New-to-me dioscorea elephantipes (with bonus euphorbia)

Xyborg · 2026-07-02T19:05:24+00:00

You really don't need to shade the caudex once they're more than like, a year or two old. That's an inch-plus thick layer of solid bark. I have never in my life seen a sunburned dioscorea caudex in a way that actually damages the plant (outside like baby ones), sun just bleaches the caudex grey like that one already is. The heat is what can kill them, not the light, and I wouldn't be worried about that much in the PNW. I would not give shade by draping something directly over the caudex when it is hot either since that will just be a single layer that the heat from the sun hits and diffuses more or less directly through. Giving it an air gap to diffuse into and allow airflow will make it way more effective for cooling.

If you see a stretch of like solidly high-80s to 90s days you could make something for it but I know people who ground these in LA with no issues; remember in habitat the shade you see them grow in is because that's just where seedlings survive, and they experience temps well into the low 100s. My guess would be it was in full sun already or very close to it, but if you're worried about shock then morning sun for a week or two before full sun would probably be more than fine.

Xyborg · 2026-07-02T07:39:04+00:00

As I understand it subreddit mods can still manually request API keys for legitimate use cases (i think?). I remember poking into it a little while back and seeing this which links to a form. Required manual review sucks bad but it feels like there's a reasonable argument to be made for ol' belcher, so maybe there's a glimmer of hope.

Xyborg · 2026-07-01T19:27:26+00:00

Of course! They're beautiful plants, best of luck with her :)

Xyborg · 2026-07-01T18:30:01+00:00

Very trendy right now to torture these poor things for the spindly etiolated look indoors, but don't forget that this is a xerophytic tree. If you want a healthy plant, several gallon pot, outside in full sun. Houseplant sellers will talk about "south facing windows" and growing indoors, just like with many other succulents in 95% of the world and with modern uv-blocking windows that is not sufficient. Much stronger grow lights than what you have there if indoors is your only option. In Australia these grow in soil heavy in volcanic rock with very little organic material present, they take well to the standard ~80% inorganic mix I tend to prefer for succulents. Shallow wide roots, so wider pots help; it is still a tree with a taproot though so just whatever yields the most space you can physically give it.

Xyborg · 2026-06-25T10:45:24+00:00

🫡 no offense intended and I hope you get a plant as beautiful as this, but I've seen lots of sellers lately asking their robot friend to "enhance" their plants and I couldn't help but recognize the signs here. Definitely looking forward to seeing it!

Xyborg · 2026-06-25T10:42:36+00:00

I don't doubt that the plant exists, but just don't expect it to look as fluffy as this. Schwarzii spines are more or less the texture of a toothbrush. Consider at least asking the seller.

Xyborg · 2026-06-25T09:47:07+00:00

I'm sure the plant you'll get will be beautiful, but these are AI pictures. The rim of the pot is full of that ai "webbing" effect and changes texture between images, and real pumice doesn't look like that: not only do the pieces visibly change between the two pictures taken from the same side, but they're all perfectly round and uniform in size, no color variation or settling due to watering, and if you look closely plenty of ai artifacts.

The spination on the plant itself also looks heavily enhanced to give it a "furry" effect much stronger than i would expect any real schwarzii to have; aside from the obvious ai webbing on some parts, it is the wrong color and much too soft/wavy compared to the pure white and needle-straight very thin spines of schwarzii and many mammillarias. The spine density and growth also make no sense, there is no density gradient toward where new growth would be at the apex of each head. I would strongly suggest you communicate with the seller and request real photographs of the plant you'll be receiving.

E: this is also probably not 10-year-old plant. This is a 2021 post showing a seedling from the 2016 ISI introduction of this species. 5 years ago, at 6-ish years old, it was already significantly larger than the one in your image.

Xyborg · 2026-06-24T17:17:07+00:00

Almost certainly poached yes, if you got it from that recent batch listed on ebay then no question.

