Perhaps the most photographed and most famous of all plants on Socotra!
Some grow to impressive sizes, while others are more modest – common is their ability to store water in their trunk, and thus you may see them in bloom long after the last rain.
One part of the island you may see none with flowers, while other parts have plenty of them in bloom.
Some of the mature trees have so many flowers you can see the pink hue against the rocks from far away.
Opposed to many of the other flowering plants, I found very few insects visiting these flowers, and wonder which insects pollinate it. Are they mostly visited by nocturnal insects? In one location I inhaled a wonderful scent from flowers during sunrise, but I didn’t find any with such scent during the heat of the day. I also found extremely few with seedpods – just 3 in total.
Endemic.
Last updated on 21 June 2024
