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Succulents like Crassula ovata can be propagated by simply tearing a leaf from the stem and putting it into soil. The leaf will usually grow roots and additional leaves from the calloused wound, and eventually become a full Crassula plant itself.

Now I only have half of a leaf left, the other half got rotten, and dried out. In particular, the part of the leaf that was attached to the mother plant is missing. The remainder is about 3/4" long.

Half of a Crassula leaf

Is it still possible to grow a new plant from just this part of a leaf? Or is it at least necessary that the part of the leaf that was attached to the stem is still present?

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  • $\begingroup$ Added wiki link to your post. Adding links to content improves readability for curious and/or competent users, experts and those reviewing your posts. $\endgroup$
    – Tyto alba
    Jun 15, 2017 at 7:32
  • $\begingroup$ Can you add some detail to the "from my own experiments" bit? I'd like to hear more anyway, but I'm not sure if you mean you successfully propagated from just the calloused part. $\endgroup$
    – arboviral
    Jun 28, 2017 at 7:18
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    $\begingroup$ Also, while we're waiting for an answer is there any chance you fancy attempting the necessary experiment yourself? There's nothing wrong with answering your own questions and it sounds like you have access to the plant in question :) $\endgroup$
    – arboviral
    Jun 28, 2017 at 7:19

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After waiting for a while, I am finally able to answer this question myself:

A part of a Crassula leaf is still able to grow roots and new leaves, even if the part that attached the leaf to the mother plant is missing.

I have tried this out myself. I left the half-leaf depicted in the question on top of soil, watered it occasionally, just to keep the soil humid, but not wet. After roughly 5 weeks the leaf grew a first root from the calloused end. For the photo I have flipped the leaf around, to better show the first root.

First root

In the following month, it grew more roots, and after about a month, the first new leaves started to appear.

Baby leaves 1 Baby leaves 2

At this point there is little doubt that a full plant can grow from this, given the right treatment. It is not different any more from full leaves growing new plants.

Update (June 2018): The plant is now 2 inches tall, and doing well.

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    $\begingroup$ So nice to see a story with a happy ending! $\endgroup$
    – JohnEye
    Jun 19, 2018 at 18:49
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    $\begingroup$ I was going to ask you to try it yourself, but you beat me to it by telling yourself to do it and actually did it.. Big bravo to your question and your answer. It's posted on the Stack Bio twitter $\endgroup$
    – hello_there_andy
    Jun 20, 2018 at 19:30

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