Madagascar Archives - enjoysucculents

Didierea madagascariensis (sogno)

Of the two species of Didierea (the other one is D. trollii), this is by far the most widespread and best-known. It occurs abundantly on red sandy soils in SW Madagascar, from the dry spiny bush in the Toliara area northwards to the Morondava river.
D. madagascariensis has quite a distinctive growth form: the single trunk is up to 0.5 m thick and 6 m or more tall; it is generally unbranched up to 2 m high.
The branches usually grow more or less upright and are often curved towards the top; the short lateral shoots give rise to clusters of very long spines (up to 12 cm) and groups of short-lived, greyish green and narrow leaves (7-15 cm long and 0.3-1 cm wide).
The inflorescences may cover extensive areas of the upper branches. The numerous unisexual flowers are pale yellowish to greenish-red and open only during sunny weather between 10 am and 2 pm to be pollinated by bees.
In cultivation, the plants are often propagated by grafting a short-shoot on a strong plant of Alluaudia procera, thereby producing nice specimens within 3 to 4 years.

Euphorbia stenoclada (samata)

Although this easily recognised species is known as the most thorny Euphorbia of Madagascar, it is the most important fodder resource for livestock during the dry season in the area where it occurs naturally. For this reason, it is now being propagated by cuttings to increase production.
It grows into a much-branched tree up to 4.5 m tall. Especially in the young stage, the branch tips taper into sharp thorns. The leaves are much reduced and short-lived.
The species is common in open forest on limestone or sandy soils in the south and southwest of the island, within a distance of about 50 km from the ocean (the coastal plain of the Mahafaly plateau region).

Aloe macroclada (part 1 of 2)

Over a period of hundreds of years, a great part of the original forest vegetation of Madagascar’s Central Plateau has been destroyed by annual burning.
The resulting savannah-like grasslands are very poor in species. A few succulents can survive the fires, either because they have very thick and fleshy leaves, e.g. the subject of this post, or because they hide underground (such as geophytic Euphorbias, see Euphorbia primulifolia).

A. macroclada is an impressive plant with its leaves up to a meter long and 17-22 cm wide at the base. In winter, the stemless rosettes are adorned with (usually single) inflorescences which in old specimens may be up to 2.5m tall. The many flowers are 2-2.5 cm long and 2 cm wide at the mouth.
It is probably the most widely distributed of the Madagascan Aloes, from 200 km north of Antananarivo to Fort Dauphin in the far south, usually at altitudes between 1200 and 1500 m.

Senecio crassissimus

Because of the peculiar orientation of its leaves, this species is often called Vertical Leaf Senecio or propeller plant.
The plants have creeping to erect stems, to 80 cm tall and much-branched.
The vertically flattened leaves* are variable in shape, size and colour, to 10 cm long, 3 cm wide and 3-5 mm thick.
Inflorescences are to a meter tall.

The species is widespread in central and southern Madagascar, where it grows on denuded granite rocks, often together with members of the Euphorbia milii groep, such as E. horombensis and E. fianarantsoae and Pachypodium species (first picture shows P. horombense in foreground).

* This vertical compression of the leaves is usually regarded as an adaptation which reduces the amount of light that reaches the leaf surface, resulting in lower daily water loss than in leaves in other orientations.

Pictures 3 and 4 show plants in cultivation (scans of old slides)

Euphorbia primulifolia (var. primulifolia)

At the end of our latest trip to Madagascar, we stayed in Antsirabe, south of the capital Antananarivo. The area is well known for its succulents and I decided to spend an afternoon in the mountains surrounding the town. For several kilometers the road leading out of town ran through the middle of a wide valley, and what I could see of the mountain slopes did not look promising at all. At a certain moment we decide to take a little side road that seemed to take us out of the valley. This was indeed the case, but even the hillsides appeared to be cultivated.
When the driver asked talked some local people if there were any bare rocks nearby, he got a positive reply, but in spite of their directions no rocks came into view. At a loss what to do now, I decided to just stop at an uncultivated spot and look around.
Picture #1 shows the first plant that I noticed there. Without flowers it could be about anything, but next to it was a group of flowering plants (#2) and immediately the penny dropped.

With a large tuber 10-15 cm long and to 7 cm thick, Euph. primulifolia is a true geophyte. It has a very short stem, hidden in the ground, with a radial rosette of 4-12 leaves. In the dry season the plants are leafless and hidden in the grass; in other words, they are only visible in the rainy season. This growth form allows the plants to survive the yearly grass burning.
The leaves are flat or undulate, 8-11 cm long and 3-4 cm wide.
Usually the plants flower before the leaves appear, but as the pictures show, this was not the case here. The cyatophylls* vary from white or greenish to pink and violet.

