Caudex Plant Encyclopedia

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.

A caudiciform member of the grape family endemic to south-western Madagascar. From a stout brown caudex like an elephant's foot it sends out vining stems with fleshy three-lobed leaves in summer. CITES Appendix II.

A shrubby Madagascan spurge with slender, densely spiny branches, narrow leaves and small flowers with orange-red bracts below the branch tips. It looks like a miniature crown-of-thorns.

A small southern African spurge whose twisting tuberous caudex sends up many slender three- to four-angled branches striped grey-green. Tough and easy to root from cuttings, it is a good first caudiciform Euphorbia.

A Euphorbia with a Pachypodium-like columnar stem topped by large leaves, glaucous blue-green above and red-violet beneath. Flowers wrapped in dark purple bracts open before the leaves.

A small spurge from south-eastern Madagascar whose half-buried round caudex, about 6 cm across, sends out slender leaning branches set with small whitish bumps. White to cream flowers keep opening for several months.

The "Madagascar ocotillo" of the southern spiny forest, with bone-white stems lined with conical spines and small round leaves. It looks much like the American ocotillo but belongs to an unrelated family.

A caudiciform legume from south-western Madagascar with thick zigzag branches and small pinnate leaves. Even small plants have a swollen base and look like a miniature old tree; the flowers are bright yellow.

A South African spurge whose thick carrot-shaped tuber sends up a clump of three-angled branches that twist into tight spirals. The angles bear sharp spines up to 2.5 cm long.