PACHYPODIUM lealii lealii

Pachypodium lealii is one of the largest shrubby Pachypodium species, measuring 3 to 6 (8) meters high, sometimes branching at the foot and whose main stem 40 cm or more in diameter, narrowed at the tip, gives the plant has its characteristic bottle shape.
Its silvery-gray or brown epidermis is marked with darker transverse scars.

The branches, erect at the apex of the stems, little ramified, narrow, bear on small outgrowths, 2 to 3 rigid stipular spines of about 3 cm. Young twigs are brown or reddish and produce a toxic viscous latex.

The leaves few in number and quickly deciduous, in a sparse spiral along the branches or most often grouped together at the apex of young twigs, sessile, obovate-oblong or oblong-lanceolate, 2.5 to 8 (10) cm by 1 , 2 to 4 cm, with obtuse apex sometimes mucronate and slightly wavy margins, are of a shiny dark green, finely tomentose and clearly marked with a midrib.

The inflorescence in terminal cymes, forming clusters of 15-18 cm in diameter, appears in winter in the habitat, at the fall of the leaves during the dry season.
The flowers, 6 cm in diameter, with a purple urceolate tube, have white petals with a red-purple underside, wavy margins and strong pedicels.

The fruits are spindle-shaped double follicles about 10 cm long. They contain seeds with an egret that will be dispersed by the wind.