Ceropegia fusca

Ceropegia fusca is a species of succulent plant belonging to the Apocynaceae family.

Description

Cardoncillo (Fusca spray)

It is a succulent plant branched from the base. Jointed fleshy stems, erect at first but drooping as they grow and can reach more than a meter in length. The green shoots are green-orange in color, the mature ones exude a whitish wax that covers them and protects them from excessive water loss.

Scarce linear leaves that lose in times of drought. Flowers isolated or gathered in groups at the nodes of the upper joints reddish-brown to purple, tubular, with openings at their ends.

The fruits are long capsules that arise two by two and contain numerous brown seeds provided with a tuft of white hairs (Vilano) that favor their dispersal by the wind.

Fusca ceropegia in bloom.

Distribution and habitat

It is endemic to Tenerife and Gran Canaria, in the latter more scarce. Quite common in Tabaibal-Cardonal areas from sea level to 600 meters above sea level. It is also found on cliffs and slopes of the Anaga Massif.

Flowers in spring-summer. Although after the winter rains some specimens bloom.

Uses

It is used as an ornamental plant in arid gardens or as a pot plant. This plant requires little care, but it needs warmth and loose, coarse-grained soil.

It is propagated by seeds and pieces of stems. Before planting the segments, it is advisable to wait a week or less until the part where it was cut dries up and heals. Then they root easily.

Curiosities

There are species of Ceropegia from the Canary Islands in the West through Africa and Asia to Australia in the East.
All the plants are climbers or creepers except the canaries, which are shrubs, being an upright mass of thick stems.
The name of "mataperros" refers to its great toxicity, frequent in species of the Asclepiadaceae family. Despite this, the juice of the stems has been used in popular medicine to heal external wounds.
In the north of Tenerife and some points in the south grows another species of cardoncillo (Ceropegia dichotoma) with yellow flowers that blooms in autumn-winter.

Taxonomy

Ceropegia fusca was described by Carl August Bolle and published in Bonplandia 9: 51. 1861.

Vernacular name:
Spanish:Cardoncillo. Dog killer.