Caudex Plant Encyclopedia

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 caudiciform legume from south-western Madagascar with a bottle-shaped trunk of peeling grey bark under an umbrella-shaped crown. It has finely divided leaves and fragrant white flowers with long red stamens.

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 small caudex Euphorbia from Madagascar with a plump caudex and small leaves.

A small Euphorbia with cylindrical leaves and caudex, endemic to Madagascar.

A small Madagascan spurge that spreads by creeping rhizomes and bears rosettes of leaves at the stem tips. Its dark red to green leaves are strongly wavy and crisped, turning coppery in summer.

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 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-western Madagascar with a rounded corky caudex, short fat branches and rosettes of crinkled leaves like those of E. decaryi. It forms a bonsai-like plant about 20 cm tall.

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 caudex plant with bonsai-like form, beautiful balance of small leaves and thick trunk.

Caudex plant from Madagascar. Fascinating contrast between thick thorny trunk and small leaves. Rapidly growing popularity.

A northern Madagascan Pachypodium with an almost spherical grey caudex and slender, nearly spineless branches. It bears pure white flowers up to 12 cm across, the largest in the genus. CITES Appendix I.

Known in Japan as Aasoukai. A south-western Madagascan Pachypodium with a thick, spiny, silver-grey trunk rising like a column and a crown of long, narrow leaves with a bright pink midrib. One of the largest species in the genus.

The quintessential caudex plant from Madagascar. Round caudex body with yellow flowers. Wild-collected specimens with unique forms command high prices. Seed-growing is also very popular.

A small central-northern Madagascan Pachypodium in the P. rosulatum group. Slender spiny branches rise from a swollen trunk, and unusually for this mostly yellow-flowered group it bears ivory flowers.

A spiny caudex plant from Madagascar. Popular as 'Madagascar Palm Tree'.