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Cyphostemma Mappia
''Cyphostemma mappia'' (Mapou tree or bois mapou) is a species of caudiciform succulent plant endemism, endemic to Mauritius. It is sometimes known as the "Mauritian baobab", though it is member of the Vitaceae, grape family (Vitaceae) and unrelated to the true Adansonia, Baobabs of Africa. This species is endangered, but is beginning to be propagated in its native Mauritius, as an ornamental landscaping plant. Description It is a soft-stemmed caudex, caudiciform tree, with succulent green leaves on fragile, chunky, elastic, distinctively zig-zag branches. It can eventually reach a height of nearly 10 meters, and develop a vastly expanded, swollen, water-filled trunk. This means that it can resemble a Adansonia, baobab in shape. As a case of "island gigantism", it is the only ''Cyphostemma'' species to attain the size of a large tree. It has also lost the vine-like tendrils of its genus, which falls within the greater Vitaceae (grapevine) family. In exposed areas, it tends to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caudiciform
A caudex (plural: caudices) of a plant is a stem, but the term is also used to mean a rootstock and particularly a basal stem structure from which new growth arises.pages 456 and 695 In the strict sense of the term, meaning a stem, "caudex" is most often used with plants that have a different stem morphology from the typical angiosperm dicotyledon stem: examples of this include palms, ferns, and cycads. The related term caudiciform, literally meaning stem-like, is sometimes used to mean pachycaul, thick-stemmed. Etymology The term is from the Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ... ''caudex'', a noun meaning "tree trunk". See also * Stipe References External links Bihrmann's Caudiciforms''Extensive listing of caudiciforms, images for most species''{{ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
