Tylecodon paniculatus
The Botterboom (“Butter Tree”) is a xerophytic plant native to the Succulent Karoo, occurring from the Eastern Cape to central Namibia. It is the largest species of its genus, growing up to 3m tall, and usually grows on rocky slopes. Botterbome make wonderful feature plants in a water-wise indigenous garden, but as it is poisonous will cause paralysis and even death in livestock that feeds on it.
The Botterboom flowers from November, seeding in autumn in time for the sparse winter rainfall season in its native range. It is pollinated by nectar-feeding birds. The plants drops its leaves at the onset of the flowering season, photosynthesizing through its fat, yellow-green stem during the very hot and dry Succulent Karoo summer and carrying leaves only from autumn to spring.
DeWetsWild 