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Cultivars of Adenium socotranum Back to Gallery None? I don't know of any selected cultivars of this species that are important to adenium horticulture. If you know of any, please submit photos and a description using this form . Due credit will be given.

Hybrids containing Adenium crispum & multiflorum

Back to Gallery Cultivars of Adenium multiflorum None? I don't know of any selected cultivars of this species that are important to adenium horticulture. If you know of any, please submit photos and a description using this form . Due credit will be given.

Taxonomy There are several species of Adenium , but the exact number is still unresolved. A recent DNA analysis of 5 mitochondrial, nuclear, and chloroplast segments (Dimmitt and Edwards 2021 ) identified seven well-defined species in three distinct clades (groups), and at least one more and perhaps several more species that could not be resolved. The three clades are shown in the graph below left, and their geographic distributions in the map below right. The horizontal lines in the cladogram are approximate measures of the distance between taxa (species or varieties) - the shorter the line, the more closely related the taxa. For example, in the Southern African group, A. boehmianum and swazicum are more closely related to each other than they are to oleifolium , and all 3 are quite distinct from the other 2 clades. The geographic distributions are drawn from limited herbarium records and the personal observations of John Lavranos. Adeniums do not occur continuously within these areas; there are many isolated populations. T he taxa in the Southern African and Arabian clades comprise six clearly defined species. The 3 Southern African species can be defined by their genetic differences alone, indicated by the fairly long horizontal lines between them. They are further distinct in having nonoverlapping geographic ranges. Adenium swazicum and A. boehmianum have very similar flowers, but these two species have very different growth forms, and occur on opposite sides of the continent. They're also geographically separated by A. oleifolium , which is phenotypically very different from the other two. Adenium swazicum (left) and A. boehmianum (center) have very similar flowers. They are unique in the genus in having uniformly colored petals (same shade from tip to throat), dark throats, and very short anther appendages. Both usually but not always have round flowers. But swazicum's leaves are narrow while those of boehmianum are very broad. The flowers of A. oleifolium (right) are quite different: small with nonoverlapping, pointed petals and long anther appendages. The 3 species in the Arabian clade are more closely related to one another than the taxa in the Southern African clade are related. Genetically (according to the 5 sequences analyzed) they could be considered a single species. But there are sufficient vegetative phenotypic and geographic differences to justify separating them. The flowers, however, have widely overlapping traits and are not reliably diagnostic. According to John Lavranos' field experience, Adenium "arabicum " (above left) and A. dhofarense (above middle) on the Arabian Peninsula are separated by a 100 km gap where no adeniums occur. They are also quite different in vegetative form. A. socotranum (above right) is isolated on a small, distant island, and can grow several times larger than any other adenum. The DNA clearly shows that this island giant is derived from the Arabian plants and not from A. somalense . Of the four taxa in the East African clade, Adenium multiflorum (above) is a distinct species. (Even though it is geogrphically in Southern Africa, it's genetically related to the other three far to the north.) Adenium "obesum", somalense , and crispum are a taxonomic problem. They were barely distinguishable by the 5 DNA segments that were analyzed, indicated by the very short horizontal lines between them. They appear to be a single genetic species. Plants of these 3 taxa in cultivation are phenotypically quite different and so are usually easily recognized. However, photos of wild plants show much more variation than we see in cultivation. Some examples of questionable identity are shown in the Other Taxa page. Furthermore, no adeniums from the vast Sahel region are known to be in cultivation, so their DNA could not be sequenced. The few photos available show that they have different vegetative and flower forms from the plants in East Africa. See the Other Taxa page. At this time it is not possible to determine whether the adeniums in this extensive region from East Africa through the Sahel are