Pachypodium Cactipes Description: Pachypodium cactipes may merely represent a southerly form of the Pachypodium rosulatum complex but some authors preferred to recognize it as a distinct species until further research clarifies its affinities. Its rich green glossy foliage, showy yellow flowers on long stems and ease of culture make it one of the more rewarding of the genus.
Habit: Shrub-like up to 1 m high, diameter up to 1.50 m, with a squat pachycaul trunk (inflated base).
Caudex: Spineless, strongly succulent to subglobose and (at least apically) spiny that turns silver grey as it ages. After the plant first flowers, it begins to branch until it forms a head of short, thick, tapered branches with groups of leaves sprouting from the tips of the branches. Young stems more or less erect.
Leaves: The leaves, which fall in the dry season, form a rosette on the top of branches. They are deciduous, very dark green above, white below, margins revolute.
Spines: Weak, needle-like, reddish, conical on the upper half of the plant.
Flowers: Open-faced, canary yellow, at the end of long pedunculate inflorescences, with rather short and wide tubes and hairy ovary. Corolla pale yellow outside, bright yellow inside.
Blooming season: Late winter and early spring before the leaves appear.
Seeds: Narrowly spoon-shaped to oval.
Pachypodium Cactipes germination instructions
There is no pre-treatment of the seeds required.
The seeds are sown in mineral-based cat litter (no clumping litter) or perlite (germ-free) in plastic-pots or in pure cocopeat. Please sow the seeds on the mineral soil. Bigger seeds need to be covered with the mineral soil, small seeds should remain on the surface.
Then put the plastic pot in a ziplock bag – with a pot size of 6 cm , a ziplock bag of size 12 x 17 cm is recommended . Fill in the ziplock bag as much tap water with a few drops of universal fertilizer, so that after the absorption of the substrate a few mm of water remain on the bottom. Then close the ziplock bag – Ready!
More watering is not required because no moisture evaporates through the ziplock bag .
Location: on the windowsill or in a small greenhouse in partial shade, daytime temperatures at about 25-30C, somewhat lower at night at 20-22. The resulting micro-climate provides ideal conditions for germination.
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