The Cactus Trip Diaries

We stopped along RN7 for a fairly scenic, but not too special stop. ‘Do we have a puncture?’ I asked cheekily. Christophe smiled and pointed at the edge of the escarpment above us. ‘Aloes!’ I pointed my 300 mm zoom lens at the edge and sure enough, there was a thick stand of Aloes.  I’m not climbing up there! I protested, quite happy with the view standing next to the car. 

Aloe accutissima

Aloe accutissima right along the side of the road

Fortunately there were some more Aloes (same taxon?) right along the side of the road, where it had been cut into the hillside with lots of other interesting things, including Delonix regia, Euphorbia enterophora, Kalanchoe fedtschenkoi and an Opuntia sp.

Next another hill stop, not too steep and with the promise that the plants of interest started about half way up. Plants here included Aloe accutissima, Euphorbia horombensis, Pachypodium lamerei and Senecio decaryi.

Another hill

Euphorbia horombensis

I include this image of Pachypodium lamerei for Brian Bates in sunny Bolivia, who commented earlier that he thought that P. lamerei gets fatter than the plant shown in a previous posting. Perhaps in the UK or in the US, but here in Madagascar slim is beautiful. These plants are 3m (9ft) plus in height.

Pachypodium lamerei

This lizard must have fallen asleep on the tarmac road when they were putting down the white line in the middle of the road!

‘White striped lizard’

The Pachypodium here has a different flower shape – must look up details in Roosli’s Pachypodium book. Christophe did give me a name and I’ll kick myself when I find it – I just kicked myself as promised: it’s Pachypodium horombense.

S3512: Pachypodium horombense. flower

S3512: Pachypodium sp

The next Stop (S3513) was an inselberg with three different Euphorbia taxa:

Euphorbia didieroides; tall plants, over 2 m (6 ft) tall with clusters of flowers without stalks

Euphorbia didieroides

Euphorbia duranii, a large shrub

Euphorbia duranii

Euphorbia enterophora subsp crassa

Euphorbia enterophora subsp crassa

verdict: all too big for glass house or living room cultivation.