The African ‘Elephant’s Foot’ has a caudex with a tortoise-shell pattern that can reach up to several feet across, given enough time. (Wild specimens have been known to reach over 6 feet!) The caudex produces a deciduous vine with rounded, heart shaped leaves in winter and loses it in summer for a rest period.

Caution should be taken to allow the plant to rest by withholding most water during this period! Seedlings start as subterranean caudex that will arise above the soil in time or can be uplifted when they reach a few inches in diameter.

A succulent perennial shrub-let with stems that become woody with age. Size tends to be about 18 to 24 inches in cultivation but can reach over three feet in the wild. Leaves are succulent with a coating of short hairs. Leaves and flowers are aromatic. Native to East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula area, growing in dry, Acacia scrub and rocky soils.

Widely used as a medicinal plant for throat and stomach ailments. The root is edible when cooked. The plant is a source of thymol. Flowers are purple and somewhat decorative. Cultivation is easy and propagation is by seed or stem cuttings.

A showy, small, shrubby species from Veracruz, Mexico. Horizontally spreading branches produce whorls of elongate, succulent, red-edged, yellowish leaves. Takes on an orange tint in strong light. Produces white flowers.

Neoalsomitra sarcophylla, a caudex-forming Curcubit from Burma makes a long trailing vine with waxy leaves in sets of three, which become thickly succulent in time. Does well in a hanging basket and nothing could be easier to grow. Roots readily from cuttings.

An attractive and bizarrely beautiful Euphorb from Madagascar. Thick, procumbent stems bear distinctive leaf scars and inch-long, succulent, very crisped or crinkled leaves. A very flat growing, mat forming shrub with an underground caudex. Flowers or cyathea are tan to pinkish. Light exposure will determine color which can range from deep green to pinkish brown. A superb plant for container culture or rock garden. Water about weekly in warm months and allow a drier rest during cooler periods. Propagate from seed or stem cuttings.

 

C.I.T.E.S. No export.

An unusual African plant with an upright growing rhizome topped with a tuft of grass-like leaves. Native to Eastern Africa, from Yemen to South Africa and Namibia in rocky grasslands, often in frequent fire zones and is considered a pyrophyte. The plants grow in full sun on well drained soils from sands to degraded granite, producing tall spikes with white flowers in Fall in the northern hemisphere. The unbranched caudex-like stem can reach two inches thick and a foot long. This is a member of the Anthericaceae, a relative of Agaves and Yuccas.

Lepismium cruciforme with pink flowers, seed collected by Dennis Cathcart.

 

This plant is on C.I.T.E.S.and cannot be exported.

From the southern tip of Madagascar, this little miniature develops a caudex that can reach 4 inches across. The plant stays short to about 8 inches tall, with a greenish-pink cyathia. Described by Rauh and Petignat in 1996. An unusual and rare miniature Madagascan Euphorbia.

 CITES-No export

From Bahia and Minas Gerais, Brazil, one of the larger growing species that also has some of the longest spines in the genus. It looks like a miniature barrel cactus until the cephalium rises, giving it the 'Turk's Cap' nickname. The spination is variable in color, size and form. A mid-summer bloomer with pinkish magenta flowers followed by pink to red fruits. 

This plant is on C.I.T.E.S. and cannot be exported

THIS PLANT IS ON C.I.T.E.S. AND CANNOT BE EXPORTED

A rare species of Northern Madagascar that is closely related to E. ankarensis but is seen to be more compact and with glabrous leaves in most adult plant. We note that most seedlings are very pubescent. An upright grower with a thick trunk-like caudex, crowned by oblong-lanceolate leaves, preceded by flowers at the apex. The cyathea are pinkish. Grow bright, out of direct sun.

SHIPPED PARTIALLY BARE-ROOT

An interesting new species from the Red Tsingy of Madagascar, this plant is a miniature caudiciform and not a geophyte. It has a very colorful cyathia loaded with veining and interestingly enough, the reddish-black bristle-like hair located just below the foliage is part of how it gets its name 'ramena' in Madagascan, which means 'red', as well as being located in the Red Tsingy.

C.I.T.E.S. - No Export

This species gets its name from its ‘scabrid’ or rough leaf surface which is covered on all sides by small tubercles. Deep green to almost blackish leaves in bright light or full sun are thick at the base and taper to a point. A variable species in size and other characteristics such as offsetting. Ours is a smaller form to about 3 or 4 inches that does offset, though it is rather a slow grower. Native to South Africa’s Western Cape Province where it is widespread in areas of rock outcrops.

A rare and critically endangered species from the Tulear region near Anjamala in southwest Madagascar.

C.I.T.E.S. - No Export.