Bushman poison

Description

Adenium boehmianum, the Bushman poison, is a poisonous succulent endemic to the mostly dry regions of northern Namibia and southern Angola.The San people boil the root sap and latex to prepare arrow poison, which is sufficient for hunting large mammals, as it contains strong cardiotoxic effects. The leaves, borne only for three months a year, are arranged spirally and are clustered near the branch tips. A plant will flower for only a few weeks in winter. The oblong fruit releases many seeds through a longitudinal slit, which due to their lateral tufts, can be dispersed by wind. Adenium is a genus of flowering plants in the family Apocynaceae first described as a genus in 1819. It is native to Africa and the Arabian Peninsula Adenium obesum is grown as a houseplant in temperate and tropical regions. Numerous hybrids have been developed. Adeniums are appreciated for their colorful flowers, but also for their unusual, thick caudices. They can be grown for many years in a pot and are commonly used for bonsai. One of the paired, follicular fruit of an Adenium species, dehiscing to release seeds equipped with a double pappus (i.e. tuft of hairs at each end) for wind-dispersal Because seed-grown plants are not genetically identical to the mother plant, desirable varieties are commonly propagated by grafting. Genetically identical plants can also be propagated by cutting. However, cutting-grown plants do not tend to develop a desirable thick caudex as quickly as seed-grown plants. The sap of Adenium boehmianum, A. multiflorum, and A. obesum contains toxic cardiac glycosides and is used as arrow poison throughout Africa for hunting large game. The genus Adenium has been held to contain as many as twelve species. These are considered by other authors to be subspecies or varieties. A late-20th-century classification by Plazier recognizes five species.