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| syn. Ceropegia dichotoma ssp. fusca ((Bolle) G. D. Rowley), Ceropegia furcata (Werderm.), Ceropegia fuscata [wrong] |
| distribution: Spain: Gran Canaria, La Palma, Tenerife / Canary Islands |
| This species grows
exclusively in the driest parts of the lava fields of its home islands.
There the plants can be found growing in full sun on younger lava. The
stems are covered with a thickly waxy layer, which gives the surface of
the stems an almost completely white colouration, and which protects the
plant from the hot sun. This colouration is by far less intensiv in
cultivated plants. It are tautly upright growing shrubs of about 30 to 100 cm height, with mostly not or just barely branched stems, which later bend more and more into a horizontal position and in the end rooting when touching the ground, so in the course of time larger shrubs are formed. The about 5 cm long leaves are commonly dark, almost brown in colour and show a distinctiv light middle vein, plants from the island of Gran Canaria have all the main veins in a lighter colour. They are compound opposite and stay only a few months on the plant, which is leaflessmost of the year. The flowers appear in the wild during February to May, they are mostly reddish brown in colour and appear in inflorescences of two to eight flowers, plants from the island of Gran Canaria may bear up to twenty flowers in one inflorescence. Some plants have very dark, almost blackish flowers, while others have yellow, light brown coloured or even two-coloured flowers. The local names are Cardoncillo and Mataperro. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In cultivation these plants require a very light, ideally sun-drenched place, in the summer they may best be kept outside in full sunlight. They should be watered only sparsely but regularly. The substrate should be well drained and can content some crumbs of lava, like the plants know it from their native home range. The plants are somwhat vulnerable to spider mites, and therefore it should be sprinkled with non-calcareous water from time to time. |
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 above
and left:Ceropegia fusca; Gran Canaria Photos: Maik Rehse; by courtesy of Maik Rehse |
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| above: Ceropegia fusca, flowers; Gran Canaria Photo: Maik Rehse; by courtesy of Maik Rehse |
| further images |
| References: - Peter und Ingrid Schönfelder: Die Kosmos Kanarenflora. Franckh-Kosmos-Verlag Stuttgart, 1997 |