Pachypodium
( Greek = thick foot )
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Pachypodium is a small genus of 25 species of caudiciform shrubs and trees, mostly from Madagascar with 5 species from Southern Africa. They generally grow on rocky outcrops and steep hills where micro-climatic conditions may be diffferent from the surrounding plain.
Their bottle-shaped trunks and branches (if any) are strongly spined and topped by a rosette of long leaves, although a few species have compact flattened trunks. While the spines are probably a protective adaptation against herbivores, they also help the plant to survive in an arid environment by condensing water from fogs and dews, so that it drips from the tip of the spine to the base of the plant. As with other members of the Apocynaceae (Dogbane Family), the showy white, pink or yellow flowers have 5-fold symmetry.
Pachypodium will not tolerate any frost and grow best in a warm sunny place.
All species of Pachypodium are poisonous to humans and animals.
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Plant Families with Succulent Species