Succulent Identification: 12 Common Types and Key Features

Look at four features in this order: the overall shape (a flat rosette, a rosette on a stem, or leaves spaced along a stem), the leaf edge and surface, how the plant makes new plants, and the flowers if it has any. Those four checks separate most of the succulents sold as houseplants, because each common genus has one or two features the others lack.

Suburban Sill, a succulent grower whose guide ranks near the top for this search, recommends the same approach: leaf arrangement and texture, stem structure and growth pattern, flower details, growing season, and oddities such as aerial roots. It also warns that some species cannot be told apart reliably without flowers, and that Echeveria is the hardest group of all.

If you want a quick answer, photograph the whole plant from above and from the side, plus one leaf close up, and run it through an identification app. Then check the result against the features below.

• Echeveria. NC State describes thick, fleshy leaves in a tight rosette that stays very close to the ground, with smooth (entire) margins ending in a point, in grey, sea green or blue-green, and pink to reddish-pink flowers. The genus has nearly 200 species and myriad hybrids, native from southwest Texas to northwest Argentina.
• Sempervivum (hens and chicks). Low, small rosettes surrounded by many offsets; star-shaped flowers with six or more petals; some have fine hairs or a spiderweb of threads over the leaves (NC State). Suburban Sill notes the leaves are sharp-tipped and packed tightly. Hardy outdoors in USDA zones 4a to 8b (NC State), which Echeveria is not.
• Aeonium. Rosettes held on a thick stem that grows like a tree trunk; it grows in winter, and each rosette flowers once and then dies (Suburban Sill). NC State separates Echeveria from Aeonium by Echeveria's smooth leaf margins.
• Graptopetalum. Echeveria-like rosettes on longer stalks that lean and spill over the pot (Suburban Sill).
• Pachyphytum. Leaves so thick they look almost like small pillows, in rows along short stalks, as in moonstones (Suburban Sill).
• Aloe. Thick, pointed leaves in a rosette with a margin of small white teeth, up to 18 inches long, full of gel-like sap; tubular yellow, orange or red flowers on a spike (NC State, for Aloe vera).
• Haworthia. Small rosettes. The zebra haworthia has dark green leaves with horizontal rows of white bumps (tubercles), in compact star-shaped rosettes (NC State). The bumps and the small size separate it from a young aloe.

• Jade plant (Crassula ovata). Leaves in opposite pairs, oval, 1 to 3.5 inches long, thick and shiny, often red-edged in direct sun; a woody, branched stem with distinct rings, growing into a small tree of 3 to 6 feet (NC State).
• Burro's tail (Sedum morganianum). Trailing stems up to 24 inches long covered in overlapping, blue-green, jelly-bean-shaped leaves (NC State). Suburban Sill notes the genus Sedum has more than 470 species, from creeping plants to shrubs.
• Kalanchoe (Kalanchoe blossfeldiana). Thick, dark green, oval leaves with scalloped edges, 6 to 18 inches tall, topped by clusters of small flowers in red, orange, yellow, pink or white that last about four weeks (NC State).
• Mother of thousands (Bryophyllum). Grows baby plants along the edges of its leaves (Suburban Sill), a feature almost no other common succulent has.
• Elephant bush (Portulacaria afra). A shrub with small succulent leaves (Suburban Sill), often mistaken for a small-leaved jade.
• Living stones (Lithops). Just two swollen leaves that look like pebbles (Suburban Sill).

Every cactus is a succulent, but most succulents are not cacti. The test is the areole: small cushion-like spots on the stem from which spines and flowers grow. Wikipedia describes areoles as structures unique to cacti, a family of about 127 genera and some 1,750 species, native to the Americas (one species, Rhipsalis baccifera, also occurs in Africa and Sri Lanka).

The common trap is Euphorbia. Wikipedia notes that some euphorbias are spiny stem succulents and are often wrongly assumed to be cacti. Their spines grow straight from the stem, with no cushion, and a broken stem bleeds milky sap.

That sap matters. NC State says the milky latex of crown of thorns (Euphorbia milii) causes skin irritation, and that sap in the eye can cause temporary to permanent damage to the cornea. Wear gloves and eye protection when you cut a spiny plant you have not identified, and wash off any sap at once.

Toxicity follows the species, which is the most practical reason to identify a succulent before a cat or dog can reach it. From NC State's plant database:

• Listed non-toxic to cats and dogs: Echeveria, zebra haworthia, burro's tail.
• Flagged as a problem for cats, dogs and horses: jade plant, aloe vera, crown of thorns.
• Kalanchoe: contains bufadienolides, compounds that act on the heart; NC State warns that eating it can be fatal to pets, with abnormal heart rhythm and seizures among the signs.
• Hens and chicks: low severity; the sap can irritate skin.

If a pet has chewed a succulent you cannot name, call your veterinarian or the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center on (888) 426-4435 (a consultation fee may apply). For a person who has swallowed part of a plant, call Poison Control on 1-800-222-1222, which poison.org describes as free and confidential. Do not wait for symptoms, and take the plant or a photo with you. Our pet pages cover jade plant, aloe vera and kalanchoe in detail.

Yes. Several apps name succulents from a photo, and the results are good enough to start from, though the many Echeveria hybrids are hard for apps and people alike. Pl@ntNet is free and run by four French public research institutes (CIRAD, INRAE, INRIA and IRD); its site lists 84,710 species. PlantLens, our app, shows a confidence level with each result. Our comparison of plant identification apps summarises independent accuracy tests.

To get a better answer:

• Photograph the rosette straight down and from the side, so the app sees both the leaf arrangement and the stem.
• Add a close-up of one leaf edge in daylight; teeth, hairs and white bumps are the features that separate genera.
• If it is flowering, include the flower. Suburban Sill notes that some species are only separable in flower.
• Check the answer against the features on this page, and read the second and third suggestions as well as the first.

Succulents and Sunshine, a long-running succulent site, groups the plants most people grow into these genera: Aeonium, Agave, Aloe, Crassula, Echeveria, Euphorbia, Gasteria, Graptopetalum hybrids, Haworthia, Kalanchoe, Mammillaria, Opuntia, Sedum, Sempervivum and Senecio; Mammillaria and Opuntia are cacti. It suggests Haworthia for indoor growing, Sempervivum for cold, snowy gardens, and Opuntia or Agave for hot ones.

Suburban Sill adds the stone-like Aizoaceae (Lithops and relatives), Cotyledon, Adromischus, Pachyphytum and Bryophyllum. If your plant does not match any of the features above, it is probably in one of these smaller groups, and a photo identification is the fastest next step.

Growers dust the cut ends of succulent cuttings with cinnamon as a home remedy against rot. The idea has some basis: Wikipedia notes that cinnamaldehyde, the main flavour compound in cinnamon, has antibacterial and antifungal properties. None of the extension sources we opened tested cinnamon on succulent cuttings, so we cannot tell you how much it helps.

The step that the extension sources do support is drying. For jade plant, Wisconsin Horticulture advises letting cuttings dry for a few days so the cut surface heals over and is less likely to rot, then inserting them in fairly dry, well-drained soil; it adds that overwatering makes the stem rot. Cinnamon is optional; letting the cut end dry is not.

Research and drafting for this page were done with the help of AI, and every figure was then checked line by line against the sources listed at the end of the page. Sources were opened on 2026-09-25. Where sources disagree, we give each figure with its source rather than picking one. If you find a mistake, tell us and we will correct it.