The Adromischus addiction

in Succulent growers15 days ago

Adromischus are an extremely variable genus found throughout the drier parts of Southern Africa and the hotter, sunnier and drier it is, the more they like it. They love my greenhouse and are happiest in the hottest, brightest part of it. Although they look like miniature trees, they don't do well as pot plants on a windowsill in a house so they are niche plants for succulent freaks and like lithops, you can never have just one...

adromischus roanianus.jpg
Adromischus roanianus

Adromischus are extremely easy to propagate from leaves and some of them throw their leaves off at the slightest touch although they are pretty slow, the one with the spiky ball leaf has taken years to get to that point, the one at the back of the photo is about one year and the one on the left about 8 months old

leaf propagation.jpg

Although they grow easily from leaves, they die very easily from fungus, especially the weirdest-looking and most expensive types that grow in the semi-desert areas of the Western Cape. The next 3 pictures are all forms of Adromischus marianae

Adromischus herrei green.jpg

Adromischus marianae.jpg

Adromischus marianae2.jpg

Adromischus are so variable they are grouped very broadly to keep the number of species to a managable level and they are classified into sections according to the flower forms and so there are 5 sections. These are a few of them and sometimes the only way to identify plants is to see the flowers which will give a category and then if you know where the plant comes from, you can figure out the species

section adromischus.jpg

section boreali flowers.jpg

section incislobati.jpg

section incisolobata.jpg

Many people just cut the flower stalks off because they are large and the weight makes the plants fall over but then they miss out on the new plants that form on the end of the stem which is another reproduction strategy to - the leaning process makes the plantlets touch the ground and take root nearby the mother plant as you can see with the Adromischus cristatus below

Adromischus cristatus.jpg

Another consequence of the leaning: small plantlets start to form at the base of the stem until you have a small bush

adromiscus maculatus 2.jpg

You might have been wondering about all the hairs on the stem of the first picture, here's another subspecies of cristatus: These grow in the Eastern Cape where sea fogs are common so they grow roots on the stems to collect moisture from the air.

adromischus cristatus v clavifolius.jpg

The pictures below are just a few examples of all the different forms of this interesting genus of plants

Adromischus sphenophyllus 2.jpg

Adromischus sphenophyllus

And another form of Adromischus sphenophyllus

Adromischus sphenophyllus.jpg

Adromischus caryophyllaceus is like a tiny little tree.

Adromischus caryophyllaceus.jpg

Adromischus schuldtianus comes from the Western semi-desert areas

adromischus schuldtianus.jpg

Adromischus cooperi (I think)

Adromischus cooperi 3.jpg

Another, more commonly grown form of cooperi

Adromischus cooperii.jpg

Adromischus filicaulis, another semi-desert type that gets fungus really easily. I lost the mother plant to fungus one cool rainy summer but I managed to regrow it from a single surviving leaf

Adromischus filicaulis.jpg

Adromischus hemisphaericus has a powdery leaf, as a form of sun-screen

Adromischus hemisphaericus.jpg

Adromischus humilis is the smallest of them all and those with sharp eyes will notice the Haworthia seedlings in the pot!

Adromischus humilis.jpg

the name Adromischus maculatus suggests spots but this one doesn't have any

Adromischus maculatus.jpg

Finally, Adromischus umbraticola grows in my home province and tolerates a large amount of rain in summer

Adromischus umbraticola v ramosus.jpg

Do I have them all? Hell, no! I won't bore you with any more of my pictures, I hope you enjoyed this little trip into one of my plant obsessions

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Waooo!!! What rare succulents @nikv 🤩🤩 of all the Adromischus the ones I liked the most are the ones in the photo. I had never seen them and in my country even less 😁. They are very coarse similar to the leaves of the Gasterias. They are all very nice friends... Nice collection thanks for sharing in the community. 🤗👏.

Whaooo!! Que suculentas más raras @nikv 🤩🤩 de todas las Adromischus las que más me gustaron son las de la foto. Nunca las había visto y en mi país menos 😁. Están bien toscas parecidas a las hojas de las Gasterias. Todas están bien lindas amiga.. Buena colección gracias por compartir en la comunidad. 🤗👏.

 15 days ago  

Those are exactly the ones that cannot stand humidity, that's why they are rare

Yes... they adapt well to my country 🇨🇺. The truth is very exotic @nikv

I want to see if I take some nice shots of Adenium from the garden to make a post in the next few days....

 15 days ago  

Yes please!

they are large and the weight makes the plants fall over but then they miss out on the new plants that form on the end of the stem which is another reproduction strategy

Ow.... I didn't know this about Adromischus cristatus, but I didn't cut off the flower stem either... However, after blooming, the whole plant just twisted and withered and eventually died 🤐 Luckily, one other baby plant grew before this happened.

The one with funny, rounded big leaves (Adromischus maculatus) is so cool; I love that one 😌

 14 days ago  

It sounds like it caught fungus and died, I have had that happen quite a few times. I'm glad you had another that survived

The baby survivor, now living with a Blushing auntie :D

1000008678.jpg

 14 days ago  

💚

So pretty! I really like marianae and how weird thei look, but I am afraid I will kill them, like I did my favourite festivus.
I still have cooperi and another one that I didn't ID (grown from a leaf found in a shop shelf :p)

 14 days ago  

Adros are easy to grow but they die easily if the weather turns weird. Show me a picture of your leaf, I'm getting better at IDs on these

It already managed to grow. It keeps dropping the leaves though and they root and grow new plants around :p
I brought it inside now as I dont want it to get too wet over the winter.

image.png

 12 days ago  

I think its a filicaulis. Better to keep it drier in winter

Thanks! I went looking for it now and fund something more similar. The leaves have this triangle tips like halesowensis or marianae var. kubusensis .

The other one died in summer... I think it cooked :p

 11 days ago  

Wow! They are hard to cook. You'll be able to ID it properly when it flowers: that will tell you the section

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I lost the mother plant to fungus one cool rainy summer but I managed to regrow it from a single surviving leaf

Great save 😅

I like the ones with bumpy surfaces on the (mostly) round leaves in the fourth picture. Looks like a sugary breakfast cereal 😆 what a collection you have or maybe addiction haha fun post 🙂

 14 days ago  

Thank you! Everyone likes the freaky ones (me too)

Wow! You have so many succulents. Those little ones with tiny flowers are very charming. Now I know they are not as boring as I thought! 🙀😂

 12 days ago  

They are never boring