#caudiform

Adenium arabicum

Brachystelma buchanani

The Living Rock Shrub

Aloinopsis schooneesii

It’s not a rock, nor a true shrub; but, it does share some resemblance to the characteristics described in those definitions.

This species is a very interesting member of the living rock or ice plant family of Aizoaceae and a native to only a specific area of the rocky scrubland of South Africa’s Eastern Cape Bushmanland locatity. It is a bit of a specialist to specific microclimates of it’s native locality too, so, although the plant’s habitat is rare and it’s species is range restricted, it is currently considered uncommon and stable.

The reason why I am posting this species instead of the usual temperate plants that I go crazy over is because this is the first time our plant has bloomed at our conservatory. It takes a very specific series of events to get this species to bloom. 

The flowers start to form in late winter and are specifically affiliated to enzymatic/hormonal pathways that are enabled when temperatures are idle from 60-70. Water is also crucial to get this species to produce flowers; a period of watering in late winter involving watering once a week for two weeks with large enough time periods of full sun and rarely cloudy days had to occur. If the time period for blooming is too cloudy the flowers abort.  When the second watering occurs in full sun the flowers’ sepals start to dehisced forming a cup at the top where water coalesce into a large drop. There is not much to this water formation besides that it prevents the flower from drying out to quickly in the early stages. If the plant receives long enough periods of full sun the flower will finally open, the water then slides off the waxy cuticle of the flowers exposing staminal tips. At night the flowers close up once more and open once again if the weather allows it. Our plant’s blooms lasted about 1 week before finally finishing up.

If this plant is pollinated it will eventually form seed pods which stay closed until the next rainy season. The seed pods are thick and tough enough to survive intense heat and dry spells. Eventually the seed pods will be dead and dried up with the preserved seeds inside. When the rain finally comes and enough turgor pressure can still occur between each cell, the capsule lids of the seed pod will then dehisced as a product of this turgor. The associated effect becomes a short flick as the seeds may flick out or roll out. The turgor joint is similar to the leptosporangiate reticulated annulus of leptosporangiate ferns in this sense. 

The reason why this plant is sometimes referred to as a shrub, is because of its natural ability to raise itself out of the hard shallow rocky soil over time. This species has large swollen tap roots that form a condensed naturally grafted caudex when exposed to surface air after upheaval. This makes this plant fairly easy to manipulate for bonsai and makes it a treasure in any collection. 

More reading

Plant Origami? WIRED

Below is an example of dry capsules that some members of this family have.(Not my video.)

Pseudolithos migiurtinus