The island of Socotra has three different bottle trees. By far the most common one is Adenium obesum subspecies socotranum, AKA the desert rose. Last week about half of the individuals were flowering in a range of pinks from cherry-blossom to nearly magenta. Some had a light plumeria-like or Mandevilla laxa-like fragrance.

Each one is a character unto itself. What do you think? Are you growing adeniums?

The other two bottle trees there are Dorsteinia gigas, the Socotran "fig" (which we didn't see) and Dendrosicyos socotranus, the cucumber tree. It's the only member of the cucumber family to take the form of a tree.

Great photos in all of these threads-thanks!

Photo. #2 appears to be Dorstenia gigas.

Compare to this shot:

Note how the Adenium obesum are leafless, and how these are usually found growing on cliff faces.

Hi 92˚, Lo 52˚

Edited April 3, 20224 yr by Tom in Tucson

Never knew they could grow on rocks, great photos btw.

Is it the case that both Adenium socotranum and Dorstenia gigas are actually shrubs rather than trees, despite the colloquial 'bottle tree' name?

On 11/17/2023 at 9:25 AM, GMaud said:

Is it the case that both Adenium socotranum and Dorstenia gigas are actually shrubs rather than trees, despite the colloquial 'bottle tree' name?

We didn't see any tree-size adenium. There were so few dorsteinias that I can't characterize their scale. The tree cucumber, Dendrosycios, was tree-size, however.

My A. Socotrana growing in Arizona.