The jade plant and elephant bush are commonly confused for each other. These succulents have a lot of similarities, but there are plenty of differences that allow us to differentiate between the two plants.
What Is a Jade Plant?
The jade plant (or Crassula ovata) is a succulent native to Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa and Mozambique, a country next to South Africa. This plant is an evergreen that flowers with small white and pink flowers in the winter.
What Is an Elephant Bush?
The elephant bush (Portulacaria afra), also called spekboom in Afrikaans, is commonly also called the dwarf jade plant due to their similarities. It has small leaves, and its stems have a reddish or purplish hue. They get their names due to being a part of the diet of elephants, who feed on the plant’s leaves. Other animals feed on the leaves of elephant bushes, too.
How Are They Similar?
These plants share many similarities that lead them to be easily mistaken. These are things like their looks and care needs, which have a lot of overlap.
Native Habitat
The jade plant and elephant bush are both native to South Africa, but they’re also common houseplants.
Use
Both plants have a history of medicinal use. The leaves of the jade plant have been used for things like healing warts. Elephant bush can treat things like blisters, bug bites, and acne. Due to its toxicity, take caution when using jade plants medicinally.
Both plants have extraordinary carbon-storing abilities, which are great for the environment.
Looks
They are both succulents with thick, waxy leaves. Both plants’ flowers are pink and white. Both of the plants are used as bonsai trees when they get larger because of their tree-like look. Once they each reach a certain height, they start to resemble a tree. At that point, you can start shaping them into a perfect bonsai.
Care Needs
Due to being succulents, the two plants have similar care needs, not requiring much water and making good houseplants. They do well with a lot of sunlight, too.
The jade plant and elephant bush both take root well when propagated. They require well-draining soil, as all succulents do, in order to meet their water needs.
How Are They Different?
Now that we’ve laid out the similarities let’s take a look at the differences.
These two plants aren’t closely related despite their similarities and shared native habitats.
Elephant bush is incredibly drought-resistant and is often used in areas like Arizona for landscaping.
The jade plant is toxic to many animals, while the elephant bush can be eaten by animals and people. Elephant bush is eaten in southern Africa. It was also traditionally used medicinally.
Looks
Jade plants have larger leaves than the elephant bush, though the leaves are similar. Despite flowering with the same colors, the flowers look different. While jade plants have star-shaped flowers, elephant bushes have smaller flowers that aren’t star-shaped.
Size
The plants differ in size. While elephant bushes can get truly large, jade plants typically will only grow around six feet tall, especially when grown indoors. Elephant bush can grow over double that size, getting around fifteen feet tall.
Native Habitat
While they are both found in southern Africa, they tend to grow in different locations. Jade plants tend to grow on sandy slopes and forests, while elephant bushes grow on rocky slopes.
Jade Plant vs Elephant Bush: Now You Know!
Now that you know the differences and similarities between a jade plant vs elephant bush, you can determine which one you want or already have and educate others. Jade plants are easy to propagate and care for.