Hard to say. Certainly, it could use some water. It could also mean it's rotted. If you make a small cut in the lower caudex and it looks olive green, most likely the base has rotted. If this is the case, cut back to light green stem, allow to callous for a week to ten days and plant in very porous grit. If you don't want to do this, try watering and see if the caudex firms up... if it does, you'll have your answer.

Speaking of rotted Adeniums, I threw away a 7-limbed one today - it was a sad thing, but the plant had, for some reason, totally deflated. Kamloops proves one again it's not suitable habitat for tropicals - yeah, that's the reason.

Ooh, that hurts, Jeff!

Oxbow, I hope your plant firms up with a bit of watering, as biker doc suggests...

I waited a couple of days -- no firming up after watering. How long would it take to firm up?

At any rate, my curiosity got the best of me and I broke out the scissors to dissect. It was really weird and alien...

Above the caudex, it transitioned from mushy to firm, which was presumably healthy tissue. I opened up the caudex, and the 'skin' just kind of melted off from the innards. The insides were white and slimy. There was some green slime in there too but not much. None of the roots were black, but they were soft and limp and hollow feeling like the caudex. The stench was earthy, musty and really really strong.

Again, this plant was grown in very porous gritty mix and had not been watered for 3 wks. I was keeping it inside at 70ish degrees and some pretty bright ambient light. It had dropped all its leaves and was just a stick.

How could this be rot?

pics?

My bad...already trashed the cadaver.