Looking for silver dollar succulent care tips? The silver dollar succulent vine—or Xerosicyos Danguyi, if we’re being proper—is a gorgeous succulent-like vine from the Cucurbitaceae family. It’s easy to care for a grows quickly. Learn how to help yours thrive!
Silver Dollar Succulent Care: Xerosicyos Danguyi Plant Care and Propagation
Today I’m talking all about the cool and gorgeous xerosicyos danguyi plant, aka the silver dollar plant, silver dollar succulent, penny plant, coin plant, and more. This plant has a lot of names, and a lot of those names are also colloquial names of other plants.
The silver dollar succulent vine is part of the Cucurbitaceae family, hailing originally from Madagascar. Fun fact: This plant actually hails from the same family as cucumber and squash! It is fast growing, especially outdoors. Mine is super small right now because I bought a cutting on Etsy, but the plant can grow up to 12 feet high and 6 feet wide. I don’t imagine it would ever get this large indoors, but outdoors? Game on.
Xerosicyos danguyi: The succulent that grows like a vine
The evergreen plant has thin stems and thick, round leaves that grow to 1 to 2 inches wide. The stems also have tendrils along them to help the plant climb. The tendrils hook to pretty much anything they can and remind me of sugar snap peas. The stems also start to branch off. Since the silver dollar succulent has vining tendencies, it can also look lovely in hanging planters if you’ve got enough light.
Silver dollar succulent vine care: Light needs
The silver dollar succulent vine is fairly forgiving when it comes to light. It does well in everything from partial sun to full sun. However, it does the best in full sun—these plants just love a lot of light! Indoors, they like sunny rooms and windows. Outdoors, they can take full sun. Their light needs are like a lot of succulents.
Is a silver dollar succulent drought tolerant?
Also like a lot of succulents, it is extremely heat tolerant, which is great for summers! It’s also very drought tolerant. I water mine about once a week during the spring, summer, and early fall since it is indoors. However, if I had it outdoors, I’d probably give it water every other day or so! It can get very hot in the summers here in MD!
Indoors it’s important to keep the soil dry between waterings. Otherwise, you might over water and cause root rot. If this happens, you’ll notice the plant drooping and just generally looking unhappy.
To help prevent overwatering, plant your silver dollar succulent in any well-draining succulent soil in a pot with a drainage hole. (Don’t have a pot with a drainage hole in it? Check out my tips on planting succulents in pots without drainage holes.) If you aren’t watering enough, the silver dollar leaves will shrivel and become yucky looking.
Xerosicyos danguyi care care & temperature needs
It will survive down to just under freezing. However, like a lot of other succulents, it won’t be that happy with you! In October, I bring my succulents indoors for the winter and don’t bring them back outside until just after any danger of frost.
How to propagate silver dollar vine
I bought a small cutting offline, so I haven’t started to propagate mine yet. However, I’m going to be bringing it outside for the summer to amp up its growth this season. I’m hoping that in a month or so, I’ll be able to cut a piece off to propagate.
Propagating silver dollar succulent vines is a pretty simple process and is a lot like propagating some other succulents. Simply cut off a piece of newer growth that is branching off of the main stem. Keep in mind that if you cut off a branch on the main stem, it will callous over and won’t regrow. It will shoot a new stem off like this.
Let the smaller shoot that you cut off dry out for a few days. This will let the cut end harden over a bit, which helps the new plant control water intake as it is establishing new roots. A few days in a windowsill is fine. Then plant the cutting cut end down in well-draining potting soil.
Xerosicyos danguyi propagation
I personally like to use a soil that is well-draining but is perhaps not as sandy as a normal succulent soil. That’s because you want to keep the plant a bit more moist than you would a normal succulent while it is establishing its roots. I find that it is harder to keep newly cut and rooting succulent pieces sufficiently moist in super sandy soil.
For more on succulents, check out my tips for growing succulents from seed, how to fix succulent stretching, and some of the best succulent plants for beginners!
However, you don’t want to overwater the plant. That will lead to the plant rotting and dying. Make sure the small pot you’re using has drainage holes so that when you water the plant, you can let all of the excess water drain freely.
Water your cutting with you plant it and then let it completely dry out before watering again. You can also mist the soil and plant to help keep humidity up, which is not usually something you need to do with succulents.
After a few weeks, you can gently tug your cutting to confirm that it has rooted. (Note, before planting the cutting, you can add a bit or rooting hormone to the cut end to help speed things up. I don’t use it all of the time when propagating, but a little bottle is cheap, so I usually have it on hand to use if I remember!)
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