-R,

That second photo of E. bougheyi (obviously of the Paper Cactus Euphorbia sub-tribe) is outstanding! And the rest of them are nice, too.

Do you get more growth on your tropical Euphorbs if you sink your plastic pots into a raised bed / bigger pot? All of those seem like they want to grow by leaps and bounds in the summer, as witnessed on your E. grandidens.

Jeff,
I put my Euphorbia beharensis var. guillemetii in the garden this summer,
so we'll see how much size it attains this season.

Josh

This is E. grandidens, about 2-1/2' tall. I'm deliberately keeping it underpotted so it doesn't grow to its full height of 50 feet!

Party-pooper!

The E. bougheyi is sweet!

E. bougheyi is able to spread widely and take up lots of space even though grown in a very small pot. E. grandidens, growing indoor in sand, has not grown through the glass, but the trunk is over 24 inches in diameter and very droopy unlike your upright branched individual. It is a pretty sight when in bloom.

Your plants/photos are terrific. Yale

Thanks all for the comments!

cactusmcharris, I've never tried sinking the pots into beds, so I don't know about that. I can say that even when underpotted, the "tree" species will still put on 3-4" of growth (main stem) a year. I only have a few in larger pots, and they put on 2 or 3 times as much growth.

greenman, please let us know how your E. beharensis does. For me, it's a slow grower, maybe 1-2" a year.

mfyss, 24 inches in diameter? Very impressive :) :) LOL, apologies for teasing you a bit :)

Cheers,
-R

This is what you are trying to avoid, and easily understood. The plant is over 60 years of age, and left alone, as you can tell. It is E. grandidens and not very fussy. Yale

Here is a link that might be useful: E.grandidens

Land3499..

Your variegated E. trapifolia is simply gogeous!!

I also like the "white Ghost" one too, if you can even find one..:-)

Mike

beautiful plants. I am definitely putting my plants in the garden again next summer. The growth really can be just amazing.

mfyss, thanks! If that's indeed E. grandidens, it's a bit of sad sack, and doesn't look anything like the habitat pics I've seen. It looks like it needs way more light :)

meyermike, I made a couple of mistakes in my post. First I misspelled..it should be "E. trapaeifolia." Second, it's now considered a subspecies of E. sudanica. I can verify that they are very similar, although I killed my other E. sudanica after a couple of years :(

-R

Hey, wait a second.

Looking at your Euphorbia grandidens, I'm now pretty convinced that the E. Excelsa monstrose I got last month is actually a monstrose grandidens. Obviously being monstrose it doesn't look THAT much like it, but the branches and branching pattern, when it exhibits normaller growth, is definitely closer to grandidens than excelsa.

Although, at that, looking at YOUR E. Grandidens and some of the ones online, I get the impression that this is a fairly variable species. I tend to see two different sort of growth patterns--one where the branches get kind of viney, almost, like in mfyss's link, and another one that's sort of a more standard, tree-like euphorbia shape, with fairly upright branches.

I've been working on some new listings...pls feel free to disagree and add any corrections!

Senna meridionalis

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Senna is a large genus of approximately 300 species in the the Fabaceae ("peas and beans") family. Most of the species in this genus are woody shrubs and of little interest to the succulent collector, but this caudiciform species is very attractive and an excellent bonsai subject.

Growth Habit: Even when small, the gnarled and wrinkly stems and small pinnate leaves make this species look like a miniature tree. A very slow grower, it will eventually attain a height of 2-3m.

Scientific name: Senna meridionalis

Common names: In Madagascar, Taraby, Andapary (Mahafaly), and Tainjazamena.

Etymology: From the Arabic sanaa ("thorny bush") and Latin meridionalis ("midday"). The latter may refer to this species' habit of closing up its leaves at night.

Taxonomy: First described as Cassia meridionalis by René Viguier (R. Vig.) in 1948, then renamed as S. meridionalis by David J. Du Puy in 1995.

Distribution: Endemic to (only found in) Madagascar, with limited distribution. Only about 400 plants remain in the wild.

Habitat: Varied, usually on limestone plateaux.

Cultivation: An easy grower, not particularly fussy about either light, watering or soil. One site claims that it needs full sun to maintain its compact shape, but this hasn't been my experience over the course of a few years. Watering is slightly problematic. In summer, it will take as much water as you give it, but it will also continue in leaf during the winter if you continue to water it. I've found it best to cut back drastically on water during the winter, to allow the leaves to drop and give it a dormant period. Mine got mealy bugs, but responded well to a combination of horticultural oil as a spray and the systemic imidacloprid, and has been mealy-free for about a year.

Minimum temperature: I haven't been able to find any temperature records specific to this species' native habitat (southern Madagascar), but it is probably safest to not let it go below 50 degrees.

Conservation Status: Not subject to CITES restrictions, but as of 2006, considered "Vulnerable." In March 2010, proposed to be included in CITES Appendix II ("not necessarily now threatened with extinction but that may become so unless trade is closely controlled"), see http://www.cites.org/eng/cop/15/prop/E-15-Prop-30.pdf

Ethnobotany: Some species of Senna are used as a laxative.

Excellent plant! I've had a S. meridionalis for just over a year now. One odd thing I found is that the leaves would close up during midday on sunny, summer days. It never got burned, though. It leafs out easily enough, but I have not seen any noticeable woody growth, so I would agree it is a slow grower. I put mine in a raised bed this fall, and will wait to see if it speeds up next spring.

Penfold,
That is very interesting observation. It makes sense because the species name "meridionalis" means "midday". Mine doesn't do that. I'm going to post this listing on another site...if you have any pictures you'd care to share, especially of it closed up during the day, and don't mind me sharing them, that would be much appreciated.

-R

I meant to take some pictures of the leaf changes last summer, but never got around to it.

Here's a pic from when I first got it in Oct of '09.

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And another from today in the raised bed inside my greenhouse. It's resting now, so there are only a few leaves.

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You can share the pics if you'd like, and I'd be interested in hearing more if you could share the other website.