Klienia fulgens was known
as Senecio fulgens Coral Senecio, Koraalsenecio Article by Geoff Nichols
This plant is another of the species that I consider an indicator
of pre-1940 gardens in the Durban and Pietermaritzburg area. The early colonists
in KZN must have seen this species more frequently than we do today. Mainly
because they travelled by horse or ox-wagon and had to follow the contours
or the lines of least resistance. This would have forced them to follow valley
and cliff lines thus making the Coral Senecio very visible on the cliff ledges
and cracks that was its home.
The visibility of this species would vary from season to season. The Autumn
flowering time from May through to June that will stretch to July as you
move further inland is the most obvious time to find this species on the
cliffs.
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The
bright orange red flower heads resemble a thistle. Each head is about 20mm
across when fully open. In the each head are thirty to forty small individual
flowers. The flowers attract many butterflies and other insects that pollinate
them.
The foliage is succulent and has a blue-grey colour. On the cliffs of its
natural habitat the shiny blue-grey leaves and stems tend to stand out and
again the plants can be seen from a fair way away. The fleshy stems tend
to grow out over the cliff and hang down, then grow back up towards the light.
This habit is very obvious when grown as a container or bedding plant.
This plant is extremely easy to propagate hence its popularity in days
gone by. It lasted for weeks out of soil and once returned to the soil roots
will form at the nodes and the plant carries on growing as if nothing had
happened.
The Coral Senecio does best in sunny warm places with plenty of water and
fertilizer in summer and then a proper dormant period in the winter will
make this species flower profusely. It grows well as a verandah or balcony
plant. It also tends to be quite disease resistant. The only pests that I
have noticed on the plant are mealy bug on poorly fed and grown plants.
