Elephant's foot plant

Description

Pachypodium rosulatum, common name elephant's foot plant, belongs to the family Apocynaceae. Pachypodium rosulatum is a shrubby perennial caudiciform plant with a bottle-shaped trunk, brownish silver and almost spineless, about 10–15 centimetres (3.9–5.9 in) wide and about 20–35 centimetres (7.9–13.8 in) tall. From the caudex depart many thorny cylindrical arms, forming a shrub about 1.5 metres (4 ft 11 in) tall. The leaves, which fall in the dry season, form a rosette on the top of branches. They are deciduous, dark green, oblanceolate, ovate or elliptical and petiolated. The long-stalked flowers are sulphur-yellow and form an inflorescence about 30 centimetres (12 in) high. Flowering period extends from February through May. The fruits are 6 to 20 inches long and contain elongated seeds with a length of 6 mm. This plant is native to Madagascar and it is widespread on the central plateau. These plants prefer sunny and stony areas. The succulent caudex and the underground tuberous enable the plant to tolerate long periods of drought. Pachypodium is a genus of succulent spine-bearing trees and shrubs, native to Madagascar and Africa. It belongs to the family Apocynaceae. Pachypodium are native to Madagascar and continental Southern Africa, i.e. Angola, Zaire, Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Eswatini and Zimbabwe. In elevation, Pachypodium in both mainland Africa and Madagascar grow between an altitude of sea level, where some species grow in sand dunes, such as Pachypodium geayi, to 1,600 m (5,200 ft) for Pachypodium lealii in southern Africa and 1,900 m (6,200 ft) for Pachypodium brevicaule in Madagascar. In continental southern Africa, the extreme temperatures range from −10 °C (14 °F) in some locations to as much as 45 °C (113 °F). Whereas in Madagascar, with not such a great temperature amplitude, the temperature ranges from −6 to 40 °C (21 to 104 °F). A generalization about precipitation regimes for both southern Africa and Madagascar does not have much meaning because the habitats of Pachypodium vary so greatly with a moisture regime. In some places, Pachypodium receive annually from as little as 75 mm (3.0 in) from the southern part of Africa to a high level of 1,985 mm (78.1 in). A precipitation regime for a species of Pachypodium, therefore, depends upon a habitat's location relative to the influences of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans and the various mountain ranges of southern continental Africa and of Madagascar.