Burros Tail Identification Guide

Key Identifying Features

Burro's Tail (Sedum morganianum), also called Donkey's Tail, is a trailing succulent prized for its rope-like stems. Look for:

• Long trailing stems densely covered in plump leaves, resembling a braided tail
• Fleshy, teardrop to banana-shaped leaves overlapping in spirals
• A blue-green to gray-green color with a powdery bloom (farina)
• Very fragile leaves that drop at the slightest touch

Leaves & Stems

The leaves are the signature feature: plump, pointed, teardrop or rice-grain shaped, about 1.5-2 cm long, arranged in tight overlapping spirals that completely cloak the stem. They are gray-green to blue-green, coated in a chalky white farina that gives a frosted look and rubs off easily. In bright light the leaves can flush slightly pink or yellow at the tips.

Stems are slender but become heavy and pendant, trailing up to 60 cm (2 ft) or more, making the plant ideal for hanging baskets. The leaves are notoriously brittle and detach with the lightest bump, but each fallen leaf readily roots into a new plant.

Flowers & Fruit

Mature plants occasionally produce small star-shaped flowers in pink, red, or lavender at the very tips of the trailing stems, usually in summer. Each flower has the typical Sedum five-pointed star form. Flowering is uncommon indoors and not needed for ID. Fruit is a tiny dry follicle holding minute seeds.

How to Tell It Apart from Look-Alikes

• Sedum burrito (Baby Burro's Tail): nearly identical but with shorter, rounder, more bean-like leaves; S. morganianum leaves are longer and more pointed/banana-like.
• String of Bananas (Curio radicans): also trailing with banana-ish leaves, but those leaves are widely spaced on thin wiry stems with a translucent window, whereas Burro's Tail leaves are densely packed and overlapping with no window.
• Sedum 'Donkey's Tail' hybrids: similar; minor leaf-shape differences.

The densely packed, plump, farina-coated leaves spiraling along a thick pendant tail confirm Burro's Tail.

Where You'll Find It

Native to southern Mexico, Burro's Tail is grown worldwide as a hanging houseplant and outdoors in frost-free climates (USDA 9-11). It needs bright light, gritty fast-draining soil, and sparse watering, and is best placed where it won't be brushed against, given its fragile leaves. It propagates almost effortlessly from dropped leaves and stem cuttings.

Quick ID Checklist

• Long trailing stems thickly packed with leaves like a tail
• Plump, pointed teardrop/banana leaves in overlapping spirals
• Blue-green color with chalky farina coating
• Leaves drop very easily at a touch
• Occasional star-shaped pink/red flowers at stem tips

A dense, frosted, rope-like tail of plump blue-green leaves trailing from a hanging pot is the classic look of Burro's Tail.