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greenlarry_gw

The extraordinary ordinary

greenlarry
18 years ago

Try saying that fast!

This is a very common plant and one that i always wanted as a kid. Now many years later it is in its second year with me and yet I never realised until recently that it is a caudex plant!

Ceropegia woodii.

An overhead shot after some judicious pruning prior to a repot:

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and a close up showing those small caudexes:

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Comments (5)

  • mrbrownthumb
    18 years ago

    Very cool. I bought one that I split into two pots a couple weeks back. One of the caudexes was the size of a fifty cent piece. Are you suppose to plant them exposed? I put most back below the soil surface like it was when I bought it.

  • User
    18 years ago

    I don't know that these are really considered caudexes, I've heard them more to be considered tubers. Some folks use the tubers of these as graft stock for growing more difficult succulents onto (I've seen these at Dr. Barads, he of Stapeliad reknown, an example was some of the more difficult Carallumas & things like that.)

    Currently I grow this one, I grow them pretty well, but have trouble starting them, so I can't really address whether the tuber is best left somewhat exposed or not.

    Also I am currently trying to start one from the tuber alone which I have about 4/5 in the mix w just a bit sticking out (having read that's the preferred way to start them, but who knows).

    Last summer I found a different variety of this locally. It was IDed by tag as Ceropegia woodii, has the same growth habit, the same blooms (but all white, a bit larger than regular), but it has larger, very spade shaped leaves rather then the ones we commonly know as above. I split up an overcrowded pot of it & shared some w/ friends, the tubers were large, very round & white, almost looked like ping pong balls or balls of stryrofoam; they looked almost artificial, much more pristine looking than these regular 'potato' looking kind of tubers ... curious.

    To date, I haven't been able to get a true ID on this different one, if to makes it through summer I hope to take it to a friend who was 'til recently very into Ceropegias (Sage R. of the wondrous Ceropegia site called 'Ceropegia Journal', worth taking a gander at it you've never seen it).

    Anyway, nicely grown Larry, thanks for the pix. I hope mine grows in to look as nice as yours does.

  • greenlarry
    Original Author
    18 years ago

    They are listed on Bihrmann's caudiciform site.

  • ooojen
    18 years ago

    I think that from a Biological standpoint, a caudex must be a thickened, moisture-holding underground part of a stem (or the trunk of a palm, cycad or tree fern), but horticulturally it's used a little more carelessly/generously.
    Yours is a nice-looking plant, and slightly different from either of mine. I guess they're a bit variable.

    Karen-- I am completely enamoured of these tubers for grafting stock! Thanks to them, I can water my Caralluma socotrana without fear!

  • greenlarry
    Original Author
    18 years ago

    Thing is I havent raised the caudexes at all, theyve just 'appeared'
    I've even heard somewhere the 'little potatoes' are edible!
    Dont fancy tryin it meself!

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