Tylecodon wallichii (Pegleg Butterbush) - A small few branched deciduous succulent shrublet 2 to 3 feet tall with a thick gray knobby stem and long narrow cylindrical gray-green leaves crowded at the branch tips with older hardened tuberculate leaf scars called phyllopodia decorating the stems. In early summer while the plant is mostly devoid of leaves appear the clusters of yellow flowers with half inch long tubular bases, flaring petals and exerted stamens at the top of a 1- to 2-foot-long stalk - an unusual and showy site.
Plant in a well-drained soil and irrigate only occasionally if needed between rain events from fall through early spring and very infrequently or not at all when deciduous late spring through early fall. Has proven hardy to short duration drops to 25°F in our garden.
Tylecodon wallichii is a plant of the dry succulent Karoo and North Western Cape regions of South Africa north into Namibia, growing naturally in low winter rainfall areas. As a genus Tylecodon was only described in 1978 by South African botanist Hellmut Toelken in his revision of the Crassula family. The name is an anagram (a word formed by rearranging the letters of another word) of Cotyledon, the genus that all Tylecodon plants were previously classified as. As it stands now that are 11 species of Cotyledon and 46 species of Tylecodon which makes it the second largest genus in the Crassulaceae of South Africa, with only Crassula having more species with 150. The epithet honors the Danish surgeon and botanist Nathaniel Wallich, who was involved in the early development of the Calcutta Botanical Garden and collected widely in Asia and in South Africa.
This information about Tylecodon wallichii displayed is based on research conducted in our horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We also will relate observations made about it as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments that we receive from others and we welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they can share any cultural information that would aid others in growing it.
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