I got this unlabeled plant from Wal-Mart about 4 years ago. My own searches have not been satisfactory. Google images has several that look very similar, but with different names. Graptoveria, Echeveria and I think a couple of more. So I'm hoping someone else might have been strolling through Wal-Mart a few years ago and had the same impulse to buy. It has a five petaled bloom that is yellow with small brown markings.

This could be a possibility:
Graptosedum (XGraptosedum 'Bronze')

Thank you, Tiffany.

Yes, I think that is probably it. Interesting. This info took me to the database which contained a former ATP thread. That thread referenced this site:

http://crassulaceae.net/xgrapt...

which contained this info:

" 'Bronze'
Origin unknown / Origine inconnue.
Parentage / Parenté : Graptopetalum paraguayense x Sedum stahlii (?)
Named by / Nommé par Marjorie Shields, New Zealand, as a Sedum hybrid (Nat. Cact. & Succ. Journ. 33 (4): 86, 1978).
Also distributed as / Aussi distribué comme : xG. ‘Vera Higgins’, xG. ‘Coffee’, xG. ‘Alpenglow’ (ISI 2001-34), Graptopetalum Roseum n.n."

So along with 'Vera Higgins', this plant is distributed under the names of 'Bronze', 'Coffee', 'Alpenglow' and Roseum. The photos on that site match everything about the plant I'm growing. But listing all the given names is a hassle, but I think Graptopetalum paraguayense x Sedum stahlii (?) is going to make it a Graptosedum. It's amazing how many common names plants acquire. And I probably don't want to know how many other plants may share the same common name. 'Alpenglow' sounds awfully familiar

I guess from looking at that link, though. Mine could also be 'Bert Swanwick'. That also looks like my plant and is from the same cross as the other one, but using different clones. That's about as identical genetically as you could get, so it's not surprising 'Bert' and 'Vera' look alike.

Another question. I'm trying to figure out from the above "Graptopetalum Roseum n.n." This doesn't seem to be another common name like 'Bronze' or 'Vera Higgins', but seems to be saying it's a variant of Graptopetalum paraguayense. What does "n.n." mean? Anyone know? I couldn't find any further references to G. Roseum, but the way it's written indicates it would not be a hybrid, just a variant of Graptopetalum. Who arbitrates the nomenclature for these plants?

@valleylynn might have insight.

nomen nudem, nom. nud. or n.n.
Indicates that the plant in question has not yet been validly described.

The source for genus names is usually the Catalogue of Life.

http://www.catalogueoflife.org...
http://www.catalogueoflife.org...

An article on graptopetalum: http://crassulaceae.net/grapto...
http://www.crassulaceae.ch/de/...
http://www.smgrowers.com/produ...

You may have already read some of these. I don't know what the n. n. means.
It will help identify your plant when it blooms, but it really does look like Graptosedum 'Vera Higgins'.
Nice plant you have.

Thank you Tiffany, we cross posted.

This was labeled Sedeveria 'Sorrento.'
Just took this pic, the buds are pinkish but could be yellow flowers inside:


Sedeveria (XSedeveria Sorrento™)

Very nice. I would love to see the bloom when it opens.
It gets so confusing trying to sift through the different graptopedalum and graptosedum.

Thanks everyone. Here are some more photos of the bud, the flower and the original plant. The smgrowers.com link described the bloom as having 4 petals and the buds as being pink. The buds aren't pink, but the spathes or bud covering takes on the same reddish pinkish hue the leaves do and that may be why they are describing them as pink. The flowers definitely have 5 petals. The look very much like the flower on the 'Bert Swanwick' specimen shown on the crassulaceae.net site. I don't see how anyone could tell 'Vera Higgins' apart from 'Bert Swanwick' based on the photos shown. Any visual differences could easily be accounted for by light, growing conditions and things of that sort.

I do think Tiffany's definition of n.n. puts the whole Graptopetalum Roseum bit in a lot of doubt as to its validity.

So pictures. The bud:


The bloom:


The old plant. The first photo is a newer batch from this one, which is where the blooms are. It's pretty much been in bloom all summer.


Sorry if the photos aren't clear enough. I find it really hard to get sharp close-ups. I think the camera is capable, but the operator falls short. At this point I'm inclined to think this is Graptosedum, but not willing to distinguish between the cultivars 'Bert Swanwick' or 'Vera Higgins' from what I can see. What do you think?

You should try germinating some of the seed.

Just what I need, Lynn. More baby plants to take care of! I spent the day starting to get the garage clear for storing plants. I don't think there's enough room.

Will it make seeds, I wonder? I sorta figured it would be a sterile hybrid. After I read your post, I went and pulled off three dried blooms. One old one, one fairly recent (still with green) and one in between. I didn't see anything inside that looked like a seed. It may be I just don't know what I'm looking for and they are so small I can't see them, but mainly it just looked like a failed bloom shell without any kind of seed casing. I guess I could cut off the whole long bloom stalk and lay it out on a planting medium as is and see if anything happened. I might lose patience if something didn't happen pretty soon, though. What I'm seeing really doesn't look like something containing seeds.

You might be correct, it very well could be sterile.

"xG. ‘Bronze’ and xG. ‘Bert Swanwick’ are quite similar. The colour of the leaves is slightly different but the flowers are identical. That means the two hybrids are different clones most probably of the same crossing."

That blurb comes from the crassulaceae.net page which shows a series of photos of both XGraptosedum 'Bronze' aka 'Vera Higgins' etc and of XGraptosedum 'Bert Swanwick'. I have to say that mine has been variable on the color of the leaves depending on whether it was baking in full sun and I was forgetting to water it or depending on the time of year due probably to both sunlight length and temperature. Hard to know, but I'd be inclined to select mine as the 'Vera Higgins' clone based on the more reddish tint. I wonder if 'Bert Swanwick' ever got distributed outside Australia. The link:
http://crassulaceae.net/index....

At this point I would go with Vera Higgins. It sure is a beautiful plant.

Wish I'd pasted the link where I copied the info, I usually do, sorry for the omission. It was somewhere in Oxford dictionary but didn't show up again repeating the search I thought I did the other day.

Wiki does have a nice explanation:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N...

With any unknown plant, I never attach a cultivar name unless it's beyond dispute. Cultivars of ornamental plants are usually patented, so any name without a patent attached might not actually be a cultivar name, but a cutesy name attached by the grower or retailer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C...

Donald, love your pics! My little guys want to look like that when they grow up!

I agree, Tiffany. I won't be putting any photos in the database for that reason. I'm satisfied that it's XGraptosedum, but not certain about the cultivar name. If old 'Bert' didn't exist or if there was information indicating it remained in Australia, then it'd be okay. While it seems likely that mine is 'Vera' which seems to have been more widely distributed, I would have to see mine growing side x side with two known cultivars to assign a name with any certainty. In fact, those two look so much the same to me I wonder if even that would be enough. There would have to be some clearly distinct difference between them when grown under identical conditions. If folks aren't careful, it just makes identification of a plant even worse. It's bad enough at how often they get reclassified by genus and species by the botanists. I think as time goes on, the DNA identification factor may help stabilize some of that.

Eloquently said, Donald. Easier for those learning the new names from the jump, but will all of the info attached to the old name be available? IDK.