Euphorbia tirucalli | Pencil tree
€35,00
🌱 Morphology
It looks like a shrub drawn with hundreds of green pencils: extremely thin, cylindrical, and bare branches multiply from the base, forming a light, almost transparent tangle that resembles a delicate vegetal cloud. The leaves appear only on young shoots and quickly disappear, leaving the branches to build the entire architecture of the plant. Its fragile appearance is deceptive: over time, it can grow into a true tree.
It is a highly branched shrubby succulent that can usually reach 3–5 m, and exceptionally 10–15 m in tree-like specimens. Young stems are cylindrical, green, smooth, and finely striated longitudinally, about 5–8 mm in diameter, and can appear alternate, opposite, or grouped in whorls. The leaves are fleshy, linear-lanceolate, and very small, up to about 15 × 2 mm; they are born only at the ends of young shoots and are rapidly deciduous. It has no thorns. At the slightest damage, it releases abundant, irritating, white or yellowish latex.
🌍 Distribution, habitat, and family
Its native range is located in Madagascar, although it is now introduced and naturalized in numerous tropical and subtropical regions of Africa, Arabia, Asia, and other warm areas of the world. It grows in dry environments, from xerophytic scrublands to grasslands and open forests, and can be found from sea level up to about 2,000 m in altitude. It belongs to the Euphorbiaceae family.
❄️ Temperature — USDA Zone 10a–11b
It tolerates minimum temperatures of down to −1 ºC occasionally when fully dry, acclimated, and protected from moisture. This occasional tolerance should not be confused with the plant being frost-resistant: sustained low temperatures, especially with moist substrate, can cause significant damage.
☀️ Lighting
It requires very intense lighting, with an approximate goal of 18–25 mol/m²/day of DLI PAR during active growth. It tolerates direct sun after progressive acclimation. High lighting keeps the stems compact and encourages the species' characteristic dense branching.
💧 Growth cycle and watering
Winter dormancy. During the growth period, it is recommended to water abundantly and let the substrate dry out completely before watering again. With the arrival of autumn, watering is progressively reduced, and it should be kept practically dry during the winter. In spring, watering is resumed gradually, coinciding with rising temperatures and the appearance of new shoots.
🌸 Flowering
The small cyathia appear grouped at the ends of the branches, forming dense terminal clusters. They have five bright yellow glands and are inconspicuous compared to the plant's architecture. Plants can bear male or female flowers, and flowering occurs mainly during the warm months; in South Africa, it is recorded especially between October and December. The fruits are nearly spherical capsules, about 8–8.5 mm, which develop on a pedicel that can reach 1 cm.
🌿 Nutrition
During the active growth period, a specific fertilizer for succulents with a high content of assimilable calcium, such as Desert CHOICE® Succulents, is recommended, applied once a month when watering.
This is an inimitable xerophyte grown in Madrid in a high-tech square pot, with the substrate activated with mycorrhizal fungi and biofungicides.
16x16 pot
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