PlantFiles: Adenia
Adenia fruticosa

I absolutely love this plant. I ordered mine from Grassy Knoll Exotic Plants and I expected to get a tiny little plant but when it arrived, it was actually quite large with a beautifully formed and rather big caudex. It has only one stem so far, but that one stem is growing like mad in the very sunny window that I put it in. I have it climbing up and mixing with a Passiflora mathewsii and a Passiflora hellerii. So far, I have not had any problems with this Adenia. I don't give it a lot of water for fear of rotting it. It seems to thrive on the little bit of water it gets when I do water it and I also mist it a lot and I think it benefits from that too. The main stem is already about 12" tall and it just keeps growing. I have thought about pinching it back but I don't know enough about this plant yet to go ahead and do that. I'll write an update later in the year and let you know how it's doing. Very neat and interesting looking plant and very easy to grow. For me, anyway. I may put it outside for the summer as I do with almost all my indoor plants.

I have this plant growing in a 3 galllon container and it has performed well for me. I put it outside in the summer here in zone 7, inside the house in winter. Definately worth having.

Nice caudiciform deciduous vine with blue-green leaves and fat, dark green trunk. Gets really fat if planted in ground and watered well in summers. Too cold sensitive to do this in So Cal, though. I have had several and managed to rot most of them, but great plants.

I have to edit this comment after seeing a nice clump of this plant growing outdoors in the Huntington arboretum (9b-10a climate)... amazing.