| Description | Elephant Bush (Portulaca afra) is a bushy succulent plant that thrives in sunny windows or as a landscape plant in warmer climates. |
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| Pronunciation | (por-tew-luh)(KAR-ee-uh) |
| Plant Type | All Plants, Succulents |
| Hardiness Zone | 9-11 |
| Sunlight | This plant will stretch and get lanky if the light is too low. Grow in the full sun. |
| Moisture | This plant will not die if grown very dry, but may have a plant tantrum by dropping all of its leaves. The best moisture condition is to approach dryness between watering. |
| Soil & Site | average, well drained |
| Growing Media | average house, well drained |
| Temperature | average house, warm, will tolerate cool-cold temperatures, but not frost-tolerant |
| Flowers | The small flowers are pink. I have never had this plant flower for me. |
| Leaves | small, green, succulent leaves |
| Stems | It becomes very gnarled and old-looking, developing woody-like features. |
| Dimensions | Reference sources state this plant gets 3-4 meters. In a conservatory I have seen it around 3 feet. It can be kept to just about any size pot by pruning. |
| Maintenance | occasional pruning |
| Propagation | easy from cuttings |
| Native Site | South Africa |
| Misc Facts | An easy plant to grow as a houseplant. It can be trained to a Bonsai form since the small root ball adapts well to typical shallow bonsai containers. |
| Author's Notes | I have grown many of these plants either in the greenhouse or indoors in a full sun window. I have put these plants outside during the summer on a black top driveway against reflective siding and they have thrived. Good for creating bonsai plants. |
| Notes & Reference | #186-Dave's Garden (www.davesgarden.com/), #274-Site Authors' observations and growing experiences of different Elephant Bush plants. |
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