Tylecodon paniculatus

[Allen Repashy]

I was turned on to this species (I think this was the one) when I saw a couple huge specimens in the ground at the Huntington. Does anyone have personal growing experience with this species. Tried to root cuttings, or sow seed. How about growth rate, moisture tolerance? Seems like a great addition to the SoCal no water garden. Maybe someone could enter their info on this plant in the Plant Hardiness Database if they know the species well and others could comment...

Allen

[Tim Harvey]

I've grown it for many years. Given water in summer, it grows rapidly and tends to collapse under its own weight. That's where my experience with cuttings comes from - they root easily if ignored.

All Tylecodon seed is very small. I have not discovered the secret to cultivating it consistently. My plants in the ground produced many volunteers over the years, some in very unlikely places.

I've never noticed much damage from frost, down to 19F in the infamous January 2007 freeze. Of course, it was in the best part of the garden, and moved to make way for Cyphostemma.

T

[Brian Kemble]

Though I have not tried planting this species out, I have seen it in nature many times, and it has a very big distribution from southern Namibia down to the Little Karoo. It could very well be that its hardiness varies with place of origin. At RBG, we grow the related T. dinteri, and it has proven a good garden subject if provided with good drainage and not given too much summer water. It roots readily from cuttings, so it makes sense that T. paniculatus would too.

[wintergrower]

T paniculatus and many other T's root readily from cuttings though it seems that cuttings left to callus send out roots faster when taken when dormant. Am I just imagining this or do summer cuttings send out roots faster?

Also puzzled about T. dinteri. I have this one and it is very similar to T. paniculatus except that the leaf is much narrower. The problem I have is that dinteri doesn't seem to be a valid name.

[keith]

I haven't noticed a difference between the seasons with striking root. Usually take cutting any time and throw them in a pile, in a month or two you'll see some swelling at the callused area and roots starting to emerge. Have had less losses doing it this way rather than callus and pot to root.

Have a few plants labeled as dinterii, one grower told me it could be a natural hydrid between paniculatus and wallichii.

This one was grown in the shade and roots into the soil below the pot. One of these days I may cut it up, but kinda like the way it looks now.

[Brian Kemble]

Tylecodon dinteri is indeed supposed to be a natural hybrid between T. paniculatus and T. wallichii. The leaves are narrow like wallichii, but the trunk is peely like paniculatus, rather than tuberculate like wallichii. I saw what appeared to be this cross in nature, southwest of Laingsburg in the Western Cape.

[wintergrower]

I wonder where and when a species name format was first applied to a hybrid. I'll have to watch and wait to see if my paniculatus and wallichi flower together to try to replicate the cross. It's nice to know that this cross appears in the wild.

what has confused me with this naming is Aluka - Cookies are absent/required

The flora of S Africa volume 14 mentions Cotyledon dinteri as a synonym for T. wallichi ssp ecklonianus.

How the name got associated with a cross is a mystery.

[Josiah]

Just for fun, here are two of the fat T. paniculatus at the Huntington that helped inspire Allen:


A plant with young leaves.


The fattest one of the bunch in full leaf.

[Brian Kemble]

I have not looked into the nomenclatural history of Tylecodon dinteri, but it is usual in cases like this to find that either: 1)the hybrid goes way back to times when hybrids were given Latin names [like Aloe nobilis], or 2)the plant was thought to be a species when it was named, and then it was subsequently discovered to be a natural hybrid [like Agave arizonica]. So I would suppose that one of these applies here.