Help with identification, please

Good guy · Posted: Sat Oct 24, 2015 10:57 pm Post subject: Help with identification, please

I found this plant growing on the spectacular cliff tops at Cape St Vincent, Portugal several years ago and I brought home a small cutting which, as you can see, has prospered. I'd like to know what it is.
It was growing in profusion, in dense mats on almost bare limestone pavement. It's flowers were mostly withered but seemed to have been daisy-like with many narrow petals and to have been yellow. They were not unlike mesembryanthemum flowers. i thought originally it was hottentot fig (which I know can be invasive in some sites) because it's leaves were much skinnier in the wild but I now see there is no resemblance.

kindredspirit · Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2015 3:53 am Post subject:

I'd say it's an Aloe.

Have a look here

tagwex · Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2015 9:32 am Post subject:

You could call it Vera GG!

Sue Deacon · Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2015 10:19 am Post subject:

Although it looks like an Aloe, the 'daisy' flowers don't fit. I think most Aloes have clusters of tubular shaped flowers on long stems.

This is one for Silver surfer

Good guy · Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2015 12:24 pm Post subject:

It's definitely not an aloe - Sue is right, there. Another thing, although its growth seems clustered in this pot, in the wild it spreads by extending 'chains' of fleshy stem with rosettes of leaves. You can see the beginning of this on its left. What look like grey marks on the leaves is builder's dust - it was outside until recently!

Margo · Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2015 8:26 pm Post subject:

If it wasn't so thorny on the end I would have said its a Hottentot Fig.

Ado 2 · Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2015 9:29 pm Post subject:

I think Agave

Good guy · Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2015 9:46 pm Post subject:

I've realised the leaf doesn't have the equilateral-triangle cross section of the hott. fig. And I think the aloes all carry their flowers on tall spikes - the flowers being kind of bell shaped, rather than daisy-like.

tagwex · Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2015 11:10 pm Post subject:

Isn't agave a constituent of tequila? Portugal???

Sue Deacon · Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2015 11:25 pm Post subject:

Ok I give up! I have found loads of photo's of similar looking plants and several pictures of succulents with daisy flowers - just not the two together! It's got me beat! Confused

Good guy · Posted: Mon Oct 26, 2015 12:14 am Post subject:

I know! So many of them look similar. And it might well be a garden escapee and not be Portugese at all. Oh to be a botanist!

kindredspirit · Posted: Thu Oct 29, 2015 8:39 am Post subject:

Has your one flowered here yet, Good Guy?
Or did it only flower in Portugal?
The flower points it towards Mesembryanthemums but the prickles on the leaves points it towards Scrambling Aloes. Maybe it was born on the wrong side of the railway tracks? Shocked