Beginner Gardening: Miniatureized Aeonium arboreum doesn't make sense, 1 by kwie2011

kwie2011 wrote:
About a week ago, I rescued a tiny Aeonium arboreum variegatum from a 1.5 inch pot in a Walgreens display.

This plant was an almost perfect miniature version of a normal A. arboreum, yet it was less than 3 inches tall, and had proportionately slender branches with tiny rosettes. There were about 7 branches when I bought it, none of which were thicker than about a pencil lead, on a 3" stalk that was more narrow than a drinking straw. The largest rosette had about 10 tiny leaves, and wasn't much bigger around than a quarter, and the smallest rosette was about 4 leaves and not 1/4 of that size.

I can't believe this would be normal in nature because the plant is too delicate at this size to survive. It seems to me that in nature, plants would grow upward with a thicker stalk and larger rosettes before branching. Most seedlings are not tiny replicas of the parent plant for good reason.

I've searched many photos for images of any Aeoniums that are perfect miniatures like this, and I haven't found any. I suspect this one was kept tiny with growth inhibitors, but I want to know.

Has anyone grown A. arboreum from seed? Ever seen a perfect Barbie Doll sized Aeonium? Any evidence that this miniature plant was or wasn't achieved naturally?

I'm not looking for guesses. I'd like some kind of evidence or reasonable explanation. Thanks for any insight.