Flaming Katys are members of the Stonecrop Family, the Crassulaceae. For admirers of "succulents" -- plants with fleshy parts well adapted for preserving water --the Stonecrop Family is important, for it embraces many potted plants as well as plants used in rock gardens that receive little or very intermittent watering.

An interesting feature of the Stonecrop Family is that its 25 or so genera fall neatly into two groups: Those whose stamen number equals the number of corolla lobes or petals, and those whose stamens are twice the number. Kalenchoe falls into the group with stamens twice as many as the petals, as you can see yourself below:

In that picture the stamens are small and hard to see, but all eight are visible in this broken-open, four- lobed corolla. Note the white object atop the neck of the green object in the flower's center. The green thing is the ovary, or future fruit. Its slender neck is the style, and the style is topped with a white stigma, which is where pollen germinates. At about 10 o'clock at the white stigma's edge note the tiny, pale brown item. That's the top half of one of the eight stamens' anthers, the anther being the baglike thing in which pollen is produced. In Kalanchoe stamens are attached to the corolla tube, instead of arising from beneath the ovary as in many flowers. Moreover, in this flower the eight stamens arise at two different levels on the corolla tube, most easily seen on the flower's left side.

Flaming Katys are rated as requiring temperatures of at least 50ºF (10ºC), though they can stand brief periods of lower temperatures, as indicated by the fact that in southernmost Florida they've been noted as escaping from cultivation.