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Get stung by desert rose
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Enhance the beauty of your existing bonsai collection with the succulent Desert Rose.
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FLOWER POWER: Adenium obesum in bloom.
ADENIUM OBESUM, commonly known as the Desert Rose, is a flowering succulent. The plant, usually reaching about 1.5m in height, is a native of Eastern Africa and Southern Arabia. It belongs to the family Apocynaceae. It is slow growing and needs to be placed in full sun all through the year. Gradually, the desert rose grows into a large shrub.
The plant has short succulent branches and the stems are swollen at the base. The plant gets its name from the Yemeni port Aden. Leaves are clustered at the tips of branches and are glossy, broader at ends, lusciousdeciduous and about eight centimetres long. The milky sap present in all parts of the plant is very poisonous.
GROWERS' DELIGHT: As a bonsai.
The plant flowers in early summer, which goes on till October. Flowers are about five centimetres in diameter, funnel-shaped and borne terminally. The spreading petals are white or light pink with dark pink or carmine edges. The flowers look somewhat like those of the Red Plumeria - Plumeria rubra.
Adenium obesum produces two 10 centimetre-long jointed, finger-like fruits containing many seeds with parachute like hairs on them. The plant is reproduced by sowing seeds and by planting leafless branches in sand. Seeds are collected when the fruits dry, but before they open. Seeds should be dried in the sun before planting in sifted sand mixed with leaf mould.The plant loves to grow in a well-drained mixture of sand and loam in equal proportions. Even younger plants look as if they are very old. The plants are grown as bonsais and on rockeries or pots. Desert roses thrive in full sun and very little water.
CHITRA RADHAKRISHNAN
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