Looks similar to a Pachypodium baronii http://www.highlandsucculents.com/pachypodium.htm On further examination, I'm about 99% sure that it's P. baronii. I have a 10cm tall specimen in my collection. The large leaves on this specimen are likely due to growing in a lower light environment. If you slowly transition it to a full sun location, the next set of leaves will be smaller. The container looks to be a bit large for the plant, which tends to cause the plant to grow tall and rather thin, rather than short and fat. If you want a nice thick, fat caudex you'll need to keep the roots cramped in a small container. Use a course, granular mix for the soil, that allows the water to run through quickly and will only stay wet for a day or two. Pachy's don't like wet feet, even while they are in an active growth period.
Thank you for this info , where i live we get frosts in winter but summer is hot 25 - 32deg C , at the moment im designing a succulent garden and a hydroponic garden in a greenhouse so ive got alot to learn. thanks again.
Come and visit the recently formed "Caudiciform and Pachycaul Tree" forum. Your P. baronii is a caudiciform and we'd be happy to discuss any issues there. If this plant blooms, we would like to see a photo. The flowers on this plant are stunning...and we have a thread within the forum for photo posting. Your weather sounds a bit like my Michigan home. We typically have two seasons, bitter cold, snow, ice, driving winds...then, blazing hot summers. It seems there is about 2-4 weeks of transition between the two. I may be exaggerating a little, however, Michigan is an area of weather extremes. So far I've been able to grow these plants indoors in the winter, outdoors in the summer.
Hi Mark, It isn't really! A winter frost in Nelson NZ will only be a degree or two below freezing, not like the -30 or lower that you get
Arctic fronts with low humidity and cold at same time, as well as lingering or deep freezing of soil not usual in southern hemisphere gardening. Even plants from there that survive quite low temperatures will not be able to tolerate the total combination of winter conditions in most northern climates. We can't even keep alot of them going long term here in maritime western USDA 8.
We have had our first brief snow fall for the oncoming winter thanks to a cold front merging with the remains of a tropical depression , no frost yet but it has been close. -30deg, is that celcius ? Man thats cold , we get normally between 0 and -5
It really doesn't get that cold here. Lake Michigan keeps things warmer than the east side of the state. The past several years, I don't think it has gotten much colder than 5 to 10* F (-12 to -15*C), and only for a few days out of the entire Winter. We do get the crosswinds that bring the windchill down, and we do get dumped on with snow from time to time, but Winters haven't been too bad the past decade, or so.
