Pedilanthus is an unusual plant with a monstrous name popular in window garden collections.
The plant Pedilanthus lithymaloides [ped-i-LAN-thus] and don’t worry about the rest of the name. It is also known as Euphorbia lithymaloides. I have grown the plant for three or four years, and recently I’ve been seeing it in other collections.
Not once have I heard it called by a common name, but one encyclopedia lists the common names as:
- Red-bird cactus
- Slipper-flower
- Jew bush
The Pedilanthus is a succulent plant but has no resemblance to a cactus. The stems are smooth, round, and light green. The plant grows up to four feet in height, depending on the amount of sun received.
The stems grow in an interesting zig-zag fashion, and the leaves are light green, white and pink. It is said to flower, but my plant has never produced any of the clusters of red flowers that the plant is said to bear.
- This plant has thrived in a sunny west window of our house, and it grows anywhere it is set in the greenhouse.
- A soil mixture made of equal parts loam, peat moss, leaf mold and sand seems to suit it.
- The plant does not have a marked resting period, but “starts and slows down” as the seasons pass.
- If the stems become gangly, the plant can be pruned to three or four inches, repotted, and new growth will shoot up rapidly.
- Cuttings root easily in moist peat moss and sand.
FGN-1057 by M Elvin