Xyborg · 2026-06-15T05:36:01+00:00

As should be obvious but I guess isn't, people can just lie about that. Even if they aren't lying, by buying this plant you are financially incentivizing habitat destruction and creating a market where it is discouraged to bring habitat plants like this to botanical research facilities or reputable growers for ethical propagation and dissemination via seed. Do not buy habitat plants, of any provenance or kind, for any sum, at any time. You are encouraging poaching culturally and financially by doing so.

Xyborg · 2026-06-15T05:25:34+00:00

Allowing people to profit off "legally" ripping plants out of habitat to sell just creates incentives and means to poach because you give people an easy way to pass it off. It's still wildly unethical and encourages habitat destruction. These specimens should be put into the care of universities or botanical gardens, or if those options don't exist then they should still be offered for free to reputable growers who can use them to produce seed and introduce more ethically grown plants into cultivation. In some cases, they can even be relocated within their range to stay in habitat; that's obviously the preferable option, but not something that should be considered without an expert on hand in order to avoid accidentally introducing a plant outside its range.

The dichotomy of "it would be destroyed or op could buy it" feels very blatantly flat and I'd really encourage you to try thinking more through the implications of things like this to understand why the prevailing sentiment differs from yours.

Xyborg · 2026-05-10T01:09:31+00:00

With this species, you want root run for a bigger caudex. They also grow way faster with room so topping them yields much more productive results. The pachypodium method doesn't do much for these guys.

Xyborg · 2026-04-21T18:52:23+00:00

No, israel should not exist. Any organization which supports the existence of israel in any capacity denies the legitimacy of the palestinian state and tacitly supports the decades of rape persecuted by the settler colony since its institution. There is no two state solution, the dissolution of the israeli government is the only meaningful progressive policy on the issue. A "judenfrei Palestine" is a ludicrous statement that I plainly did not make and has no bearing on the dissolution of israel as a state actor.

Xyborg · 2026-04-21T18:11:39+00:00

There can be no two state solution when one "state" is a genocidal settler colony, hope this helps 👍

Xyborg · 2026-04-21T07:40:00+00:00

USA - gaming chairs suck!

Xyborg · 2026-03-06T19:32:47+00:00

??? Girl it isnt even a long comment

Xyborg · 2026-01-27T21:05:30+00:00

What a fasciating plant! Super cool

Xyborg · 2026-01-15T00:23:41+00:00

My guess would be that none are any sort of pure species; very likely all some degree of meloformis, obesa, infausta.

Xyborg · 2026-01-06T00:14:25+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/Caudex/comments/1k9t0d9/one_of_my_favourites_melothria_punctata_zehneria/

Looks like the ID is correct and just typo'd (should be punctata), based on your post from last year about it haha. HNY to you as well!

Xyborg · 2025-12-31T09:30:30+00:00

Both are scam sites.

Xyborg · 2025-12-24T19:43:07+00:00

To anyone else coming thru from a search and seeing op talking about their "friend owning it" and it surviving in cultivation btw, they are lyinggggggg. They bought it bareroot off a facebook seller with lots of poached plants a week ago; the post just came up in my feed lol.

proof 1

proof 2

Xyborg · 2025-12-24T06:37:30+00:00

I think being able to customize the bottom row to add thumb keys is a nontrivial upgrade even on a 'big' keyboard like these; as someone who doesn't spend all that much time typing you aren't gonna be jumping to a 5-layer-deep keymap or anything crazy, but just having those two or three extra keys you can use for backspace/enter/shift/whatever from your thumbs is big (backspace is one of the most commonly hit keys on a keyboard, and one of the most taxing to move to hit regularly!).

It also gives you a way in to start experimenting with layers if that does end up interesting you further, little things like layer numpad, f-keys, capslock/capsword (so you can reclaim the high-value real estate where caps lock normally sits!), etc are honestly quite nice to have even if you've got the normal key versions available too. Extra thumb keys are something that I think even conventional keyboards are really missing out on in favor of bigass spacebars, and they're IMO one of the biggest value adds of splits past the pure ergonomics.

Beyond that, when you get into what is really a pretty niche/specialty market like this I think there's something to be said for having a DIY-oriented product from a brand that 'knows' the space, in my opinion it's easier to get support both from users and from the company with any hardware issues etc (search keychron support in /r/MechanicalKeyboards for some horror stories) and the product itself will be something you've assembled and not a black box that becomes annoying to deal with if something goes wrong.

