Rob's plants home garden plants wildlife seed photos plant sale journal topics plantlinks fun guestbook Manihot grahamii

 

Just planted – about 5 ft tall

Common name hardy tapioca tree Family euphorbiaceae Life cycle shrub/small tree (Z7-11) Flowers creamy yellow-white (late spring) Size 12-15' Light sun-light shade Cultural notes drought-tolerant Fast-growing winter-deciduous small tree from South America with attractively shaped palmate leaves that tremble in the wind. It is hardier than its edible cousin (M. esculenta, commonly grown in variegated form), but sports a similar leaf shape and overall form. In Houston's climate, it is reported to be trunk-hardy, but my research suggested it may still benefit from some judicious pruning in late winter to keep the size and shape manageable. The nurseryman who sold it to me said it will self-seed too, but this hasn't yet happened in our garden: it reliably blooms in late spring, and starts growing seedpods – but these seem to always disappear before they ripen up. Could be the work of birds, but I suspect it's just that our tree prematurely aborts its reproductive efforts.

Our specimen lost its leaves on one of its main branches in autumn, well before the weather turned cold. After a frost arrived, the rest of the leaves dropped. I hoped that this was its normal leaf drop pattern, with foliage returning in spring; the little tree looked awfully lifeless and frail. I was even more concerned after the Texas megafreeze killed many trees and shrubs – but was happy to see signs of new growth near the top of the main leaders a few weeks later, leaving just a few inches of deadwood above it. The same pattern repeated in subsequent years, which means the tree hasn't gotten any taller since its first couple of years in the garden, but quickly puts out new growth in mid-spring to resume its parasol look in the garden.

Promising growth returning a few weeks after big freeze...

...which developed into full leaves by another two weeks later

Smooth plump buds in early June...

...soon turning to seedpods with orange bands

As the pods grow, the orange disappears

More flowers in year three, higher up in the tree

For years, I would see pods developing after spring flowering, but they would just disappear at some point; I was never quite sure if they just dropped due to stress, but in any case I didn't find the volunteer seedlings that the nurseryman who sold me the tree had predicted. Finally, after five years, and in the middle of a summer with consistent rainfall through mid-July, I spotted a pod that had definitely (and suddenly) ripened beyond the smooth green stage: its outer covering had separated into shriveled dry brown strips, revealing a woody spherical pod within. I grabbed that pod and stuck it in one of the little jars I use for seed collecting, out on our patio table. A couple days later, I went back to look for it and found it had disappeared. I suspected an explosive opening event had occurred, so I scoured the patio and sure enough, I found most of the compartments of the husk scattered about, along with a couple seeds. A few days later, I found that several more pods in my tree had reached a similar stage, with the outer cover strips in various shades of green to brown; I harvested those too, and made sure to put a cover on my seed jar this time. I'm still not sure in what way the previous pods disappeared: it's possible that they ripened and exploded away before I could ever witness them, but I still suspect they were likely dropped prematurely.

In the heat of summer, our tree is constantly shedding leaves: they suddenly go yellow and droopy, and drop soon afterwards. I don't know what causes this; a fellow gardener suggested drought stress, but this was happening even at times when rainfall was plentiful.

In our garden, this plant grows in the following area: north foundation border

About my plant portraits
PlantLinks to other web pages about Manihot grahamii

Visitors to this page have left the following comments

I welcome comments about my web pages; feel free to use the form below to leave feedback about this particular page. For the benefit of other visitors to these pages, I will list any relevant comments you leave, and if appropriate, I will update my page to correct mis-information. Faced with an ever-increasing onslaught of spam, I'm forced to discard any comments including html markups. Please submit your comment as plain text. If you have a comment about the website as a whole, please leave it in my guestbook. If you have a question that needs a personal response, please e-mail me.

home

garden

plants

wildlife

seed

plant sale

topics

guestbook

journal

plantlinks

Last modified: July 20, 2025
Contact me