Species library › Lithops › Lithops marmorata
Succulents Well documented

Lithops marmorata

A grey-green, marbled living stone from the arid Northern Cape, growing flush with quartz and granite gravel under full sun. It follows the usual Lithops cycle: grows in autumn and spring, splits into new leaves through winter and sits nearly dormant in the heat of summer.

Lithops marmorata
Photo: No machine-readable author provided. Cookie assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons
At home, aim for
Day Cool-growingTargets in Plantistry
Night Close to the dayTargets in Plantistry
Humidity Dry airBand in Plantistry
Light Full sunDLI and PPFD in Plantistry
Expects a seasonal restGrows in the ground

Where it grows wild

Arid succulent shrubland of Namaqualand and Bushmanland, on gravel and rock flats where the bodies sit almost level with the ground and are pale-patterned to match the stones.

The measured sites sit at about 800–980 m.

South AfricaNorthern Cape

🔒 Growing it like that

The wild conditions above, turned into targets for a shelf, a tent or a greenhouse. The full profile has:

✓ Day and night temperature targets, and the limits it tolerates
✓ Humidity band, and how to hold it
✓ Light as DLI and PPFD for a grow light
✓ Wet and dry seasons, and whether to rest it
✓ Substrate and airflow
✓ A step-by-step setup to grow it like the wild

Grow Lithops marmorata? Add it to a free garden and its full profile opens. Pro opens all 38,374 profiles in the library, plants and fungi.

Profiles are drafts built from measured range and climate and from published sources; each section carries its own confidence in the app. Photo from Wikimedia Commons, used under its CC BY 2.5 licence, unmodified.