Succulent ID

[Pinkywoo]

I have two of these which came from my FIL in Sicily but don't know what they actually are. This summer they have both grown long flower spikes which are now growing little plantlets like a spider plant, do I wait for them to root before potting them up? I know there's a succulent expert on here just can't remember the user name!

Pictures would help

Looks like a Gasteraloe, which is hybrid between a Gasteria and an Aloe. These seem to be becoming quite popular in garden centres and other outlets.
These plants do sometimes produce baby plantlets on the flower spike, but need to be large enough to detach safely, yours might need to grow a bit more.
Once detached, allow it to heal for a few days, before placing it in very gritty compost, and lightly water to encourage roots.
The main plant might also produce offsets from the base, which can also be removed and given the same treatment.

Thankyou @NanTheWiser, FIL thought it was some kind of aloe but wasn't sure which, I'll give the babies a bit longer before detaching them.

@NanTheWiser What distinguishes it from Haworthia margaritifera?

MereDint, the best way is to show you what H. margaretifera looks like (Photo from the web). The Haworthia has distinctive pearly white tubercles on both sides of the leaves, which are usually incurved, although it is a variable species, depending on habitat locality.
Also, OP’s plant has a flower stem which although not easy to see properly, appears to have flowers with a “belly” typical of Gasteria (which alludes to its similarity to a stomach).

I’ve also attached a photo of my Haworthia “Donuts” - a form which has circular rings of tubercles, and in addition is variegated (cost me an arm and a leg many years ago!)

Yes, I wondered about the incurving or otherwise of the leaves, that seemed to me wrong for the Haworthia, and why I thought you were right. I thought what I was seeing in OP's picture was white spots which were within the natural range for the Haworthia, so I wasn't convinced that was enough of a difference - the outward bending of the leaves in a Gasteria fashion was the thing that stood out for me. I seem to remember there's another white spotted thing, which wouldn't be the Gasteraloe - my mother was growing them in the 50s. (Can you tell I'm not particularly fond of them? Not terribly exciting, grow too fast, need repotting too often, take up too much greenhouse space, and I don't like throwing away plants even when I have far too many of them).

I hadn't looked at the flower spike picture, but that's not so different from a Haworthia flower that's gone over - the tubular section collapses inward, having nothing to support it.

I could be completely off the mark, MereDint, it’s so difficult to ID some of these rosette succulents, especially when grown indoors, under lower light conditions. A close up of the flower would probably help, but not be conclusive.
I know there are a number of Gasteraloe hybrids around, but not aware of Gasteria x Haworthia ( no doubt there are some). It’s all a bit academic anyway.
I’d guess your mother was growing G. verrucosa back then (no hybrids around in the 50’s, as far as I know), it was a popular plant passed around between neighbours and friends.

This is the best picture I could get of the flower, and one of the it's sibling plant (cutting from the same parent plant). The original picture it had been on a window sill and not rotated so is slightly curving to one side. I was surprised when you said it was a hybrid @NanTheWiser as FIL is pretty old school Sicilian, I don't think he's ever set foot in a garden centre, all his plants are cuttings and swapped with neighbours.

No picture again, sorry I have a baby crawling all over me!

Having googled Haworthia it looks most like this image of H. Fasciata (it's from a succulent supplier so should be identified correctly), what do you think?

Well I am more confused! Flowers do look like a Haworthia, but have a pinkish base, which would be unusual for that genus. And yes, swapping plants among neighbours is pretty standard, especially around the Mediterranean.
No matter, I hope the plantlet develops a bit more, so you can propagate from it.

I'll do my best, the second plant has a baby growing from the base so hopefully I'll get at least one to grow, and if they do anything spectacular I'll post another picture for you!

Great!

@Pinkywoo, just seen your pic of Haworthia fasciata - that supplier should be ashamed, because it doesn’t look like that species, I’ll attach a web pic. It’s known as the Zebra plant due to its distinct white banding across the leaves.
Had a 💡 moment, and googled Gasterworhia, and there is a very similar plant to yours called “Royal Highness”, but with strongly keeled leaves (which yours doesn’t have). There is also a hybrid called x Gasteria “Flow” another look-alike, so you can see how difficult it is to ID!
Those are both fairly recent hybrids, so very unlikely to be your plant, I would think.

I thought that was the zebra one but figured there must be different types. I've completely fallen down the rabbit hole of succulents online now, the closest I can see is Tulista Opalina which does have pink and white flowers, this could become an obsession!

The "flow" hybrid does have the same pattern but is too shiny and the leaves (are they leaves on a succulent?) are wider.

Thanks, Nan

Having googled Haworthia it looks most like this image of H. Fasciata (it's from a succulent supplier so should be identified correctly) From wikipedia: "The species is rare in cultivation; most plants that are labelled as H. fasciata are actually Haworthiopsis attenuata."

Suppliers aren't necessarily reliable. Their focus is on identifying and selling different forms, so you will find the same species being sold under many different names. It may be a bit better now - the EU's much criticised regulation of seed varieties was to stop nurseries selling the same seed as everyone else but giving it a different name to look special - I don't know whether the same sort of regulation applied to plant names.

I hope the capital f in "fasciata" wasn't the supplier - the genus name has a capital but the species never does. So H. fasciata is the correct form.

I agree that H. fasciata is often mistaken for H. attenuata MereDint, it’s a very common error, because of the similarities. Naming of succulents is something of a minefield, especially with cultivars, as suppliers often give a new name to old cultivars. Sellers aren’t always knowledgeable either, which doesn’t help.

@Pinkywoo, Tulista opalina is a quite a rare plant, so very unlikely to be the same as yours, but demonstrates the difficulty with trying to identify closely related plants!

(And don’t get me started on taxonomy again! Tulista is now applied to a group of formerly named Haworthias! My labels won’t be changed...)

@NanTheWiser I did notice there was lots of name changing! It would be interesting to see what the original plant in Sicily looks like with much more sun but I don't know when we're going to be able to get there this year. If it turns out to be something rare I can post you a baby!

@Pinkywoo, oh, thanks!

@NanTheWiser thought you might be interested, it turned out to be a gasterworthia "Royal Highness" which explains the pink flowers!

@Pinkywoo, that’s great! So I was right after all...

Yep, you are the succulent champion!