Aeonium haworthii, also known as Haworth's aeonium or pinwheel, is a species of succulent flowering plant in the family Crassulaceae. It is grown as a houseplant in temperate regions. It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit,[1] as has the cultivar 'Variegatum'.[2]
A. haworthii is native to the Canary Islands and northern Africa, but it has been introduced to other areas of similar climate, such as Southern California.[3] In the US, it is suitable to be grown outside in USDA hardiness zones 9-11.[4] This species is drought tolerant and prefers full sun.[5] It is sometimes susceptible to aphids and mealybugs.[6] It is a sand-dwelling beach plant, a subshrub with rough, woody stems and rosettes of thick, red-edged green leaves which are triangular or diamond- or spade-shaped.
It grows as a densely branched small shrub and reaches stature heights of up to 60 centimeters. The almost bare, somewhat mesh-like, ascending or hanging, winding shoots have a diameter of 3 to 6 millimeters. Their rather flat rosettes reach a diameter of 6 to 11 centimeters. The inner leaves are more or less upright. The obovate, green or yellowish green, often very heavily bluish, almost bare leaves are 3 to 5.5 centimeters long, 1.5 to 3 centimeters wide and 0.25 to 0.4 centimeters thick. They are pointed and trimmed towards the top. The base is wedge-shaped. The leaf margin is covered with curved eyelashes that are 0.4 to 0.8 millimeters long. The leaves are often reddish variegated along the edge.[7]
It has panicles of cream-colored pointed flowers produced in spring. The loose, hemispherical inflorescence has a length of 6 to 16 centimeters and a width of 6 to 16 centimeters. The peduncle is 1 to 9 centimeters long. The seven-to nine-digit flowers are on a 2 to 12 millimeter long, bare flower stem. Its sepals are bald. The pale yellow to whitish, pink variegated, lanceolate, pointed petals are 7 to 9 millimeters long and 1.2 to 1.8 millimeters wide. The stamens are almost glabrous to sparsely weak downy.[8]