Crassula tetragona
A shrubby Cape succulent to about 1 m tall, with woody brown-barked stems and crossed pairs of narrow, pointed leaves, often sold as a 'miniature pine tree' and used for bonsai-style plantings (mostly subsp. robusta). It comes from the Cape Provinces, from the Orange River edge of Namaqualand east to beyond the Kei River. Grow it like a sun-loving shrubby Crassula: strong light, gritty soil, a cool drier winter, and no waterlogging.
Where it grows wild
Grows as an erect or spreading shrub in dry scrub and thicket on rocky and sandy slopes across the Cape. It is usually in the open or under the light cover of neighbouring shrubs. Its subspecies grow in separate parts of the range, and some are more sensitive to harsh sun than others.
Few GBIF records carry an elevation. The species grows from the coastal Namaqualand fringe to the inland Eastern Cape, so treat it as lowland to low-montane.
🔒 Growing it like that
The wild conditions above, turned into targets for a shelf, a tent or a greenhouse. The full profile has:
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More Crassula
Profiles are drafts built from measured range and climate and from published sources; each section carries its own confidence in the app.