I bought my lovely wife a beautiful little plant at her favorite store yesterday and I forgot to ask what the heck it was?? Anyone know what this plant is?
Here it is with it’s flower. Here it is as a whole. And here it is with my cat trying to eat it…
I took it away right away as I don’t know if it is poisonous to cats.
Also check out the Echeverria link in that wiki article. I think yours looks more like Echeverria than Sempervivum.
Hen and Chicks! HA! What a cool plant, and it looks like it propagates like gremlins. Very nice !
The Wiki page says “native to Europe and northern Africa”, but that top right picture looks just like what I’ve got growing under my pine tree out in front of my house.
Are you the first owner of the house? Maybe the former owners planted it. The sempervivum are pretty cold-hardy.
Here’s a picture of your exact plant (scroll down on the right.)
So is it cat-safe? I have all these plants I have to keep at work because the cats are stupid and want to poison themselves.
I can’t find anything specifically bad for the cat…however, the first thing I googled was "Can cats eat hen and chicks" interesting results to say the least. 
Toxic and Non-toxic Plants for Cats (courtesy google – veracity unverified)
Can’t find anything suggesting that Echeveria elegans may be poisonous to cats.
FWIW, they’re a fairly common plant around my area – I have several of slightly different varieties in the garden, and none of the cats seem to have had a problem with them… though I’ve never seen them actively trying to eat them either.
With a name like that, it sounds like they’d survive just about anything.
There are a lot of varieties called “hens-and-chicks.” I know of several types that are quite versatile and well-suited to garden use. So regardless of where the plant is native to, it’s not at all surprising that you have some growing under your pine tree up there in Eskimo-land.