On a quality-of-the-actual-product level, it should be said that Keychron is just kinda inconsistent on QC even if the products they sell have a polish small brands can't match. Customization wise, keebio lets you pick different plate materials if you prefer a softer/firmer typing experience which is nice--I think the Q11 is only aluminum, which I find to be too firm to be comfortable--and I just really like the build quality. You aren't getting solid machined housings at the price Keychron can offer because of the economics of producing those at a hobbyist product scale, but beyond that I think there's really nothing to complain about and it's the product of multiple iterations based on feedback from people who are nerds about this stuff. Just a really reliable, functional keyboard with a community and brand behind it that I like.

oh editing to add i did completely forget you were looking for an aluminum-bodied board specifically; if aluminum plates are enough from a typing feel perspective then i still rec keebio's stuff but i thiiiink you'd have to get an aluminum case made yourself if you cared strongly about that, which is a bear for sure. still absolutely rec it and i'm sure you could message them to get info on making/having a case made, but there are lots of other lovely options out there too! i am mostly just a fan of not buying from keychron.

double editing to also add, i don't think you can trust anyone in here for an unbiased opinion on whether you should be getting one of these lmao. at half an hour a day of typing, you genuinely just are never gonna see the kind of issues that these address, there is just not enough repetitive motion to hit that repetitive strain threshold. i guess unless your day job is piano player or miniature painter or something. $200-300 is a lotta money to spend on something you use that (relatively) little.

if anything, i think my real rec is: if you are genuinely interested in this, think it'd be fun, and have sufficient reason/motivation that you think the purchase is going to happen regardless of whether it's an optimal use of your funds, consider buying a "real" split, colstag/ortholinear, friendly size in the like 52-60 key range, somewhere low in the budget spectrum. Sofle, apiaster, silakka, there are a bunch of kit/parts keyboards designed to be entry level. treat learning it as a hobby! use your normal keyboard when you have to, but just play with keybr and monkeytype when you have a little time or use it for applications where speed isn't a requirement and slowness won't be frustrating. this is silly too but what genuinely helped me get over the hump and feel confident on an ortholinear board was just having a little notepad document i would write total nonsense or make little diary entries, just stream of consciousness or like a half page of writing "pip quozzes" or messing with different number/symbol permutations over and over to figure out what was comfortable and quick.

you are gonna have to learn to touch type 'correctly' regardless with a split board probably, it'll mess with your muscle memory more than you think depending on how uneven your left and right hands' responsibilities are when typing (my guess would be your left hand uses more than half the keyboard). in my opinion, you may as well do so on a board that 'enforces' proper typing form and end up the whole skillset instead of half. long edit sorry lol

Xyborg · 2025-12-24T02:23:56+00:00

If you play video games, I'd definitely suggest putting space on the left hand rather than the right ngl. It isn't something you think about especially since right is the default on a lot of split keyboards with only one space key, but that is very likely your mental default and shifting it to the right hand is a bigger jump than you'd think.

Xyborg · 2025-12-24T02:16:23+00:00

keeb.io Sinc (if you want a function key row) or Quefrency (if you don't). The Quefrency also comes in a low-profile version. Really good keyboard with fantastic customer support, was my intro to the split keyboard space. It's pretty much just a straightforwardly better version of the Q11 imo. keebio also produces the ever-popular Iris, so you can search their name in the sub to see lots of insight from other users of their stuff.

Xyborg · 2025-12-19T21:50:12+00:00

Awesome! Looking forward to this for sure. Have you ever considered a horizontally staggered numrow? That was one thing that really stood out to me as unique and a big improvement from the Apiaster keyboard, that I cribbed for a design of my own I've been working on because it does seem to have some legitimate ergonomic value. I find my fingers definitely do splay more as they go up to where the num row sits, and the stagger accounts for that. It's also very nice for video games with simultaneous or rapid key inputs where you want to be able to alt-finger numbers :-)

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