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Dyckia marnier-lapostollei (White Dyckia) - This very slow growing succulent has mostly solitary stemless rosettes to 6 to 10 inches wide with up to 10, but usually fewer, triangular-shaped 4 to 8 inch long gray-green leaves that are covered in silvery white scale-like hairs (trichomes) so that the plant looks almost completely white. These leaves twist and curl as they recurve downward and have large claw-like recurved spines along the margins. Mature plants can send up a spike 2 to 3 feet tall in summer with orange-yellow tubular flowers scattered near the tip - these flowers have extra floral nectarines that drip sticky nectar to attract birds.
Plant in a well-drained soil in full coastal sun to light shade - leaf ends shrivel in excess heat. Give regular irrigation when plants dry from spring to summer and withhold water in winter. Protect from cold temperatures - intolerant of temperatures near freezing and much happier when temperatures are well above this. A protected under-eave location or bright covered patio is a great place to keep this plant outdoors in our winter rainfall climate - otherwise figure on bringing it in for the winter.
This plant from the highlands of central Brazil. The name for the genus honors Josef Maria Franz Anton Hubert Ignatz (1773-1861), who was the Prince and Earl of Salm Reifferscheid-Dyck and whose family ruled an area west of Cologne and Dusseldorf, Germany. The name is usually seen as Salm-Dyck. The specific epithet honors Julien Marnier-Lapostolle, of the Grand Marnier liqueur fame, who owned the Jardin botanique Les Cèdres where the first plant of the species was known to flower in 1960. It was widely reported that Marnier-Lapostolle had himself discovered it in Brazil, but this is incorrect. Marnier-Lapostolle did bring the plant to the attention of American Bromeliad specialist Lyman Smith who recognized it as a new species. Smith named it for Marnier-Lapostolle in 1966 and included a location for the type plant in the US National Herbarium as "growing in Diamantina (8 km from Belo Horizonte) Minas Gerais, Brazil", a location that was confusing as Diamantina and Belo Horizonte were actually 300 km apart. It was not until 1983 when Leopold Horst and Pierra Braun, while botanizing in central Brazil, documented the location of plants in habitat, which they found in the Serra dos Cristais near the city of Cristalina in Goias, Brazil. Another population near the city of Goiania was also discovered. Another terrestrial bromeliad named for Julien Marnier-Lapostolle is Hechtia marnier-lapostollei
Our plants are from years of dividing plants originally received from plant collector Alice Waidhofer of Stockton. There is an excellent article on this species titled "Succulent and Xeromorphic Bromeliads of Brazil Part 1" by Pierre J. Braun and Eddie Estves Pereira in the Cactus and Succulent Journal; 77(6):284-292. 2005.
The information displayed on this page about Dyckia marnier-lapostollei is based on the research we have conducted about it in our nursery library as well as from information provided by reliable online resources. We also include our own observations made about this plant as it grows in the nursery gardens and other gardens visited, as well how the crops of this plant have performed in the containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments that we have received from others and welcome hearing from anyone with information about this plant, particularly if it includes cultural information that will aid others to better grow it.
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