Showerthought: That $80 'rare' succulent was just a stressed out common one

I spent $80 on a succulent at a boutique nursery in Portland last spring because it had this crazy deep purple color. Turned out it was just a regular Echeveria that was stressed from too much light and no water. I kept babying it with shade and extra water, and within 3 weeks it turned plain green and looked exactly like the $5 ones at Home Depot. Felt like such a fool when my buddy pointed it out. Anybody else get tricked by a plant that was just stressed?

2 comments

2 Comments

theathomas28d agoMost Upvoted

Gently push back on the idea that stress is always the culprit here though. The color change you saw is definitely a real thing that happens with succulents, but it's usually more about sunlight than water. Those deep purple and red colors come from anthocyanin production, which is basically the plant's natural sunscreen when it gets blasted with intense light. If you moved it to shade and watered more, you basically told the plant it didn't need that protection anymore. Echeverias actually do need some direct sun to hold their colors, so maybe try giving it a few hours of morning light again and see if the purple comes back without you having to starve it. Just don't go full desert on it all at once or you'll actually stress it out in a bad way.

emmam3228d ago

Wait wait... "natural sunscreen"? That's actually a thing plants do? I always thought succulents just changed colors for fun or something... mind blown right now honestly.

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