Angiosperms (Flowering Plants) • Earth.com

Pachypodium bispinosum

(Pachypodium bispinosum)

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Description

Pachypodium bispinosum is a succulent sub-shrub in the family Apocynaceae. Pachypodium bispinosum has a swollen, tuberous stem, or caudex, up to 0.6 m tall, which is partially buried beneath the soil. Thick, bonsai-like branches sprout from the top of the stem, and are lined with paired, straight spines 10–20 mm long, somewhat shorter than other Pachypodium species. The narrow leaves are scattered or in tufts along the branches. From August to December, the plant bears a few purple to pink flowers in clusters at the tips of the branches. These flowers are bell-shaped are about 15–20 mm in diameter. P. bispinosum is the most floriferous species in cultivation. The leaves of this species are less hairy than others in its genus, with margins curling down more distinctly. The species is almost entirely confined to the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. In its native range, it can be found in stony places, growing amongst the dry succulent scrub. When not in flower, it is indistinguishable from Pachypodium succulentum, a species with which it overlaps in its natural range. Pachyphytum is a small genus of succulents in the family Crassulaceae, native to Mexico, at elevations from 600 to 1,500 metres (2,000 to 4,900 ft). The name comes from the ancient Greek pachys (=thick) and phyton (=plant) because of the shape of the leaves. The species of the genus Pachyphytum are perennial succulent plants. They grow as hairless rosette plants. The usually short shoots are upright up to 70 cm young and later prostrate to longer than 1 m. The usually simple and occasionally basally branching shoots can reach a diameter of up to 3.5 cm. The rosettes have a diameter of 6 to 20 cm and are made up of 10 to 40, rarely up to 80, clearly separated leaves that are often intensely blue frosted. Towards the shoot tip, the leaves are much more crowded together. The young leaves are more or less erect, later spreading and the older ones often curled back. They are obovate to spatulate or elliptical-oblong to lanceolate and usually end blunt to pointed. The upright inflorescence emerges laterally from the leaf axils of the upper leaves. The lower 10 to 20 cm of the flower stalks are leafless, the upper 6 to 9 cm are covered with basally spurred, leaf-like bracts. The inflorescence is simple and initially overhanging. Later it is erect and bears up to 50 individual flowers.

Taxonomic tree:

Domain:
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum:
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order:Gentianales
Family:Apocynaceae
Genus:Pachypodium
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