Alluaudia Species

A very hardy and tough plant.I think the best looking of the Alluaudia's. Its only drawback is the almost bonsai like growth year to year...Read More. Mine has been potted outoors since 2004 and despite a generous repotting two years ago,only seems a bit larger. This year I will plant in ground as it has shown to be immune to anything as low as 30f. Not even a speck of damage at that temperature or a sign of rot in our bay area winter rains. Hard to find,but not especially expensive. Not sure what a big one is worth since none are around to be sold!
A silver beauty with deep green tiny leaves. Try one-or three.

We grow our Alluaudia in desert like climate with almost no shade - when it lost its leaves I was afraid we are losing it. Now (begin. o...Read Moref August) I just noticed it has its leaves back - although, being in full sun they are rather reddish - looking like little lentils. Nice little succulent (so far just a few years young), very decorative, so far also keeping its elegant straight posture (in contrast to what palmob posted from Huntington gardens). We love it. Fully recommended.

This plant is listed by most sources as extremely tropical (zone 11 and higher) but I have had one in the ground in Thousand Oaks for 8 y...Read Moreears (zone 9b) and it has not grown much, nor has it croaked. It is deciduous in that zone, losing its leaves most of the year. However, it grows them back and slowly gets taller. In Madagascar this striking oddity grows up to 40' tall with hardly any branches. It differs from the much more common A procera in that it hardly branches, the spines are closer together and the leaves are also closer together, darker green and smaller. It is a bizzare and fascinating looking plant- just one tall collumnar mass of spines and little succulent leaves coming right off the trunk.