Dortenias: Weird bu wonderful plants

Succulentophile is giving way this week to Peter A. Bangayan. Peter has a degree in BS Physics from La Salle and an MBA from Ateneo. His interest in succulents started around 15 years ago. He’s a member of the Cactus and Succulent Society and became its president from 1998 to 2000. Aside from collecting succulents, mostly African succulents, Peter is into photography especially black and white photography.

Text & Photos by Peter Bangayan

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so the saying goes. This is what comes to mind when one grows the succulent dorstenias. Dorstenias consist of a large genus of tropical shrubs related to the fig. There are quite a few very interesting members in this genus, which is considered a succulent. Most of the succulent dorstenias come from tropical Africa, Arabia and the island of Socotra.

The succulent dorstenias may be classified into two basic forms – the geophytic, which means that it lives buried in the ground, and the pachycaul or the thick-stemmed plant. Geophytic dorstenias usually look like small tubers ranging from one to three inches in size and covered with a crown of leaves on the tip of the growing point. Geophytes include Dorstenia barnimiana and Dorstenia ellenbeckii, which has a flat disc-shaped tuber and has very interesting flowers. The pachycaul dorstenias are the more common and easily grown plants except for the rare Dorstenia gigas, which comes from the island of Socotra and Dorstenia gypsophila, which grows on gypsum hills in Somalia, hence the name gypsophila, which means gypsum loving. The pachycaul dorstenias such as Dorstenia foetida and crispa can look like miniature bonsai plants with their thick trunks and branches ending up with tufts of small leaves.

One of the most interesting features of dorstenias is their flower. Called "hypanthodium," flowers of these plants are usually small, flat and disc-like. They come in many bizarre shapes with tentacle-like bracts along the margins.

Except for the geophytic dorstenias and the rare Dorstenia gigas and Dorstenia gypsophila, which can be a challenge to grow, growing dorstenias in our country is easy. Dorstenias are warm loving plants and they need a bit more water than regular succulents. Giving plants a warm, sunny position can result in beautiful compact growing plants that can look like miniature bonsai succulents.

Dorstenias can be grown using the regular cacti mix of one-third sharp sand, one-third garden loam and one-third well rotted compost. Plants can be watered liberally during warm sunny days. The geophytic dorstenias require less watering especially when the plants are in their resting period. They can also benefit from a more porous mixture, which can easily be obtained by adding more sharp sand to its growing medium. Fertilizing plants once in a while during their growing period with a high potash and phosphorus fertilizer is recommended. Dorstenias are not prone to any insect infestations except for the occasional mealy bug which can easily be taken care of with a spray of insecticide.

Dorstenia foetida, Dorstenia crispa and some of the similar growing species are very easy to grow and propagate. Most of these types of plants are self-fertile and will produce seed easily. The seeds of the plants develop on the surface of the hypanthodium and are spat out at a distance when they are ripe, so that small plantlets may sometimes be seen growing in pots of nearby plants. The succulent dorstenias have not been studied as much as the cacti or the other succulents such as haworthias or euphorbias. There are a large number of yet unidentified and undescribed species in the wild. Even though dorstenias have been quite neglected by botanists, for the succulent plant collector they can be a rewarding and interesting plant to grow and collect.