If you regularly visit plant stores, you may have seen some strange-looking stones in the planting pots. Big or small, and in a variety of textures and colours – they're actually plants.

Lithops – also known as flowering stones, pebble plants, living stones or butts (for visually obvious reasons) – is a genus of succulents in the Aizoaceae ice plant family. Native to southern Africa, there are numerous species, with various colours, patterns, textures and even different flowers.

Lithops doesn't have a true stem; it usually has two leaves that regrow once a year. These taper down in a conical fashion directly to a tap root, which makes it look like a stone, split down the middle with only its immediate surface visible. Due to this, Lithops can avoid being eaten by hiding in the crevices of rocks.

Nowadays, Lithops is one of the more popular house plants and many specialist succulent growers maintain collections, so they're easy to buy in plant stores and on the internet. They're also relatively easy to grow if given sufficient sun and suitable soil.