Pretty adenium flowers!

Our poor adenium or desert rose plants are usually lost in the background of things. A decade ago, I was interested in them because I was in my propagation phase of gardening, and they were among my experiments.

Yes, they do grow from cuttings, which is why we have several sets of plants now.

The adenium pods. I don’t know why, but they seem to grow in pairs.

Well, one of the things about this plant that has piqued my interest is that once in a very rare while, the plant manages to develop seed pods. It’s so rare that this is only the third time I’ve seen the pods.

The first time we saw them, we unfortunately neglected the plants, and the pods shriveled up and dropped off.

The second time we saw pods, a caterpillar ate them when it stripped the plant of every leaf.

The third time we saw the pods…

Well, let’s just say, I almost lost my opportunity to talk about it now…

You see, the plant seems to grow a pair of pods at a time. They remind me of steer horns. You can see why, from the picture.

Anyway, I wasn’t sure when to investigate the pods, so as usual, I waited while I also watched for caterpillars. This dragged on until the other day when I remembered to check on them, and found that one of the pods had already split open and had dispersed its seeds. I looked around the vicinity but didn’t find any scattering of seeds – not that I was certain of what to look for. The other pod was still intact, so I waited again.

Peek-a-boo… I see seeds inside the pod!

The next day, the pod had split a little, and looked occupied. So, I gingerly opened it a little more and found lots of silky threads surrounding little short, tubular seeds. Actually, the seeds had these tufts of silky threads on both ends, making me suspect that the first set of seeds had been dispersed by wind. I wonder where they will end up and if they manage to grow?

So I have collected the seeds and finally decided to look online about adenium seeds.

Yes, that is how the Curious Gardener works – I observe and guess, and then go find out why it really happened.

A closer look at the adenium seeds.

I’ve discovered that it is supposed to be easy to grow these plants from seeds, and that they should be planted when fresh. So, that had better be pushed higher on my to-do list for gardening. I’d say stay tuned for developments, but then, I don’t always get to things fast enough at times…

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