Fat Plants I hear you mumble .... what the hell is she talking about ? Well they are literally a plant with a swollen, water-storing stem (caudex). They produce leaves and shoots when conditions are favourable, and live off water and food stored in the caudex during long dry spells.
Caudiciform plants can store water and survive many months without rain in hot, arid desert regions. They include some of the most remarkable and truly bizarre plants on earth. And I love the bizar :~))
The knobbly thing (above) has many nick names : turtle back, elephant's foot, Hottentots' bread. It's real name is Dioscorea elephantipes. It will live for approx. 70 years in cultivation, if it is looked after! Mine is about 2cm across but they grow to more than three meters wide :~))
With the onset of spring, Jatropha berlandieri (left)sprouts from a large, globose caudex. This is a caudiciform plant adapted to prolonged periods of drought. It belongs to the diverse euphorbia family (Euphorbiaceae). Adenia glauca (right) is a 'Pachycaul', with thick, fat stems/trunks with few branches. It originates from the southern Africa and Botswana, and can get op to one meter or more in diameter! It's a member of the passion flower family
My very favorite author and the first English cactophile is Gordon D.Rowley (90 this year!)
He lives in Reading, wears Hawaiian shirts and is the epitemy of wonderful British eccentricity :~))
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