This variable species is widespread in the central highlands at about 1400-1500 m in a variety of substrates.

* cyatophylls are the bracts that surround the inflorescence proper in many members of the Euphorbiaceae.

Plant in cultivation. Scanned slide.

Kalanchoe linearifolia

Because this species is often more or less climbing in surrounding shrubs, it is difficult to spot when not in flower. The name refers to the very narrow leaves, which are up to 13 cm long, but not more than 1 cm wide.
The plants become up to 1.5 m tall and produce brilliant red flowers with a tube just over 1 cm long.

One can find the plants in a wide strip roughly following the coast of southern Madagascar from Fort Dauphin to Tulear, where they mainly grow in xerophytic bush on limestone rocks.

The photos were taken at Madagascar’s southernmost tip (Cap Ste Marie) on 2 Nov. 2016.

Aloe suarezensis

To see this species in the wild, you have to go to the far north of Madagascar. The plants grow there abundantly on limestone on the Montagne des Français and neighbouring hills near Antsiranana. The old -but still often used- name for this town is Diego Suarez (hence the specific epithet).

The plants are solitary, with or without a short stem, with leaves up to 60 cm long and 10 cm wide.
They produce inflorescences 60-80 cm tall, with 4-12 branches. The flowers have a length of about 2.8 cm and are covered with very short, soft hairs.

Pachypodium rutenbergianum (part 1 of 2)

As a young plant, this species looks rather uninteresting, but that changes dramatically over time. Unfortunately not many readers will have the time and the space needed to grow a specimen to perfection, but in north and west Madagascar, where it is endemic, it is often grown as an ornamental tree (see first picture). It is also a characteristic component of deciduous forests and palm savannas.
These pachycaul trees may become 3-6 m tall, with a swollen stem-base 50-70 cm in diameter and deciduous leaves 16 cm long and 4.5 cm wide.
The inflorescences appear at the branch tips and bear numerous white flowers with
lobes 2-4 cm long and about 2 cm wide.

Pachypodium brevicaule (part 1 of 3)

For a little prologue to this post, see the preceding one: Kalanchoe integrifolia).

Although Mt. Ibity is perhaps the most accessible place, P. brevicaule also occurs in a couple of other habitats in Madagascars central highlands.
Plants can be found from Ambositra to Antananarivo in quartz rock at altitudes between 1400 and 1600 m.
In some spots where P. brevicaule grows together with P. densiflorum or P. rosulatum, one can come across hybrids. Judging from the long flower stalks, I suppose the plants shown in pictures # 3 and 4 belong to either of these hybrids.
The first two pictures show views from where P. brevicaule grows on Mt. Ibity. On # 2 you can see the quarry belonging to the massive cement factory nearby.

Kalanchoe integrifolia

When at the end of my recent trip to Madagascar we had some time left, we decided to go to Antsirabe to visit Mt. Ibity. I had been there 19 years ago to see the famous Pachypodium brevicaule in its habitat and this seemed a good opportunity to renew the acquaintance.
As the area is protected nowadays, it took us a while to find a guide and get the necessary permissions, but in the end we were able to start the ascend.
Just before we arrived at the level were we could expect the Pachypodiums, I noticed a little succulent in a rock crevice. My first thought was: “An Adromischus?”. Well, probably not, as that genus is not known to occur in Madagascar. A bit further up we came across a mature specimen and one look at the flowers confirmed that it was a Kalanchoe. But which one? Fortunately there is a book on the Kalanchoes of Madagascar and that quickly answered the question. (When I looked through slides of my first visit to the country, I found one of the same species photographed further south at a place 15 km West of Ivato; see first picture)

Kalanchoe integrifolia is a polymorphous species which is slow growing and may become very old. It may reach a height of up to 1 m.
The leaves show a great variation in appearance depending on the age of the plants. They are 3-11 cm long and 0.8-2.5 cm wide, egg-shaped in young plants and becoming almost cylindrical as the plants get older.
The flowers may be white, yellowish, pink or dull reddish and are slightly pubescent.
The species occurs in the Antsirabe-Ambositra area on quartz, gneiss and basalt rocks at an altitude of 1200- 2000m. It is rare and probably endangered by environmental
changes.