Gondwanaland Trading Company
From the Ends of the Earth, to the Beginning of Time!

Operculicarya decaryi

(Operculicarya decaryi)
Operculicarya decaryi

We stopped for water under the sparse shade of a great Elephant Tree in the Toliara Province of south-west Madagascar. The insects produced a cacophony so loud that we had to raise our voices to be heard! We marveled at this old tree and its massive trunk measured 5’ around with several stout roots visibly starting above grade and plunging into the red clay earth. Operculicarya decaryi is an attractive small tree in the cashew or sumac family, the Anacardiaceae that has a thick bumpy and twisted trunk zigzagging branches and alternate odd-pinnate leaves with tiny shiny dark green rounded leaflets that are often beautifully tinged red in cooler weather. In its native habitat this plant is a drought deciduous upright tree to nearly 30 feet tall with a 3 foot wide trunk but more often it is seen in cultivation as a semi-evergreen small tree or even a bonsai specimen with its decorative trunk or even roots exposed in very small containers. Mature plants have small reddish to brown flowers at the tips of the branches in late winter that are not showy with male and female flowers on separate plants (dioecious), with small globular fruit that ages from yellow-orange to red on female plants - seed is viable only when male and female plants flower together. Plant in full to partial sun in a well-drained soil and water only occasionally in summer months less in winter, a bit more regularly if in a container but even then it requires very little water. Other common names include Jabily and Tabihy. In 2010 this plant was proposed as for inclusion as an Appendex II listing of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). We grow this exceptional bonsai tree in 2 gallon containers and ship them bare root.

Madagascan Elephant Tree

Madagascan Elephant Tree

$64.99 Sale! $54.99
Operculicarya decaryi

Operculicarya decaryi

$54.99