Botanical Family · Saxifragales

Crassulaceae

Orpine Or Stonecrop Family

14 speciesOrder Saxifragales8+ well-known plants

The Crassulaceae family (Orpine Or Stonecrop Family) is a botanical family placed in the order Saxifragales. In the SASYA catalogue it spans 14 species across 4 genera. Its members are predominantly herbs. Well-represented genera include Kalanchoe, Bryophyllum and Crassula. Several members are valued in traditional medicine. Familiar examples include Air plant, jade plant and Ghost-plant.

Browse all 14 species ↓

Representative specimen · Crassulaceae

Key pattern

Thick, water-storing succulent leaves, often arranged in a neat rosette; star-shaped flowers with petals equal in number to the sepals open in dense terminal clusters, each ripening into a cluster of small dry follicles.

Uses a specialised water-saving photosynthesis (CAM) that opens its pores only at night, letting the family thrive in dry, sun-baked, rocky habitats where most herbs cannot.

Identify the species

Which Crassulaceae species is this?

Answer what you can see and narrow it down to a single Crassulaceae species.

Click a node to trace its path · pinch or scroll to zoom · drag to pan

Leaf ShapeWhat shape are the succulent leaves?

Deeply cut/lobed

Elliptic

Large, flat, elongated

Narrow tubular/cylindrical

Obovate

Ovate

Round, thick, fleshy

Family identification method

To check whether a plant belongs to Crassulaceae, compare the leaf arrangement, leaf type, flower symmetry, fruit type, and one distinctive marker together. A single feature can mislead; the family pattern is the combination.

Learn the full family-identification method