€21,20

📍 Nursery-grown cultivar. This succulent, which looks like a land coral belongs to the Euphorbiaceae family. 

🌱 Morphology
It looks like a small tree drawn with hundreds of green strokes: a trunk that gradually fades into the branches and a tangle of cylindrical, yellowish, and perfectly bare stems that cross and arch as if they were the branches of a terrestrial coral. During growth, small leaves appear at the tips, but they do not last long; when they fall, the plant once again reveals its entire bare and sculptural architecture. In this cultivar, the growth mutates and grows fully forming "crests"

It is a succulent shrub or small, highly branched tree, which can reach about 4 m in height in the wild and occasionally more under favorable conditions. The trunk can reach about 15–20 cm in diameter and the branches are cylindrical, succulent, yellowish-green, and approximately 1–1.5 cm thick. They have constrictions that can mark the successive phases of growth. The leaves are small, deciduous, and are concentrated mainly towards the ends of the young shoots, leaving scars when they fall. It has no thorns.

🌍 Distribution, habitat, and family
It is endemic to Madagascar, where it grows in dry forests, xerophilous scrublands, and rocky areas, mainly in the arid regions of the west and south of the island. It belongs to the Euphorbiaceae family. Kew currently recognizes two subspecies: Euphorbia alluaudii subsp. alluaudii and E. alluaudii subsp. oncoclada.

The species is listed as Least Concern (LC) by the IUCN, although some recent extinction risk predictions point to possible threats, so it is advisable to distinguish between the two assessments.

❄️ Temperature — USDA Zone 9b–11b
It tolerates minimum temperatures of up to −4 ºC only briefly if it is completely dry, acclimatized, and protected from humidity. In cultivation, the references are much more cautious and consider that frost can seriously damage it; therefore, in Madrid, it must be kept protected during periods of intense cold.

☀️ Lighting
It needs very intense lighting, with an approximate target of 18–25 mol/m²/day of DLI PAR during active growth. Direct sun favors shorter, thicker, and more compact branches and accentuates the characteristic yellowish-green tone of the stems. In low light, it can produce longer, weaker growth.

💧 Growth cycle and irrigation
Winter rest. During the growth period, it is recommended to water abundantly and let the substrate dry out completely before watering again. In autumn, watering is gradually reduced, and during winter, it should be kept practically dry. Irrigation is resumed gradually as temperatures rise and spring growth begins.

🌸 Flowering
The small yellowish-green cyathia appear in rather loose clusters towards the ends of the branches. They are discreet compared to the plant's architecture, but they stand out against the bare stems. Flowering occurs mainly during the warm months; when cultivated in Madrid, it can appear between spring and summer, depending on temperatures and the start of growth.

🌿 Nutrition
During the active growth period, a fertilizer specific for succulents is recommended, with a high content of assimilable calcium, such as Desert CHOICE® Succulents, applied once a month when watering.

This is an inimitable xerophyte grown in Madrid in a technological square pot and with substrate activated with mycorrhizal fungi and biofungicides.

📏 Xerophyte in a 14 x 14 x 14 cm black pot. (M)

📐 Approximate height of the plant: 19 cm.

* Since this is an online purchase, the appearance of the specimen sent may vary slightly from the product image. The measurements of the plant are specified in the photo description, but this can also vary slightly, because it is a living being! Each of the Desert CITY plants has unique characteristics.

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