Adenium arabicum

Adenium arabicum

Family: Apocynaceae

Common names: Adan bush, Desert rose, Elephants Foot,

It is a remarkable succulent plant with a grotesquely swollen trunk which resembles a miniature baobab tree. It is a local or morphological form of Adenium obesum, but commonly used to be know as a separate species and very popular with ‘fat plant’ collectors. Adenium arabicum is similar in appearance to Adenium obesum, but creates a massive, more squat and fat caudex without much differentiation between trunk and branches and is the most succulent and “desert like” species. The fleshy trunks and short naked branches are also somewhat more colored in purple to dark brown. It also has larger thick fleshy leaves shiny on the upper and lower surface, unlike Adenium obesum and is an extremely drought tolerant plant. Flowers, similar in many ways to those of Frangipani, range from pink to red and sparkles when sunlight shines on them.

Sowing instructions: It is easily propagated from ripe seeds, sown in a normal nursery tray, using a well-drained seed-sowing compost and silica sand mixture (silica sand improves drainage) kept moist and at a temperature of approximately 22ºC. The seeds need some degree of humidity for successful germination. One can generally expect seeds to germinate within 3–4 weeks (one month).

Locality: Ex Hort. Harvest: July 2024