El Pachypodium lamerei, better known as the Madagascar Palm, it is one of the most cultivated caudiciform plants in the world; probably the one that most surpasses even the Adenium obesum. Reasons are not lacking: it is able to withstand temperatures slightly below 0º without suffering hardly any damage, and it is also very resistant to drought.
However, we easily find it for sale in nurseries and garden stores, but we know little about it. To solve this problem, I am going to tell you what are the characteristics of this beautiful succulent plant.
Our protagonist, whose scientific name is Pachypodium lamerei, is a plant belonging to the botanical family Apocynaceae native to Madagascar that was described by Emmanuel Drake del Castillo and published in Bulletin du Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle, in 1899. It has a succulent trunk of about 90cm in diameter covered with triangularly arranged thorns of about 3 centimeters in length. It reaches a height of up to 8 meters, but in cultivation it rarely exceeds 2m. Its crown is very little branched, so much so that normally it does not have more than 3-4 branches crowned by semi-evergreen leaves (almost all or all of them can fall in winter if the temperature drops below 10ºC), dark green in color and about 10-13cm in length.
The flowers, which measure 8cm, appear only in the adult specimens, during the summer. They sprout at the apex of each stem, and are white in color. Once they are pollinated, the fruit, which is shaped like a small banana, begins to ripen.
Pachypodium lamerei var. ramosum
It is a very resistant plant to pests and diseases, but is very, very sensitive to excess water. To avoid rotting, it is highly recommended to plant it in a pot with substrates such as pomx, or even akadama, and water it little: once a week in summer, and every 15 days the rest of the year. In the event that you want to have it in the garden, it will be very important to make sure beforehand that the soil has excellent drainage.
For the rest, it is a plant that can give us many satisfactions since it resists well temperatures down to -2ºC (as long as it is for a short time and the soil or substrate is very dry).
Hello, good afternoon, I have a Madagascar palm, but due to excess water, I think that fungus has already fallen on it, because the tips of the branches are already turning brown and with little dots similar to eggs and the leaves are also filled with dots. white eggs. Please could you tell me how I can heal her.
Hi Esther.
First of all, treat it with a spray fungicide. This will help fight fungus. Then take it out of the pot and remove as much soil as you can. Leave it in a place protected from the sun for about three days and then plant it again in a pot with new substrate that drains well. You can use black peat mixed with perlite in equal parts.
Water after two or three days.
And to wait.
Regards and good luck.