''Adenium'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Apocynaceae first described as a genus in 1819. It is native to

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

and the

Arabian Peninsula The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Pl ...

.Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
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Cultivation and uses

'' Adenium obesum'' is grown as a houseplant in temperate and tropical regions. Numerous hybrids have been developed. Adeniums are appreciated for their colorful flowers, but also for their unusual, thick caudices. They can be grown for many years in a pot and are commonly used for

bonsai Bonsai ( ja, 盆栽, , tray planting, ) is the Japanese art of growing and training miniature trees in pots, developed from the traditional Chinese art form of ''penjing''. Unlike ''penjing'', which utilizes traditional techniques to produce ...

Because seed-grown plants are not genetically identical to the mother plant, desirable varieties are commonly propagated by

grafting Grafting or graftage is a horticultural technique whereby tissues of plants are joined so as to continue their growth together. The upper part of the combined plant is called the scion () while the lower part is called the rootstock. The succ ...

. Genetically identical plants can also be propagated by cutting. However, cutting-grown plants do not tend to develop a desirable thick caudex as quickly as seed-grown plants. The sap of ''

Adenium boehmianum ''Adenium boehmianum'', the Bushman poison, is a poisonous succulent endemic to the mostly dry regions of northern Namibia and southern Angola. The San people boil the root sap and latex to prepare arrow poison, which is sufficient for hunting ...

'', '' A. multiflorum'', and '' A. obesum'' contains toxic cardiac glycosides and is used as arrow poison throughout Africa for hunting large game.

Classification

The genus ''Adenium'' has been held to contain as many as twelve species. These are considered by other authors to be subspecies or varieties. A late-20th-century classification by Plazier recognizes five species. ;Species # '' Adenium arabicum''

Balf.f. Sir Isaac Bayley Balfour, KBE, FRS, FRSE (31 March 1853 – 30 November 1922) was a Scottish botanist. He was Regius Professor of Botany at the University of Glasgow from 1879 to 1885, Sherardian Professor of Botany at the University of Oxf ...

= '' Adenium obesum'' # ''

'' Schinz - ( Namibia,

Angola , national_anthem = "Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

) # '' Adenium multiflorum'' Klotzsch. (Southern Africa, from Zambia south) # '' Adenium obesum'' ( Forssk.)

Roem. Johann Jacob Roemer (8 January 1763, Zurich – 15 January 1819) was a physician and professor of botany in Zurich, Switzerland. He was also an entomologist. With Austrian botanist Joseph August Schultes, he published the 16th edition of Carl ...

& Schult. - widespread from Senegal to Somalia, and also Arabian Peninsula # ''

Adenium oleifolium ''Adenium oleifolium'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Apocynaceae Apocynaceae (from ''Apocynum'', Greek for "dog-away") is a family of flowering plants that includes trees, shrubs, herbs, stem succulents, and vines, commonly kn ...

'' Stapf - South Africa, Botswana, Namibia # ''

Adenium swazicum ''Adenium swazicum'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Apocynaceae. It is a semisucculent shrub native plant, native to the lowveld of Eswatini, Mpumalanga province of South Africa, and southern Mozambique.

'' Stapf (Eastern South Africa) Desert_Rose_Adenium

;Formerly placed here *'' Pachypodium namaquanum'' (Wyley ex Harv.) Welw. (as ''A. namaquanum'' Wyley ex Harv.)

Common names

'' Adenium obesum'' is also known as the desert rose. In the Philippines, due to its resemblance to the related genus '' Plumeria'', and the fact that it was introduced to the Philippines from Bangkok, Thailand, the plant is also called as ''Bangkok kalachuchi''. Due to its resemblance to a miniature frangipani tree and its popularity in bonsai, it is also sometimes known as Japanese frangipani.

References

External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q913594 Apocynaceae genera Plants used in bonsai Caudiciform plants