Air plant (Kalanchoe pinnata)

Cocor bebek or air plant (Kalanchoe pinnata) is plant species in Crassulaceae, tropical, long-lived and succulent herbs that are able to live in dry places and are usually on rocky slopes, famous by the method of reproduction through shoots that grow on leaves.

K. pinnata has a taproot, but propagation using cuttings makes this plant have fibrous roots that emerge from the ends of the stems. The roots are dark brown, while young roots are lighter. It grows tall and has many branches, rather square, green or purple, soft and broad.

Leaves have a length of 5-20 cm, width 2.5-25 cm, oval or round with corrugated edges and purple, blunt ends, base rounded, bare surface, bright green or purple, contains a lot of water and fleshy. The leaves are used for propagation which produces adventitious shoots.

Compound flowers with a funnel-shaped crown, red and attached petals, short and ovoid or lanceolate crowns, eight stamens, long pistil stems and rectangular-shaped scales. The fruit is purple with a white dot on the inside and cylindrical. The seeds are square shaped, small and have a slightly sour taste.

Air plants grow wild in gardens and edges of rocky trenches in the tropics. Popularly used as an ornamental plant for interior and exterior. This plant contains alkaloids, triterpenes, glycosides, flavonoids, steroids and lipids.

The leaves contain very active bufadienolida compounds including briophylline A and C which have antitumor and insecticide activity. This herb is also used for medication for headaches, fevers, coughs, urine laxatives, boils, inflammation, tonsils, stomach pain, rheumatic and hemorrhoids.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Saxifragales
Family: Crassulaceae
Subfamily: Kalanchoideae
Genus: Kalanchoe
Subgenus: Bryophyllum
Species: Kalanchoe pinnata

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