This is another photo of a type of succulent plant that I have taken somewhere in Cameron Highlands, West Malaysia.

First, I only knew that it is a succulent.  I kept on searching for its name from the Internet but it was not an easy job.

From the dots and shape of the leaves, I have a feeling that it is related to a plant called “LuoDiShengGen” in Chinese or Miracle Leaf in English (Scientific name: Kalanchoe pinnata).  I know it is not “LuoDiShengGen” but it just looks similar.

I started to search using the keyword “succulent” but the results and images that came to me were not what I was looking for, “succulent” was too general.  Orchid, rose moss, pineapple etc. are considered as succulents as well.

Later I search LuoDiShengGen in Chinese and Miracle Leaf in English, I have learned that this group of similar plants are under Family “Crassulaceae” , and Genus “Kalanchoe“.  Under “Crassulaceae” family, there are other plants which are not Kalanchoe (that I can ignore).  But under “Kalanchoe” genus, there are about 125 species, which appear in format of “Kalanchoe xxxxxxxx”.

I used another keyword to seach for it - “hairy Kalanchoe” because I found some white hair on its leaves.  Finally I found the pictures with similar plants but the colour of the dots on the leaves were darker.  It was called Panda Plant.  I searched for more pictures and confirmed that the picture above is a Panda Plant, and its scientific name is “Kalanchoe tomentosa“.

What I have learned can be summarized as follow:-

1.  Under Family Crassulaceae, there are 33 genera, Kalanchoe is one of them.

2.  Under Genus Kalanchoe, there are 125 species, Kalanchoe tomentosa (Panda Plant) and Kalanchoe pinnata (miracle leaf) are two of them.

3.   Under Kalanchoe tomentosa, I found that there are different varieties of Panda Plants, which have different colours of dots, and different shapes of leaves, etc..

Classification and naming of living being is not an easy job.