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Mesembryanthemum cordifolium

 
Mesembryanthemum cordifolium
heart-leaf ice plant; baby sun rose

Synonym(s) Aptenia cordifolia
Common name heart-leaf ice plant; baby sun rose
Family aizoaceae
Life cycle tender perennial (Z9-11)
Flowers red
Size 3-6"
Light sun
Cultural notes well drained soil; drought-tolerant

Low-growing, mat-forming succulent from South Africa. Unlike their Delosperma relatives (also named ice plant) with narrower leaves, which in my experience stay small and cannot be readily encouraged to spread, this broad-leaved trailing plant is quite vigorous, threatening to overtake the entire rock garden with its heavy blanket of leaves. The flowers are cute enough, but don't occur in large enough numbers to make as large of an impact as seen on Delospermas. I think I'm going to have to move this one to a location where its ground-conquering ways won't cause too much harm.
According to what I've found on the internet, this plant is rated hardy only to zone 10, but mine survived a two-day arctic blast into the mid-teens without complaint, so I'd say it's hardy to at least zone 9, and probably zone 8b.
The species has escaped cultivation in some warm-climate states and is listed as an invasive species there.

Mesembryanthemum cordifolium
heart-leaf ice plant; baby sun rose
In late spring, our plant surprised me by throwing in some apricot-yellow blooms

In our garden, this plant grows in the following areas: left fence border, houston front yard

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