one highly variable species, or perhaps a multitude of isolated, closely related species. Flowers and leaves of Adenium "obesum " (left), somalense (center), and crispum (right) in cultivation look quite different. The plants are also distinctive (see species pages ). A. "obesum " is an erect or more often a spreading shrub with a modest caudex, and obovate leaves with faint veins. A. somalense has a massive conical trunk (but which is underground in sandy soil), and has elliptical leaves with prominent whitish veins (center inset). A. crispum is a dwarf shrub with linear, crisped leaves that also have prominent veins. But wild populations show much more variation than is seen in cultivation. See the Other Taxa and Unknowns page for details. Footnotes

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Superior Cultivars of Hybrids containing Adenium "arabicum", "obesum", & crispum This is my favorite adenium breeding line; see the hybrid page for details. In short, plants with this parentage grow fast to about 2 to 3 feet tall and wide, with good caudexes, sturdy stems, and brightly colored flowers most of the year. They are tetraploid, which gives them extra sturdiness and vigor. They're very tolerant of high heat, near-freezing temperatures, and overwatering. Oh - and they're all evergreen. No more panicking when the leaves all turn yellow and fall off. This is a new line of breeding that I began in 2010, so there are very few good cultivars to date. 'Beautiful Loser' 'St. Elmo's Fire' 'Nearly Perfect' 'Tetra Splash #927' 'Radiant Dawn' 'Starbright' 'Beautiful Loser' (MAD532) Parentage: Adenium "obesum" x "arabicum" x crispum complex hybrid (A. "arabicum" x "obesum") 'MAD421' x (A. "obesum" x crispum) 'Happy Princess' Creator: Dimmitt 2009 Plant form: Amazingly vigorous, floppy shrub with giant caudex. Evergreen. Tetraploid. Flower: Round, 60 mm diameter x 23 mm petal width. Petals light red, mostly covered by heavy dark red lines. At the juncture of each two petals, there is a yellow protuberance (? don't know what to call it). Petals tend to quill as they age. Throat yellow, but mostly obscured by prominent red nectar guides. Always in bloom, often profusely. Notes: This was my first arabicum-obesum-crispum hybrid. Only one seed germinated from the cross, and it grew like a weed. I was really excited about it, until it developed its mature form at about 5 years. Super-fast growth, huge caudex, perpetually in bloom with superb flowers. What's wrong with it? If it wasn't brutally pruned and staked, the stems would be lying on the ground! I would have thrown it out, but it redeems itself by being the most fertile breeder in my tetraploid line. It will cross with nearly every other 4n plant that I've matched it with. Its good traits usually come through in the offspring (including the yellow thingys at the throat), and sometimes the floppy stems are lost. Above: The original seedling of adenium 'Beautiful Loser' at 12 years old in a 16-inch pot. Notice all the stakes. In addition, I have pruned off far more biomass than is currently present. Back to Menu Above: The flowers of adenium 'Beautiful Loser'. There must be a term for those yellow bumps? Only a few adeniums have such prominent ones. Above: The original seedling of adenium 'Nearly Perfect #776' at 7 years old in a 16-inch pot. Above: The original seedling of 'Nearly Perfect #776' at 8 years old. 'Nearly Perfect #776' Parentage: Adenium "obesum" x "arabicum" x crispum complex hybrid ('Beautiful Loser' x 'Prolific Behemoth') Creator: Dimmitt 2012 Plant form: Vigorous, upright shrub with large caudex and main stems. Evergreen. Tetraploid Flower: Round, 75 mm diameter x 30 mm petal width. Petals crimson with no fading toward the throat, and large, slightly darker red blotch in petal center. At the juncture of each two petals, there is a yellow protuberance (? don't know what to call it). Throat yellow, but mostly obscured by prominent red nectar guides. Always in bloom, with heavy flushes two or three times a year. Notes: Nearly Perfect is a group term that I use for a few plants that are very similar in being upright shrubs with big caudexes and dark red flowers over a long season. So far only two clones have been selected: MAD776 and MAD777. They also grow superbly from cuttings; no need to graft. Above: The flower of adenium 'Nearly Perfect #776'. Above: A 1-year-old cutting of 'Nearly Perfect #776'. Above: The original seedling of adenium 'Nearly Perfect #776' at 8 years old in a 16-inch pot. Right: Another clone of the Nearly Perfect group: 'Nearly Perfect #777' at 8 years old in a 16-inch pot. Inset: the flower. It's almost identical to #776. Back to Menu 'Radiant