The Adromischus addiction

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

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

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 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

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

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

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.

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

Adromischus sphenophyllus

And another form of Adromischus sphenophyllus

Adromischus caryophyllaceus is like a tiny little tree.

Adromischus schuldtianus comes from the Western semi-desert areas

Adromischus cooperi (I think)

Another, more commonly grown form of cooperi

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

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

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

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

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