A recent issue of the Cactus and Succulent Journal (Sept—Oct, 2000) featured on the cover a stunning photograph of the massive bottle-shaped trunks exhibited by these plants in habitat. Even seedlings of this species display an early propensity for excessive pachycauly (even more pronounced than in the allied Arabian populations of A. arabicum). Our one old specimen, collected by Lavranos in 1967 (see photo), leafs out in fall and stays in leaf all winter in a state of relative torpor; the plant is dormant and leafless through much of summer. This cycle corresponds with the rainfall regime in Socotra where useful precipitation falls in the cooler winter. Seedlings, such as those offered here are amenable to lush, hot, greenhouse conditions simulating the Arabian monsoon. Thus, these plants have thrived in the greenhouses of C&J Cactus Nursery. We are pleased to be able to offer second-generation seedlings with caudexes 2.5 cm or more in diameter, HBG 90208, from seed collected March 17, 1997, by Bruno Mies (# 676) and John Lavranos (during a partly CSSA-funded expedition to Socotra), at ca. 120 m above sea level, near the village of Di-Ishal at the N end of Wadi di-Faroh which runs S to the Nuged coast. $35.
Published in the Cactus and Succulent Journal, Vol. 76 (2), March - April, 2004