Dawn' (MAD689) Parentage: Adenium "obesum" x "arabicum" x crispm complex hybrid ((A. "obesum" x crispum) 'Lily') x a 4th generation (A. "arabicum"-"obesum"-crispum) 'MAD610)) Creator: Dimmitt 2011 Plant form: Medium-sized, spreading shrub with very large caudex. Grows to about 3 feet tall and wide in 10 years. Evergreen. Tetraploid Flower: Round, 72 mm diameter x 29 mm petal width. Petals pink with many darker pink lines. Throat yellow with prominent red nectar guides. Always in bloom, with heavy flushes two or three times a year. Notes: This clone grows easily from cuttings; no need to graft. Back to Menu Above left: The original seedling of adenium 'Radiant Dawn' at 9 years old in a 16-inch pot. Right: the same plant at 11 years. Above: The flowers of adenium 'Radiant Dawn'. Above: The original seedling of adenium 'Starbright' at 10 years old in a 16-inch pot. 'Starbright' (MAD819) Parentage: Adenium "obesum" x "arabicum" x crispum complex hybrid 'Beautiful Loser' x a 4th generation (A. "arabicum"-"obesum"-crispum) 'MAD650)) Creator: Dimmitt 2012 Plant form: Compact, spreading shrub with modest caudex. Grows to about 3 feet tall and wide in 10 years. Sturdy stems need no pruning. Evergreen. Tetraploid Flower: Star-shaped, 76 mm diameter x 28 mm petal width. Petals open flat, but become recurved and quilled after a few days; pink base nearly obscured by nearly solid red streaking. Throat yellow with prominent red nectar guides. Always in bloom, with heavy flushes two or three times a year. High flower count, up to 16 per inflorescence. Notes: This clone grows easily from cuttings; no need to graft. Above: The flowers of adenium 'Starbright'. Back to Menu 'St. Elmo's Fire' (MAD783) Parentage: Adenium "obesum" x "arabicum" x crispum complex hybrid ('Beautiful Loser' x (lost label pollen parent) Creator: Dimmitt 2012 Plant form: Medium-sized, spreading shrub with very large caudex. Grows to about 3 feet tall and wide in 10 years. Evergreen. Tetraploid. Flower: Round, 65 mm diameter x 24 mm petal width. Petals pink with many red lines. Throat yellow with prominent red nectar guides. Always in bloom, with heavy flushes two or three times a year. Notes: This clone grows easily from cuttings; no need to graft. I love seedlings that flower at only a year old. Precocious! (and precious) Above: The flower of adenium 'St. Elmo's Fire'. Above: The original seedling of adenium 'St. Elmo's Fire' at 8 years old in a 16-inch pot. Back to Menu 'Tetra Splash #927') Parentage: Adenium "obesum" x "arabicum" x crispum complex hybrid ('Beautiful Loser' x 'MAD 743') Creator: Dimmitt 2013 Plant form: Medium-sized, upright shrub with good caudex. Grows to about 4 feet tall and 3 feet wide in 10 years. Evergreen. Tetraploid. Flower: Round, 100 mm diameter x 46 mm petal width. Petals white with large red center blotch and narrow red edge. Throat yellow with faint nectar guides. Blooms several times a year. Notes: This clone grows easily from cuttings; no need to graft. Back to Menu

Superior Cultivars of Adenium crispum Back to Gallery 'Famous Ancestor' 'Famous Ancestor' (MAD106) Above: A specimen of 'Famous Ancestor' grafted onto a 3-foot tall rootstock 9 years earlier. A. crispum can grow large and fast when boosted by a vigorous rootstock. Above: The excellent flower of 'Famous Ancestor'. Few plants of this species have such bold nectar guides. Parentage: Adenium crispum Origin: Seed from a plant collected by Gerald Barad and Seymour Linden in the 1980s. Selected by Dimmitt in 1989. Plant form: Small, spreading shrub, typical of the species, with a small caudex and large swollen roots. Flower: Star-shaped, 40 mm diameter x 13 mm petal width. Petals strongly quilled, pink with very prominent extensions of the red nectar guides that extend all the way to the petal tips, and these are flanked by numerous fine red lines. Throat wide, white with prominent nectar guides. Blooms profusely in spring and sporadically in other warm months. Notes : This is the only known Ade nium crispum cultivar of importance. It is a major contribution to horticulture. This clone is evidently the ancestor of all adeniums with patterned flowers (splashes, blotches, and stripes). See Dimmitt, Joseph, and Palzkill 2009 for details. Left: The wild-collected seed parent of 'Famous Ancestor'. The fusiform caudex is typical of the species, and was below ground. In cultivation most seedlings develop multiple succulent roots. Back to Menu

Back to Gallery Cultivars of Adenium boehmianum None? I don't know of any selected cultivars of this species that are important to adenium horticulture. If you know of any, please submit photos and a description using this form . Due credit will be given.

