Anacampseros rufescens

My New Phidippus Audax Roommate!

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Happy holidays!  Here to celebrate with me is my new spider friend, Audrey.  She's a bold jumping spider (Phidippus audax).  She must have hitched a ride indoors with me when I relocated all my plants in for the winter, but she's preferred to maintain a very low profile and only popped out recently (and only for two days).  There's a whole small ecosystem going on with my outdoor/indoor plants - there are ants, and beetles, and mites, and spiders... I could nuke them all with neem oil or diatomaceous earth, but as long as they aren't harming me or causing significant damage to my plants, I like being able to support the local fauna and they in turn pollinate my plants or like Audrey keep them safe from pest species.  I watched her hunt for prey on at least ten different plants, but due to the way in which I've set up my collection, I couldn't get clear photos on her on most of them.  The best photos of Audrey are of her posing atop my Matucana madisoniorum which serendipitously was in bloom at the time!  I also have a couple okay photos of her on my Anacampseros rufescens.

Anacampseros Rufescens Seedlings

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And speaking of seeds - my Anacampseros rufescens has bloomed repeatedly for me, and due to its self-fertile nature, it's produced seed pods at least twice that I've noticed.  I also suspect it's a monocarpic plant (though googling has only led me to one other person willing to make that statement, so who knows for sure) as each branch that blooms severely dies back.  Over time, this has meant my plant has become smaller and smaller.  So when I spotted another seed pod in late September that still had seeds in it, I pounced.  I grabbed it and then massaged it over the mother plant such that the tiny little seeds sprinkled into the same pot.  I wasn't sure that would do anything, but I figured it was worth a shot.  Several months later and... we have seedlings!  Adorable little Anacampseros rufescens seedlings, some of which are even sprouting telltale white hairs!  Take a peek - there are at least sixteen visible by my count and that's just one corner of the pot:

More Succulent Flowers!

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A few more of my houseplants decided to flower in the last couple months!  Here are a Gymnocalycium pflanzii v. albipulpa, Anacampseros rufescens, and Gasteria glomerata in various stages of blooming.  I also had a Phalaenopsis orchid in bloom but forgot to take photos; another one's been growing a flower stalk though so I should be able to photograph that one in a couple weeks.