Pachypodium brevicaule
Pachypodium brevicaule is the smallest and more strange species in the genus, with a remarkable rock-mimic caudex remembering a sack of potatoes with sparse leaves. It is truly a beautiful sight to see a large specimen covered with hundreds of bright yellow flowers. is the one every Pachypodium lover should have.
Stem: At first like a potato tuber, eventually bizarrely compressed like a blob (sometimes described as a cow-pie) up to 30 cm in diameter (but eventually up to 1 m in diameter in the wild) and rarely over a decimetre tall, silver in color, with short spines and very reduced branches distinguishable as lobes on the overall ‘blob’ shape subtending rosettes of leaves.
Pachypodium brevicaule
Leaves: In scattered compact rosettes, elliptic. 2-4 long and 1-1,6 cm wide, pubescent in the bottom side.
Inflorescence: Compact cymes with 2-6 flowers.
Flowers: Bright yellow. 2-3 cm across. Corolla-tube narrow 1,7-2,5 cm in diameter.
Blooming season: Summer.
Common Names include:
ENGLISH: Žemasis tukvis
CHINESE (中文): 惠比須笑
SWEDISH (Svenska): Gul ökenstjärna
Origin and Habitat: South Central Madagascar (south of Antananarivo to the Itremo Mountains )
Altitude: 1250–2000 m.
Habitat: Pachypodium brevicaule typically grows on exposed sandstone faces or rarely on granite, in crevices between outcrops of quartzite. With a pH. Level varying from it is strictly adapted to growing in acid substrates.