Adenium somalense Stapf Adenium somalense occurs in Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya, and a bit into adjacent nations. The most common form in cultivation grows a tall, conical, succulent trunk, but there are also shrubby forms with subterranean caudexes. Only A. "arabicum" and socotranum have larger caudexes. The most identifiable vegetative characters are the conical caudex and light-colored veins in the leaves. The flowers are rather small, 1 to 2 inches wide. The flowers typically have narrow pointed petals (star-shaped flowers) that are white or pink with dark pink or red borders. Prominent nectar guides in the throat extend onto the petals as fainter lines, not as bold as those of most A. crispum flowers. It is not common in cultivation in the USA, but is fairly popular in more tropical countries. Adenium somalense in a 30-inch pot at a nursery in Bangkok, Thailand; the plant is 10 years old. The cutting at the base is in a 4-inch pot. Adenium somalense grown in Tucson, Arizona. It's 9 feet tall at 17 years old from seed, but has lost its roots to rot twice because of cold weather. The plants I have from Shaba National Park in Kenya are very prone to root-rot. Note the 12-inch ruler at the base. Flowers of 2 Adenium somalense clones from Shaba N.P., Kenya. The nectar guides of the flower above extend onto the petals. Two large A. somalense in a Bangkok, Thailand nursery. A multi-trunked specimen of A. somalense in Tucson, Arizona. Note the 12-inch ruler. A collected plant of the sand form of A. somalense in Tucson, Arizona. Notice the roots near the top of the bulbous caudex; these were just below the surface in nature. A fat specimen of A. somalense breaking its pot in Tucson, Arizona. An arborescent A. somalense in Tucson, Arizona. Not all clones grow huge trunks, either in nature or cultivation. Back to Top Adenium somalense in the Wild Adenium somalense east of Bargal, Somalia. Photo: Myron Kimnach Adenium somalense east of Bargal, Somalia. Photo: Myron Kimnach Adenium somalense near Bargal, Somalia. Photo: Myron Kimnach Anton Ellert next to an Adenium somalense near Lake Borgoria, Kenya. Photo: Robert H. Webb Toni Yocum next to an Adenium somalense in Kenya. Photo: Robert H. Webb Toni Yocum in an Adenium somalense in Kenya. Photo: Robert Webb Toni Yocum next to an Adenium somalense in Kenya. Photo: Robert H. Webb Above two: Two old A. somalense in Ethiopia. Photos: Jim and Roxie Esterle Above: A monstrous specimen of Adenium somalense in Ethiopia. Inset: the flower. Photo: Jim & Roxie Esterle. Above & right: It isn't certain that all of these plants in Ethiopia are Adenium somalense . Some of the flowers look more like those of the unknown taxa in the Sahel . Photos: Jim & Roxie Esterle. Right: The foliage and flower look those of A. "obesum ", or possibly A. coetanum . Photo: Jim & Roxie Esterle. Adenium somalense near Lake Baringo, Kenya. Photo: Boris Vrskovy. Adenium somalense in full bloom near Hola, Kenya. Photo: Rainer Martin (sent by Boris Vrskovy). Adenium somalense in Ethiopia. Photo: Boris Vrskovy. Three above: Flowers of Adenium somalense in Ethiopia. The center one is in Mago National Park NE of Lake Turkana. Photos: Boris Vrskovy. Above and Right: Adenium somalense near Lake Baringo, Kenya. Photos: Gaetano Moschetti. Above: Adenium somalense near Lake Baringo, Kenya. Photos: Gaetano Moschetti. Left and above: An enormous Adenium somalense near Lake Baringo, Kenya. It's surrounded by a