Favorite Succulent: the "Turtle Back"

I have a favorite plant, a plant that I fell in love with the second I saw it. It is sometimes called a "Turtle Back" plant or the "Elephant's Foot" plant. Among succulent collectors it is called: dioscorea elephantipes. It is called such names because of its long, symmetrical, polygonal tubercles with cross-hatched lines of both gray and brown.

This plant is a perfect example of the division of labor between a heavily protected storage organ (its trunk) that allows it to go long periods without water or moisture, and a quick-growing branch system that bears both flowers and fruits.


Dioscorea elephantipes is a caudiciform--a succulent tree. However, there is little about it that resembles your standard tree. It has no bark-like branches. It does not grow up towards the sun, but grows... around, in a half-circle. Some specimens of the plant can grow taller than six feet, meaning that the base of the tree would have a twelve foot diameter.