Adenia spinosa

Adenia spinosa is a caudiciform in the passion-flower family from Limpopo Province in northern South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe. It grows in hot, dry scrub on deep, dry sandy soils and among rocks, often partly under bushveld trees and shrubs such as Commiphora and Boscia. It is a thorny, scrambling shrub up to 2.5 m tall; the irregular, fleshy, swollen stem reaches 1.5 m across in the wild and carries a twisted framework of thin branches. Blunt spines on the branches are modified inflorescences or young thorns and can act like tendrils. The alternate leaves are broadly ovate and lobed, grey-green above and paler below, and fall in the dry winter season. Male and female flowers, creamy yellow, are borne on separate plants from late winter to midsummer, the males in denser clusters. The fruit is an ovoid, three-segmented capsule that turns from green to yellow. Its Tshivenda name combines "small baobab" and "big stomach", describing the swollen stem. It is Least Concern in South Africa but considered Vulnerable in Zimbabwe. In Japan both seed-grown plants and rooted cuttings are sold; cuttings never form a caudex, so choose seed-grown plants if the caudex is what you want.

The Adenia spinosa grows to Up to 2.5 m tall; stem base up to 1.5 m across in the wild.

Light feeding in the growing season