Adenium Obesum - mini Baoab in terracotta pot with a saucer 20 cm
Adenium obesum in terracotta pot with a saucer.
This plant is extremely rare, and rarely seen for sale.
This miniature baobab can grow up to five meters high.
The enormously thick, smooth trunks have a relatively miniscule, almost leafless crown. The trunks are sometimes neatly bottle-shaped, but much more often outright bizarre.
The Miniature Baobab has fresh green leaves but requires very little water.
It is often best to wait before watering until the soil is nearly dry. In the summer you can give a little more, because then the miniature baobab grows better. In winter and when the plant is cold, it is best to water very sparingly, because then the chance is much greater that wet roots will rot.
These plants should be as light as possible, but protect younger specimens from direct midday sun in the summer. It can burn the leaves and sometimes even the trunk. Less sun and even partial shade is also tolerated, but then this houseplant grows and flowers only moderately.
You can treat these plants like real cacti and water them very little. That is the least risky care. However, they will then also grow very moderately.
You can keep them between 18 and 30 degrees.
Caudex stores water well so it doesn't require a great deal of watering, in fact too much watering or sitting in damp soil will rot the plant.
The plant will eventually go dormant as the weather cools, and the leaves will yellow and fade, It normal and to be expected and the cycle will begin again the following year. if you are new to houseplants or fast becoming an expert, everyone should try keeping at least one caudex - they are great seasonal favourites and mark the beginning of spring.