This elegant guest appeared in a sample of soil I took last fall from a 3000m mountaintop. At first, it looked like an ugly duckling. But during this year, it grew up into a nice looking swan. It is still tiny - only 2 cm in diameter. It may take a few years to see any flowers. The problem is: there is no any other crassulaceae but Sedum described for our mountains. A single wild species of Echeveria is known only from Texas. A single species of Dudleya grows only in S Utah. And no one probably grows these succulents from seeds: I could not find any photos of seedlings for these species.Recently I stumbled upon a photo of a small unknown plant from San Rafael desert which slightly similar to my ugly duckling: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jakesmome/2454978006/ But this does not help much. Could it be something else than crassulaceae? Any ideas welcome.
Andrey, have you noticed it with insects stuck to the leaves? It looks sort of glandular. Could it be something like Pinguicula? Some do grow at high altitude. Sorry, but this is just a wild idea!
Thank you, Silver, but no, no insect stuck. I have plenty of fungus gnats flying around. The surface did not look glandular at all. It was just a texture. And now it is more like glabrous.
Very much alike, except that mine has more pointed leaves - thanks, Daniel! This is exciting! So, I should expect now the third stage - leaves with hairs. Hope that eventually it will develop flowers under my fluorescent lamp. Here we can see both glabrous and pubescent stages: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/Androsace_chamaejasme_Rax_dob.jpg And here is nice 3D view: http://www.pikespeakphoto.com/cgi-bin/3Dviewer.cgi?pic=90
Grazie, Sundew! Both these genera are not listed for Utah. However, as no listed crassulaceae species match my plant, I have to consider all possibilities. Mesembryanthemum crystallinum leaves remain papillose through the adult stage whereas in my plant they became smooth. Tacitum is more probable match. However, this requires assumption of jumping it from Arizona (or from somebody's plant pot) to the top of the 3000 m mountain in North Utah.
