Crassula argentea Thunb. is an older botanical name for the plant now correctly called Crassula ovata (Mill.) Druce, the jade plant or money tree. The name is treated as a synonym under current Kew taxonomy and is no longer a separately accepted species.
Part of the Complete Crassula Guide.
The same plant, a different label
Thunberg's name, first published in 1778, predates much of the subsequent taxonomic work on the genus. Miller's Crassula ovata (1768) has priority under the International Code of Nomenclature, and both C. argentea and C. portulacea have been reduced to synonymy for decades.
The name still circulates. You will see it on older plant labels, in mid-twentieth-century gardening books, and occasionally on supermarket stock. Every plant sold under Crassula argentea is the familiar jade: a woody-stemmed succulent shrub with thick glossy obovate leaves, native to the Eastern Cape of South Africa.
Care and growing
Bright light, gritty free-draining substrate, water when the top 3–4 cm dries, minimum 5 °C. Nothing about the care regime changes when the label on the pot does. For the full profile including propagation, bonsai training, and pests, see the species page.
Full details at Crassula ovata.