Identify Succulents: Rosettes, Leaves, Flowers, Families

You can identify most succulents by first sorting them by shape, then checking leaves and flowers. Suburban Sill's guide groups the common garden and houseplant succulents like this:

• Tight rosette, leaves from the center: Echeveria, Sempervivum, Graptopetalum and Aloe; Aeonium rosettes sit on a base stem
• Upright, branching, tree-like: Crassula such as jade plant
• Trailing or spilling stems: Sedum, such as donkey's tail
• Stones and paired leaves: Lithops and other Aizoaceae

Wikipedia defines a succulent as a plant with thickened, fleshy parts that store water, and notes succulents occur in about 60 plant families, so a shape only narrows the search. The next checks separate the look-alikes.

Rosettes cause most of the confusion. Features that separate them:

• Echeveria: Wikipedia counts about 150 species, native to semi-desert areas of Mexico, Central America and northwestern South America. Leaves are fleshy and often brightly colored, and the flowers come on short stalks from the rosette. Suburban Sill says to look for rosettes with rounded ends or a small point.
• Sempervivum (houseleek): about 40 species from the mountains of Europe, North Africa and western Asia. Wikipedia notes most are hardy to US zone 4, the flowers are star-shaped with more than six petals, and a rosette dies after it flowers, leaving offsets. Suburban Sill describes spiky, sharp leaves packed tightly together. A rosette that survives winter outdoors in a cold climate is far more likely Sempervivum than Echeveria.
• Graptopetalum: like Echeveria but leggier, on longer stems (Suburban Sill).
• Aloe: over 500 species, plump water-filled leaves and tubular flowers (Suburban Sill).
• Haworthia: small, some with translucent leaf windows that let light in (Suburban Sill).

Both Echeveria and Sempervivum make offsets called "hens and chicks," and Wikipedia notes the name is used for both, even though they are quite different plants.

Suburban Sill lists features that separate genera when the shape is not enough:

• Leaf arrangement: leaves from a base stem (Aeonium), in opposite pairs (Cotyledon), or stacked in rows (Crassula)
• Leaf texture: puffy and pillow-like (Pachyphytum), sharp and spiky (Sempervivum), plump (Aloe)
• Flower parts: 4 petals (Kalanchoe), 5 petals (Sedum), 6 to 12 sections (Aeonium)

Sedum is a large group; Suburban Sill counts over 470 species, many trailing. Crassula has over 200 varieties including the jade plants.

All cacti are succulents, but not all succulents are cacti (Wikipedia). The test is the areole: a small cushion from which spines, flowers and new stems grow. Wikipedia states areoles are unique to cacti. Spiny succulents in the spurge family, Euphorbia, are often mistaken for cacti, but their spines grow straight from the stem without an areole. Wear gloves when handling any spiny succulent you cannot yet name.

None of the top-ranking succulent guides covers this, and it matters if you have animals. From the ASPCA toxic plant database:

• Aloe: toxic to dogs, cats and horses; toxic principles saponins and anthraquinones; signs include vomiting (not in horses), lethargy and diarrhea.
• Jade plant (Crassula): toxic to dogs, cats and horses; toxic principle unknown; signs include vomiting, depression and incoordination.
• Kalanchoe (including mother of millions and chandelier plant): toxic to dogs and cats; contains bufadienolides; signs include vomiting, diarrhea and, rarely, abnormal heart rhythm.

If a pet chews one of these, call your veterinarian or the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center at (888) 426-4435. If a child eats part of a plant, call Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222.

Photo identification works well for succulents if the shots show what separates genera. Take:

• The rosette from directly above, showing leaf shape and tips
• The plant from the side, showing whether it has a stem, trails or stays flat
• A flower close-up if it is blooming, so the petal count shows
• The leaf edge and surface close up, for hairs, teeth, or translucent windows

Color is the least reliable clue: Echeveria and Graptopetalum change color with sun, cold and water. Photograph it and the app identifies it; then compare the answer against the features on this page.

Research and drafting for this page used AI assistance. Every measurement, date and claim was then checked against the sources listed below, which were opened and read on 2026-09-25. Where two sources give different numbers, both are shown.