Monadenium

Jamie Bear · Post by **Jamie Bear** » Sat Apr 10, 2010 7:57 pm

I just bought a monadenium tanzania today at ACSS and i was wondering how to care for it. Should I leave it outside or keep it on my window. I don't have many succulents other than aloes. My camera is dead right now but I will get a pic as soon as possibe.

Jamie Bear · Post by **Jamie Bear** » Mon Apr 12, 2010 11:27 pm

Here is a picture of my little one. Any care tips?

king_hedes · Post by **king_hedes** » Mon Apr 12, 2010 11:29 pm

cool looking

lancer99 · Post by **lancer99** » Tue Apr 13, 2010 12:42 am

Jamie Bear, most of the "thick-stemmed" Monadeniums from Kenya and Tanzania are of fairly easy culture. They grow in semi-forested regions, scrambling amongst grasses and low shrubs. That means two things: first, they need more water than you might expect. Don't treat them like cacti....don't allow them to dry out completely for too long during the summer, if at all. Second, they don't need full sun. Most are happy with half sun.

I don't have this plant, but it may need more sun than most, in order to keep its coloring.

AFAIK this isn't a true species and may be a hybrid. In any case, it seems closely related to M. reflexum.

HTH,
-R

cruaux · Post by **cruaux** » Tue Apr 13, 2010 12:50 am

I have both this plant and reflexum. To me this looks and behaves more like M. schubei than reflexum.

Robert has hit the high points on culture and care. While it doesn't like blasting full sun, it does tend to lose the purple striping on the tubercles/stems if in too much shade, as Robert says.

Mine is almost pure green at the moment after a long winter in the propagator. Mine also retained some leaves all through the winter, with watering every 10-14 days (light watering...)

I got mine from Aridlands, they call it "Monadenium schubei (purple stems)".

lancer99 · Post by **lancer99** » Tue Apr 13, 2010 1:11 am

Ooops yes, M. schubei. M. reflexum has, unsurprisingly, reflexed tubercles, while M. "tanzania" doesn't, at least from the pics I've seen

-R

cruaux · Post by **cruaux** » Tue Apr 13, 2010 3:35 am

lancer99 wrote:Ooops yes, M. schubei. M. reflexum has, unsurprisingly, reflexed tubercles, while M. "tanzania" doesn't, at least from the pics I've seen

-R

reflexum has reflexed tubercles, as you say, but does also have longitudinal striping on the tubercules that looks similar to 'purple stems'. The really big difference I see between reflexum and schubei other than the tubercle anatomy is the leaf shape. My schubei has fairly lanceolate leaves, while my reflexum has quite cordate leaves, they are a very nice deep purple color too.

Anyway, even with their recent subsumption into Euphorbia, they are very cool plants that deserve more time in the limelight.

(IMHO, of course

)

lancer99 · Post by **lancer99** » Tue Apr 13, 2010 4:12 am

cruaux, do you have a pic of your M. reflexum? If it really has cordate leaves, I suspect it has been misidentified.

Thx,
-R

cruaux · Post by **cruaux** » Tue Apr 13, 2010 2:02 pm

I'll have to go shoot one. Be back later...

And some time later:
Apologies for the lower quality crops. On closer inspection my reflexum leaves are not truly cordate, but they are certainly more elliptic/acuminate than the putative schubei.

Note also the lack of purple stems with the lower light that this plant has recently experienced.

cruaux · Post by **cruaux** » Tue Apr 13, 2010 7:19 pm

Oops, I suppose I should have replied rather than edited, to draw your attention to the photos above

Jamie Bear · Post by **Jamie Bear** » Wed Apr 14, 2010 12:41 am

Thanks for all of the GREAT info! I have another question though. When does it get thoses leaves on top? Do those come out whenver there is a new tubercles?

cruaux · Post by **cruaux** » Wed Apr 14, 2010 3:02 am

Yes, each new tubercle in active growth will also have a leaf. If you look closely at the top of my schubei, you can see a new tubercle forming in the centre.

kaktuskris · Post by **kaktuskris** » Sat Apr 17, 2010 1:40 am

I have this Monadenium, which I believe is schubei. In the picture you can see it had some red in the stems and leaves, but it soon faded completely. My plant lost some leaves, but still has more than most I have seen, and now I am seeing some new growth. They weren't as difficult to get though a winter indoors as I feared.

lancer99 · Post by **lancer99** » Sat Apr 17, 2010 2:35 am

Christopher, I think you were too kind with that plant. It's not at all unusual for M. schubei to lose all its leaves over the winter....in fact, it's expected! Here is one of mine, which is just starting its spring growth:

Cheers,
-R