Pachypodium rosulatum
Pachypodium rosulatum var gracilius
Rosulatum Pachypodium is a plant of the genus Pachypodium in the family of the dogbane family ( Apocynaceae ).
Description
Pachypodium rosulatum is a perennial plant whose stem grows initially bottle-shaped, but later becomes a massive caudex with a diameter of 1 m or more. From it arise many thick, tapered, ascending branches with a length of usually 1 to 1.5 m, rarely reach 3.5 m. The older parts of the plant are unarmed, only the young shoots are paired conical spines with a length of 2 to 16 mm. The leaves are usually hairy tomentose, they are elliptically shaped 3 to 8.5 cm long and 0.8 to 3.5 cm wide.
The flowers are in groups of two to twelve in 7 to 60 cm long flower stems, usually they are yellow in color, but rarely also white. The fruit is from 6 to 20 cm long, they contain elongated seeds having a length of 6 mm.
Dissemination
The species is widespread in Madagascar.
System
The internal classification of type is interpreted differently. GD Rowley (2002) distinguishes four varieties and one form:
- Pachypodium bicolor rosulatum f
- Pachypodium rosulatum var eburneum
- Pachypodium rosulatum var gracilius
- Pachypodium rosulatum var inopinatum
- Pachypodium rosulatum var rosulatum
Jonas Lüthy and John Lavranos however, differ in the initial description of Pachypodium rosulatum subsp. bemarahense (2005) together with this new subspecies six subspecies:
- Pachypodium rosulatum subsp. rosulatum
- Pachypodium rosulatum subsp. bemarahense
- Pachypodium rosulatum subsp. bicolor
- Pachypodium rosulatum subsp. cactipes
- Pachypodium rosulatum subsp. gracilius
- Pachypodium rosulatum subsp. makayense
In nature, the kind of hybrid forms with brevicaule Pachypodium ( Pachypodium × rauhii ) in a hybrid culture was grown with densiflorum Pachypodium ( Pachypodium × hojnyi ).