grows in pure and poor pumice and didn't get fertilizer more than once over the year. I guess the glitch started when it decided to push a flower in early August last year.