Adenium socotranum

Adenium socotranum originates from Socotra and is an endemic variety of bottle tree. www.cacti101.com

Adenium socotranum Vierh.(Fig.22) is endemic to the island of Socotra in the Indian Ocean south of the Arabian peninsula. It is the giant of the genus, forming a conical trunk/caudex several metres tall and up to 2.4 m (eight feet) in diameter (Balfour, 1888; Rowley, 1983). It resembles a miniature baobab. The stems of the single clone available to us are strongly vertical and distinctly striated, a unique character in the genus. The leaves are about 12 cm (4.7") long, are widest (4 cm, 1.6") near the tip, and are dark green with a white midrib and light major veins. Balfour described the flowers as bright pink and twice the size of those of "mainland A.multiflorum" (he considered the Socotran population to be of this species), which would make them 10-13 cm (4-5") in diameter.

This magnificent species is virtually unknown in cultivation, so its performance cannot be described with confidence. The six-foot tall specimen in Hanson's collection is in leaf only during the summer months, leafing out even later than A.boehmianum. It has not flowered in seven years, although it did once when Frank Horwood owned it. A specimen at the Huntington Botanical Gardens has also not flowered to date. The only other cultivated specimen known to us is in the collection of the Botanical Research Institute, Pretoria, South Africa (Myron Kimnach, written comm.).

Care: Full sun, ample to moderate water in warm season, drier in winter.