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Queensland Government
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Queensland Health
Health Services > Queensland Poisons Information Centre

Plants and Mushrooms

Desert Rose

  

 Desert roseClose up of the desert rose flowersDesert rose budsDesert rose flowers
Category 2 toxicity icon

 Common name   Desert rose
 Botanical name   Adenium obesum
 Other common names   Impala lily, sabi star
Family   Apocynaceae
 General description   A semi-succulent shrub or small tree to 3m with thickened lower stems and swollen base cultivated as a garden ornamental. The bark is smooth and grey.
Flowers   Flowers are 2.5-5cm long, funnel-shaped, 5-lobed and clustered at the ends of branches, white, pink or red in colour often pale with a darker margin.
Leaves   Leaves are leathery in texture, clustered towards the ends of the branches and spirally arranged. They are broadest above the middle (obovate) or oblong or elliptic in shape with a rounded apex, 5-22cm long and 0.5-6cm wide. Leaves can be hairy or not.
 Fruit/Berries   The fruit are tapered pods borne in pairs, grey or grey brown in colour, 15-16cm long and containing long narrow cylindric seeds that are tipped at each end with a tuft of long silky golden-brown hairs.
Other  
Symptoms   All parts of the plant are toxic. Symptoms may include slow heart beat, low blood pressure, lethargy, dizziness and stomach upset.
Toxicity category   2
Warning   Seek urgent medical attention for any ingestion.


Last Updated: 24 August 2010
Last Reviewed: 06 July 2010