Adenium swazicum:
Light lilac to almost magenta flowers, it is supposed to be the hardiest Adenium. I like it because of its unusual flower color and floriferous nature as well as compact growth pattern. Most clones are very floppy with drooping stems but I have some selections with erect, upright growth and dark flowers of good form.

Purple Prince: a particularly good selection of A. swazicum we have identified for mass propagation.

I have never been able to set seed on an Adenium swazicum. Pollination is rather difficult because the flower tube is much more compact and tighter "down there" and it is difficult to expose the stigma without breaking the style. After pollination the ovary thickens and hangs on but never develops into pods even after several months. Hybrids with A. obesum as the pod parent are possible and are amongst the most floriferous of Adenium hybrids. Most A. swazicum clones and many hybrids are especially susceptible to spider mite infestation.

Adenium swazicum

Typical form

Northern form

Horticultural form

Adenium swazicum

Adenium swazicum [A.boehmianum Schinz var. swazicum (Stapf) Rowl.] (Figs. 6-8) occurs on the east coast of southern Africa, in Swaziland and adjacent parts of South Africa and Mozambique (Plaizier, 1980). It is a shrubby species, lower growing and more spreading than A.obesum or A.multiflorum (Dimmitt and Hanson, 1991). The stems of most clones are weak (decumbent), spreading horizontally or even drooping over a pot (Fig. 8). Mature plants have massive roots and thick stems, but a caudex is evident only in young ones. Cuttings develop the same characteristics in a few years. The long, narrow leaves are lighter green than in most adeniums, widest near the tips, and the margins are usually slightly crisped (wavy). In full sun the leaves tend to be folded upward along the midrib. Like A.obesum it is nearly evergreen if kept warm and watered, or can be forced into a long winter dormancy. Under warm greenhouse or tropical conditions growth ceases in autumn, but the leaves fall gradually throughout the winter; new growth begins early in spring.

Adenium swazicum usually flowers for a few months in late summer and fall. Some clones, however, are in almost continuous bloom, experiencing only a few weeks of rest in late winter. The broad-petaled flowers are uniform in color from the petal margins to the edge of the darker, unmarked throat and average 6-7 cm (2.5 inches) in diameter. The color is typically medium pink, but is deep purple in some clones (Fig. 8). Plaizier (1980) says that the flowers may be crimson or white, but such plants do not seem to be in cultivation. The anther appendages are short and hidden deep in the floral tube. Adenium swazicum is fairly easily found in cultivation, and is easy to grow.

Adenium swazicum Stapf
in Kew Bull. 1907: 53 (1907); in F.C. 4, 1: 513 (1907). — Codd in Fl. Southern Afr. 26: 281 (1963). — Plaizier in Meded. Landb. Wag. 80–12: 22, fig. 5, phot. 2, map 5 (1980). Type from Swaziland.

Synonyms:

Adenium boehmianum var. swazicum (Stapf) Rowley

in Cactus & Succ. Journ. (U.S.) 46: 164 (1974). Type as above.

Distribution:

Mozambique

M: between Magude and Chobela, fl. 21.i.1944, Torre 6375 (LISC; PRE).

Range:

S. Africa (eastern Transvaal and northern Zululand); Swaziland;

Habitat:

In open woodland on sand and often brackish soil 300–400 m.

Description:

Succulent shrub, 0·2–0·7 m. tall with a carrot-like tuber up to 1 m. in diam. with poisonous clear latex. Leaves petiolate; petiole 1–4 mm. long; lamina oblong to narrowly oblong, 3·5–9·1 times as long as wide, 4–11·5 x 0·5–3·1 cm., rounded and apiculate to mucronate, rarely emarginate, above pubescent, especially the midrib; secondary veins more or less inconspicuous, beneath pubescent. Inflorescence 1·5–3·5 x 1–2·5 cm.; bracts narrowly oblong to narrowly ovate, 3–10 x 2 mm. Pedicels 6–10(15) mm. long, tinged with pink or red. Calyx crimson or pink to green, narrowly oblong to narrowly ovate, 7–11 x 1·5–3 mm., pubescent outside, appressed-pubescent inside, especially towards the apex. Corolla crimson, deep mauve or pink to white; tube crimson to white, 2·2–3·5(4) times as long as the calyx, 2–3 x (0·6)1–1·3(1·9) cm., outside pubescent, only at the very base nearly glabrous, glabrescent inside; narrow basal portion 0·6–1 times as long as the calyx, 0·5–0·9 x 0·2–0·4 cm.; lobes deep mauve to white, obovate, 1·3–2·5(3·5) x 1–2 cm., apiculate, slightly undulate, both sides puberulous; a glabrous scale at the base (2)2·5 x 1·5 mm. Stamens included; free part of filament glabrous outside, lanate inside; anther 5–6·5 x 1–1·5 mm., hispid outside; cells 2–3 x 1 mm.; appendages (1·2)1·5–2 times as long as the anther, hispid. Pistil 9–11·5 mm. long; ovary glabrous or puberulous to sericeous; carpels 1·5–2·5 x 1–1·5 x 1–2·5 mm.; style 5·5–7(9·5) x 0·5 mm.; clavuncula 1–1·5 x 0·5–1 mm. Follicle grey-brown, 16x1 cm. Seed pale-brown, glabrous, 1·2–1·4 x 0·3 cm., comas dirty white, 2·8–3·5 cm. long.