colony of Sanseveieria with 6-foot tall leaves. Photos: Gaetano Moschetti. A shrubby Adenium somalense on the Yabelo-Konso road in SW Ethiopia.. Photo: Gaetano Moschetti. Left and above: A beautiful, red-flowered Adenium somalense in Kenya. The nectar guides extend unusually far onto the petals. Photos: Gaetano Moschetti. Left and above: Two enormous Adenium somalense specimens in Kenya. Photos: Rob Skillin. An isolated Adenium somalense on the ascent to Celdora Pass from Las Korei, Somalia. Photo: John Lavranos. Above: The sand form of Adenium somalense in northern Somalia. Most of the large caudex is below ground. Photo: Thomas Price. Left & below: Adenium somalense between Erigabo* & Burao** , Somaliland. Photo: Boris Vrskovy (Puk). Above 3: Adenium somalense near Karinga, Kenya, ca. 70 km north of Nairobi. (The very different appearing shrubby Adenium "obesum " occurs about an equal distance southeast of Nairobi.) Photos: Boris Vrskovy (Puk). Back to Top Footnotes Erigabo, also spelled as Erigavo and Ceerigaabo. Burao, also spelled Burrao, Bur'ao, and Burco.

Adenium crispum Adenium crispum occurs in a band of sandy soil near the coast of southern Somalia. (It has not been formally published as a full species, but as A. somalense var. crispum Chiov.) In nature the fusiform caudex is subterranean. Most of the root system arises from near the top of this caudex. In cultivation the caudex is raised above soil level, and the caudex reroots from the bottom. The stems are thin and rarely exceed a foot tall. The small flowers are very distinctive and serve as the best identifier: most clones have quilled petals (curled longitudinally). And most notably, the nectar guides extend well onto the petals, often all the way to the tips. (The flowers of some A. somalense have nectar guides onto the petals, but the petals are only slightly or not at all quilled.) The anther appendages often extend beyond the throat. Flat-petaled and solid red-petaled plants are known. It is not widely cultivated, probably because it is very cold-sensitive and intolerant of hot, humid weather. Adenium crispum , a collected plant. Note the scars from the original roots near the top of the caudex. An unusually tall A. crispum . W hen grafted onto a large rootstock, Adenium crispum can grow huge. This 5-year-old graft of 'Famous Ancestor ' is more than 2 meters tall, half of which is the rootstock. 4 years old in a 6-inch pot. 10 years old in a 12-inch bonsai pot. Above 3 photos: seed-grown Adenium crispum 'MAD 297', showing its slow growth through the years. 22 years old in a 16-inch bonsai pot. Flower of A. crispum 'Famous Ancestor ' with especially prominent, long nectar guides and strongly quilled petals. Back to Top A selection of Adenium crispum flowers in cultivation, showing variation in petal color, shape, and nectar guides. Adenium crispum in the Wild Adenium crispum near Warshak, Somalia Photo: Myron Kimnach Adenium crispum 40 km north of Mogadishu, Somalia on road to Warshedih Photos: John Lavranos Adenium crispum 40 km north of Mogadishu, Somalia on road to Warshedih. Photo: John Lavranos Two plants of Adenium crispum with solid red flowers. Above left: Somalia, location unknown. Photo: John Lavranos Above right: 40 km north of Mogadishu, Somalia. Photo: Gerald Barad. John Lavranos displays a recently collected plant of Adenium crispum in Somalia. Note the feeding roots on the top of the subterranean caudex. Photo: John Lavranos Back to Top Footnotes