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Aizoaceae FAMILY

Mesembryanthemum nodiflorum

Mesembryanthemum nodiflorum

Edibility
1/5
Medicinal
0/5

Safety & Hazards

None known

Cultivation Details

HabitAnnual
Growth—

Requires a sunny position. Easily grown in an ordinary well-drained garden soil[1, 2]. Succeeds in any well-drained low-fertility soil. This species uses the 'Crassulacean Acid Metabolism' (CAM) pathway to photosynthesis, a mechanism which aids in conserving moisture. The plant keeps its stomata closed during the day, opening them during the night when it takes in carbon dioxide and stores it in compounds such as malic acid. It then utilizes this carbon dioxide when photosynthesizing during the day. This type of mechanism is used by a range of mainly succulent plants, including cacti and Euphorbia species.

Propagation

Seed - sow spring in a greenhouse, only just covering the seed. When they are large enough to handle, prick the seedlings out into individual pots and plant them out after the last expected frosts. Seedlings are prone to damp off so should not be over watered and should be kept in a very sunny well-ventilated position[3]. Cite as: Temperate Plants Database, Ken Fern. temperate.theferns.info. 2026-02-21. <temperate.theferns.info/plant/Mesembryanthemum+nodiflorum>

Pollinators

Insects

References

  1. [1]RHS Dictionary of Plants plus Supplement. 1956 — F. Chittendon. · Oxford University Press · 1951 · ISBN - ↩︎Comprehensive listing of species and how to grow them. Somewhat outdated, it has been replaced in 1992 by a new dictionary (see [ 200 ]).
  2. [2]Salads all the Year Round. — Larkcom. J. · Hamlyn · 1980 ↩︎A good and comprehensive guide to temperate salad plants, with full organic details of cultivation.
  3. [3]The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992. — Huxley. A. · MacMillan Press · 1992 · ISBN 0-333-47494-5 ↩︎Excellent and very comprehensive, though it contains a number of silly mistakes. Readable yet also very detailed.
  4. [4]Flora of N. America — http://flora.huh.harvard.edu/fna/ ↩︎An on-line version of the flora with an excellent description of the plant including a brief mention of plant uses.
  5. [5]Antiviral activity of some Tunisian medicinal plants against Herpes simplex virus type 1 — Sassi, A. Ben, Harzallah-Skhiri, F., Bourgougnon, N. and Aou · 2008 · http:// http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14786410701589790 ↩︎
  6. [PFAF]Plants for a Future — pfaf.org ↩︎