An Adenium Website
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Adenium "arabicum" x crispum hybrids
As far as I know, Miles Anderson of Miles’ to Go Nursery is the only person who has successfully made this F1 cross. He got only five viable plants, but they were fertile. They have the large caudexes and sturdy, erect branches of “arabicum”; the small plant size, foliage, and flowers were heavily dominated by the crispum parent. Third generation plants that I grew from these plants still showed the striped petals, and mostly quilled petals. Some of these are larger, up to five feet (1.5 m) tall. In my opinion the main value of this line is contributing smaller size and striped flowers into the “arabicum” x “obesum” x crispum line. These hybrids are apparently tetraploid, because they cross only with other 4n adeniums.
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Above left: The star-shaped flowers of some clones have flat petals, but most will quill in a couple of days (right).
Left: One of Miles Anderson's original F1 plants of Adenium "arabicum" x crispum. The caudexes are very large compared to plant size. Photo: Miles Anderson.
Miles Anderson's F2 crosses of Adenium "arabicum" x crispum also have relatively huge caudexes, but the flowers are still quilled. The promise of these plants is to get cripsum's patterned flowers and smaller plant size into the tetraploid arabicum-"obesum" line. Plant at left is 5 years old in a 14-inch pot.