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White-sloanea crassa

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Author of this page: Panos & Stavros.

Photo by Panos & Stavros.


From Copenhagen Botanical Garden's In Vitro gene-bank, where it flowers all the time.

Author: Emilio Chiovenda 1937
Family:  Asclepiadaceae*
Habitat:   Somaliland, Somalia
Soil:   Grit
Water:   Minimum
Sun:   Medium
Thickness:  2-2.5 centimetres
Height:  3-13 centimetres
Flower:   Cream-Brown
Propagate:   Seeds/Cuttings
Names:   -
Synonyms:  Caralluma crassa, Nicholas Edward Brown 1935.
Drakebrockmania crassa
A.C. White & B. Sloane 1937.
Ceropegia crassa,
Bruyns.
By mistake?: Whitesloanea crassa

This member of the Asclepiadaceae* family was given this name by Emilio Chiovenda in 1937. It is found in Somalia, growing in grit with little water and some sun, It will grow up to two and a half centimetres in diameter and three to thirteen centimetres height. The flowers are cream and brown.
*This family might be incorporated in the Apocynaceae family now.
This plant is thought to be very rare, because individuals are found growing very far apart from one another and never in large populations. Its protected by the locals, being some kind of sacred medicine. It is said: "They kill you, if you take it with you". Some sources claims it have gone in the wild, due to war and farming.

The genera is named in honour of Alain Campbell White and Boyd Lincoln Sloane, two American botanists.


Photo by Ferdinand Poilodan.