Pachypodium Succulentum
| Plant | Light | Water summer | Water winter | Hibernation | Soil | Propagation |
| Pachypodium Succulentum | Medium | Medium | Medium | winter | mineral | South Africa |
Family: Apocynaceae
P.Succulentum is very similar to its congener P.Bispinosum but has narrower petals and larger flowers. They do not interbreed in the wild.
They also both have in common that they originate from South Africa, unlike almost all other Pachypodium species growing in Madagascar.
In South Africa, they originate from very large parts of the country in the south, north and east, but not in the semi-desert north-west.
P.Succulentum has the great advantage over its Madagascar relatives that it can tolerate quite a lot of frost, at least down to minus 10 degrees Celsius. The plant's dormancy period is also slightly longer in the colder climate of South Africa, from November to March. During this period, the plant does not need to be watered at all.
If you keep the plant at normal room temperature, it may not go dormant and watering can be continued.
P.Succulentum should be grown in very mineral material, gravel, pumice, lava or similar, and in return fertilized often during the growing period, at Caudiciform.com we fertilize almost every week in summer.
The plant forms its impressive caudex underground and this can be lifted with each transplant. Rooting P.Succulentum is relatively easy. Cut off a piece of the tuber and plant it immediately slightly above the ground.
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General information about Pachypodium
There are a number of rules to follow when growing Pachypodium regardless of species. Use small Pots. If you use large Pots , the plant will often have too large a root system, and the plant will use more energy to grow the branches, and you will not get the compact shape that they get in the habitat, which is most attractive. Small Pots means a pot that is not much wider than the caudex and not much higher than the caudex. Use a pure mineral growing medium such as pumice, possibly mixed with some perlite. Both minerals retain a little water, but allow larger amounts of water to pass through a pot and out again. Fertilize with every watering. Use a low concentration of fertilizer and remember that the fertilizer in all the water that comes out of the pot during watering is not absorbed by the plant. Always keep the plant slightly moist - also in winter. It may sound a bit counterintuitive to keep plants dry in winter to avoid rot, but remember that you can also water a very small amount at the edge of the pot, away from the plant. Pachypodium needs a lot of water in summer, preferably every other day. Brevicaule in particular reacts very strongly to drying out. Pachypodium is in dormancy from December to February (approximately), flowers from April to June, and grows from June to November. Pachypodium needs minimum 4hours of direct Light during the flowering and growing period from February to November. Pachypodium must be kept above 13 degrees in winter - Bispinosum and Succulentum can however tolerate temperatures down to 0 degrees. Pachypodium Brevicaule in particular is said to be particularly sensitive to bacteria. As a general rule of thumb, avoid direct contact with any Pachypodium. |
