Caudex Plant Encyclopedia

A Passiflora-family caudex with a large green caudex and tri-lobed leaves with climbing stems.

An Adenia with a massive spherical caudex and thorny branches, very wild appearance.

An exceptionally hairy Adenia from Kenya and Tanzania, with trunk and leaves covered in fine grey to rusty-brown hairs. It bears downward-facing, cream, pot-shaped flowers and bright red fruits the size of an egg.

A Madagascan Adenia that sends green vines with lace-like, finely divided leaves from a caudex about 20 cm across. It is grown more for its foliage than its caudex, and a white-spotted "snowflake" form is also known.

A summer-growing Adenia from northern South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe whose twisted, spiny branches rise from a large, irregular, swollen stem. Only seed-grown plants form a caudex; plants from cuttings never do.

From South Africa, blooming many red-white flowers in winter, called Impala Lily.

An Adenium recognised by its broad-based, conical caudex and narrow leaves with white veins. Flowers are smaller than those of A. obesum, under 5 cm across, with narrow pointed petals and red nectar guides.

The African baobab of the savanna, famous for its massive bottle-shaped trunk. Seedlings have simple leaves that change with age to palmate leaves of five to seven leaflets, and young plants can be kept in pots for many years.

A ponytail-palm relative endemic to Mexico's Tehuacán Valley, raising several slender stems from a huge corky base like an elephant's foot. Unlike B. recurvata, its narrow, strongly blue-grey leaves stand stiffly upright.

Known as Ponytail Palm, with a swollen trunk base and cascading leaves.

An African bulbous caudex with beautiful fan-shaped wavy leaves and impressive flower heads.

A frankincense relative caudex plant with white bark and unique branching, increasingly popular.

A Pachypodium from Namibia and Angola that grows into a 3-6 m tree with a bottle-shaped, swollen-based trunk. In the dry season it bears fragrant white flowers, flushed purple outside, on leafless branch tips.

A Mexican aromatic caudex with peeling bark and fragrant resin.

Called Elephant Tree, a Mexican caudex with thick white trunk and tiny leaves.

A Mexican spherical caudex with cork-like large tuber producing fine grass-like leaves.