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Have a look at this: Pseudolithos cubiformis

Today I finally received one of my few "grail" species!

Here's my first Somalian asclepiad Pseudolithos cubiformis

pseudolithoscubiformis.jpg


My plant shown above is a whopping 7/8" in diameter! Eventually it gets to about 4". They often develop into a nice solitary cube of living brown reptile skin. Sometimes they get tall and look like a featureless, flabby Jabba the Hut (which is cool too).

The image below I culled from google showing a pretty nice cube shaped flowering sized plant that I hope to have someday.
Pseudolithos%20cubiformis02.jpg


Is anyone else here growing these? Mine will be under lights year round (85-95*F days and 70*F nights) so I'll never have worries over the notorious "winter rot" which kills so many in cultivation by being wet & cold at the same time.

I potted it dry in Shultz aquatic plant soil, perlite & coir. This gravelly rock mix drains super fast and dries out in 2-3 days. I put it in a humidity dome in the over cast light of my anole tank for now to let it come back gradually over a day or so from bareroot shipping before getting watered and going under the lights.
 
Sweet! that's a crazy looking plant. How hard was it too find?
 
that's the weirdest plant i have ever seen, you have a peculiar taste swords, very interesting stuff you have :)
 
Ooh, lithops! i love those, they look awesome :D good luck with it!
 
That's an awesome plant, congrats.
 
Thats.... pretty.... weird....

What does it do? Just grow more... blob-ish?
 
  • #10
EW, but also COOL! Reminds me of those zombies from Halo.
 
  • #11
It makes our cps look kinda... normal.

Nice find. If you ever get more than one, I'd like to trade.
 
  • #12
A plant that doesn't look much like a plant. That makes it awesome, but could you give more background info on it and why you have been seeking it so?
 
  • #13
Yeah, it's not a "beauty" in your traditional sense. But being so weird and non-plant like made me need to have it! Plus the fact it's from Somalia makes it somewhat more exotic than anything else I've had before.

Supposedly it can double itself in a growing season, which for most is what it can do outside, mine will be under lights so maybe I can push it by never having a poor weather day. I'm still working on getting the other solitary head species P. mitiurginus which grows as a reptilian sphere. I actually need two of each if I want to make seed as they are not self fertile. But apparently will make intragenetic hybrids with other asclepiads like Stapelia, Orbea, Caralluma, Whitesloanea, etc.

A Pseudolithos is different than a Lithops. As Pseudolithos grow they just get bigger and weirder "more blob-ish"! Lithops divide and pop up a new body generally the same size and color pattern as the old one.

Lithops leslei var venteri (you can see into it through the translucent grey "window")
lithopslesleiventeri.jpg


Lithops dorotheae developing a new body. I haven't watered this in two months. If you water it the old body won't abosrb into the new one.
lithopsdorotheae.jpg


I'm working on getting the weirdest collection together I can. Pseudolithos is one of the crowns hopefully I won't kill it! :D
 
  • #14
Plus the fact it's from Somalia makes it somewhat more exotic than anything else I've had before.

It must be a pirate plant! Yar-har! Shiver me timbers!
~Joe
 
  • #15
LOL!

People make such a big deal over there being pirates in this day and age (daily show/comedy shows) but if you read Motoring with Mohammed by the guy who wrote the Orchid Fever book (Eric Hansen?) you'll find it's nothing new for that area at all. He was taken hostage when he ship wrecked in Qatar in the late 60s or early 70s as he was evading Nam draft. The book describes some of the trials and tribulations and comedy of being held hostage for ransom a tradition which seems to go back centuries. Oddly, it is a rather funny book as well as interesting.

My dad lives in the heart of the largest Somali population in the US - something like 70,000 immigrants in Minnesota mostly concentrated in my dads neighborhood & county. His apartment is near the main (only?) mosque for Minneapolis. The FBI just raided all the Somali money changers/wire transfer shops again last week turning up once again, nothing except people being bothered as they went about their daily business. Since some kids from the neighborhood moved back to Somalia the FBI has been trying to say they must have went back for terror training. They are so positive there's something brewing other than goat dishes (which are surprisingly good)...

Some Asclepiads are sacred to some traditional non-muslim Somali tribes and old "great white explorers" are said to have been killed in quest of the one called Whitesloanea crassa. Which looks like a white sculptured reptilian pyramid and then an obelisk. Thus, another must have! :D
 
  • #16
swords, i absolutely love your sense of plant-liness! its EXACTLY like mine! That plant is the coolest thing ever! and you say there are spherical and pyrimidal ones?! DUDE!!! Hook me up! :D Or just post pictures, thats cool too. :)))
 
  • #17
I can only get us as far as the pics unfortunately!

Here's the spherical Pseudolithos migiurtinus often becoming tall/oblong in old age and earth tones in bright light. If I were wiling to risk having one shipped from Thailand I could have one in a week off ebay but I don't want to pay any outrageous fines if they ship it wrong. They are available from US ebay sellers occasionally and they are spendy but it seems to be about the easiest way to get one. Supposedly they are easy from seed - if you can find it!

pseudolithos_migiurtinus_blooms_810.jpg


Here's the pyramid shaped (?) Whitesloanea crassa. I've seen pics with sharper margins and they look really neat under intense light with the patterning coming out more and pink highlights.
whitesloanea_crassa_flower.jpg
 
  • #18
Very interesting. I like the pyramid shaped one the most.
 
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