What is a Succulent Plant?

Series Summary

Succulent plants, or fat plants, are a water-retaining family of plants which store water in their leaves, stems or roots. Residing mainly in dry areas where water storage would be most valuable, the succulent family includes cactus plants, aloe plants and other desert dwellers. Most succulent plants also contain waxy, hairy, or spiny outer surfaces, which reduce the amount of water loss to the plant by creating a humid habitat around the surface and reducing the air movement near the surface of the succulent. Their resistance to drought and easy maintenance makes cacti and other succulents popular house plants, and a simple addition to an outdoor garden in dry climates.

In this free video series Nicole Pantaleon, an expert in plant and soil science, will demonstrate how to grow and propagate cactus and succulent plants. She will instruct on the proper way to cut and pot cactus or any other succulent plant. She will also give gardening tips and advice on how much to water your cacti and how much light succulents need to grow happy and healthy. If you're looking for a beautiful and easy addition to your house plants or garden, this video will give you all the information you'll need to get started on your next cactus or succulent plant!

Video Transcript

"OK, first we should start by defining succulents. Succulents refer to a wide family and genre of plants with a common characteristics of having stems, roots, and/or leaves consisting of fleshy, water storing tissue. You can see how nice and fat all of these leaves are. Most of them are native to warm climates so this is a way to hold on to moisture when you most need it, If you are in the desert. All cactus are succulents but not all succulents are cactus. The cactus differ in that they have no leaves and the stem contains chlorophyll and functions in place of the leaves. Some of the spines, they are considered to be modified leaves. We can tell the types of succulents we have here vary a lot. We have this nice big blue one, they come in a range of colors and shapes, this one is fuzzy, the cactus. Again, we have this red one, we have this one that looks like prickly pear, this one that has very small thorns on it, this one has even bigger thorns. All different shapes and sizes of plants that we have."