Haworthia is a genus of perennial plants that received its name in 1809 in honor of the English botanist, specialist in cacti and succulents Adrian Haworth. The genus belongs to the subfamily Asphodelaceae of the family Xanthorrhoeaceae and is closely related to other Asphodelaceae - aloe, gasteria, kniphofia. In its homeland, South Africa, Haworthia grows in the shade of other plants and has a structure adapted to rocky and sandy rocks. Its stems are fleshy, leathery, serve as a kind of pantry for storing moisture and nutrients.
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It has a small size, even an adult specimen reaches only 10-15 cm in height. Unusual dark green leaves can be narrowed or blunt (as if cut off) at the ends to varying degrees, convex on one side and keeled on the other. The leaves are folded into rosettes that have no stem at all, or a very short one. The appearance of Haworthia is so unique that in its appearance you can see absolutely fantastic figures resembling minerals, stalagmites and stalactites, decorated with pearl tubercles.
It is interesting that some Haworthias have a root system designed in such a way that when humidity is high, the plant stretches out, the rosette rises above the surface of the earth, and on dry days, on the contrary, it presses its body to the ground, thereby reducing the area of moisture release.
The miniature succulent Haworthia can have many forms and varieties, in nature they often cross with representatives of other species, so it is quite difficult to classify them. In addition, the Haworthia genus continues to evolve, this process is accompanied by a change in the population and speciation. Therefore, botanists find it difficult to determine the exact number of species of this labile succulent. So some count 60 species in the genus Haworthia (according to Bayer’s classification), while others count more than 600 (according to Hayashi’s classification).
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