Ceropegia africana onrus


This plant is native to South Africa and the Cape Province. It has been known since1822.

This plant is similar in scale to the ever popular ceropegia woodii and also grows from a tuber. The first seeds that I planted produced plants with a variety of leaf forms. All of the leaves were long and pointed, but some were a little broader with marbled veins, others were narrow, long, and solid green. Seeds from these plants have produced extremely varied plants, most likely because they are hybrids with woodii (and debilis?); more about the hybrids later. These plants climb and the flowers are the size of those on C. woodii. The flowers are whitish, with purple at the mouth, and a green twisted cage.

This picture shows a marbled leaf form of the plant. Notice also that the leaf is shaped more like a spade than the plain leaves in the picture above and that the flower is not as twisted as the green leafed plant.