Crested & Monstrose Succulents & Cacti

Why do plants turn crested or monstrose?

The bizarre shapes of monstrose and crested succulents are the result of a somatic mutation in the DNA. This mutation is sometimes triggered by damage at the tip of a young shoot and therefore cannot be passed down from parent to offspring. Although both cresting and monstrose mutations can look quite similar, they have a number of defining features.

Monstrose Plants

A monstrose plant is one where the growing points become random. Instead of a plant growing upwards and outwards from only the tip of each shoot, it suddenly will start growing out of any random point along itself! This causes leaves and stems to look bulbous, warty, and bubbly. These plants are covered in small knobs as random parts stretch and expand. In short, the growing process descends into chaos.

Cristate Plants

A crested plant is no less strange, but certainly a bit more orderly. This mutation causes the point of growth, the tip of the shoot, to become horizontally elongated. The result is a plant that fans out wide like a whale tail. These shoots can continue their horizontal growth until the two ends hang down and even touch!

Care

The care needs for these plants are mostly the same as their normal counterparts: plenty of sun, deep but infrequent water, and well-draining pots and soil. Do note, if a plant has thin stems and one of its shoots begins to crest, that shoot will become quite heavy and may need some extra support. Also, some of these plants may have trouble flowering. To maintain the appearance of a crested or monstrose specimen, remove any non-mutated offsets.