Description: Pachypodium lamerei is a very attractive spiny semidecidous or deciduous semitropical succulent stemmed tree, 2,5-6 m tall, or more with optimal conditions. (As a houseplant, it is much smaller) In cultivation it is often marketed as the "Madagascar Palm", despite in not being a palm at all. The Pachypodium tends to lose its leave and go dormant in winter in temperate climate areas.
Stem: It has a an intensely spiny grey (almost white) and stout trunk with smooth surface, which is solitary and columnar when young or dichotomously branched when older and the base is spindle-shaped or bulbous. The trunk can grow up to 30 centimetres in diameter and five meters height and is covered by tough, glossy bark and spirally set low tubercles. Branching starts only after the first flowering which can be expected once the plants are about 1,5-1,8 m tall.
Thorn: 3 on each tubercle, the 2 divergent lateral 1-2,5(-6) cm long, with a shorter ascending central.
Leaves: Simple, green, glassy, finely tomentose below, lanceloted arranged spirally mostly just at the top of the plant. Petiole up to 4 cm long
Roots: Fine, delicate (older plants can have huge rootballs, though).
Inflorescence: Terminal with stout branching peduncle 5-20 cm long.
Flowers: The flowers are 3-6 cm long and 5-8(-11) cm in diameter, salverform, white with yellow centre, attractive and nice smelling. Corolla lobes truncate, abruptly narrowed toward the base 2,5-4 cm long. It rarely flowers indoors.
Blooming season: Only mature plants bloom (1,8 m tall or more). It flowers in spring to early summer, on and off through all the warm months.
Fruits and seeds: It produces seed pods that look like bananas. 15-20 cm long. Left alone, they eventually open along the seam revealing great numbers of white-winged seeds.
Seeds: Simple, green, finely tomentose below, lanceloted arranged spirally mostly just at the top of the plant.
Roots: Fine, delicate (older plants can have huge rootballs, though).
Flowers: 15 mm long, brown.