Worth knowing:
The Tiger Jaw develops fleshy leaves with soft spikes at the edges. The specific quality of the toothed leaf pairs to grow apart from each other, gives the impression of an opened tiger jaw. The Faucaria trigrina, however, grows rather small with only 8 to 10 cm. In August and September it produces bright yellow flowers that open up on sunny afternoons and shut down in the evening.
Natural Location:
Cultivation:
Seed propagation indoors is possible throughout the year. Spread the seeds onto finely sieved potting compost or cactus earth that contains about 25% sand and is moistened with a water vaporizer. For a light germinator you don’t need to put any potting earth on top. Cover the seed container with clear film to prevent the earth from drying out, but don’t forget to make some holes in the clear film and take it every second or third day completely off for about 2 hours. That way you avoid mold formation on your potting compost. Place the seed container somewhere bright and warm with a temperature between 20°C and 25°Celsius and keep the earth – preferably with a water sprayer – moist, but not wet. The first seedlings will come up after one or two weeks.
Place:
The Tiger Jaw prefers full sunny places and opens its blossoms only in the sunshine. During summer, it can also be kept in a rain-sheltered place outdoors, but only after a short acclimatisation period of a few days.
Care:
Water the plant once a week during the growth period, but avoid waterlogging in pot and saucer since that will cause the roots to rot. From May until beginning of August you should give a weak dosage of fluid fertilizer for cactus plants every four weeks. After one year, you can shift the plant into common cactus soil. Further repotting can be done during spring every three to four years, when the roots have penetrated the earth in the old pot.
During the winter:
The Tiger Jaw ideally hibernates in a bright and not too cold a place with temperatures between 14°C and 18°Celsius. Water the plant during winter only every three to four weeks.
Picture credits:
- © © Dav Hir - CC-BY-SA-3.0 - http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0
- © Frank Laue - © Saflax - http://www.saflax.de/copyright
- © Frank Laue - © Saflax - http://www.saflax.de/copyright
- © Sabine Laue - © Saflax - http://www.saflax.de/copyright
- © Sabine Laue - © Saflax - http://www.saflax.de/copyright
- © Sabine Laue - © Saflax - http://www.saflax.de/copyright
- © Sabine Laue - © Saflax - http://www.saflax.de/copyright
- © Tangopaso - Public domain - http://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain/
- © Cookie - CC-BY-SA-3.0 - http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0
