# Plants from the habitat of Eublepharis (Eyelid Geckos)



## CameronJames (May 30, 2012)

Hey guys! 


I have a keen interest in naturalistic vivaria and over the past week I have done a fair amount of research into plants from the Iran/Pakistan region of the Leopard Gecko's environment. I've compiled a list of 8 viable species from looking through over 70 species from scientific papers and studies on nature reserves in the area. I haven't attempted to grow these plants in a vivaria yet. Please do your own research into the plants before trying them and if you have any concerns please post them.


Some of these plants have medicinal benefits, due to the research papers where I gleened the information from. Also, I would say some are more suitable for say Goniosaurus, as if the specific species from the park wasn't available I had to substitute it for an available species from surrounding regions. 


*Allium*
*Tuberosum - 'Garlic Chives' *

_H 30cm_








A bulb with long grassing leaves. Edible with tall flowers. Can tolerate drought.


*Citrullus*
*Colocynthis - 'Bitter Apple'*

_H Low growing vine._








A viny plant that grows in sandy arid soils. It can produce bitter tasting melon-like gourds. Small yellow flowers.


*Geranium*
*Ocellatum - 'Black-Eyed Geranium'*
_
H 20cm_








A low creeping unusual geranium, with attractive purple flowers. Prefers semi-arid conditions.


*Salsola
Komarovii - 'Saltwort'*

_H 20-50cm_








An edible, thin leaved plant, rich in vitamins and minerals.


*Sternbergia 
Clusiana*
_
H 7-15cm_








A bulbous flowering plant, with large yellow flowers. Beautiful, available, but hard to come by.


*Tribulus
Terrestis - 'Puncturevine'*

_H Low growing vine._








A weedy, low growing plant with small, yellow flowers and spiny 'fruits'. It is shown to boost sexual behaviour and natural testosterone levels.


*Tulipa
Biflora*

_H 15cm_








A mini tulip with distinctive star-shaped flowers, with yellow eyes. Prefers semi arid conditions.

*Clusiana*

_H 15-30cm_








An easy to grow tulip, in many colours. The variation_ 'Stellata'_ was mentioned to grow in the region.

*
Planting*

If I choose to grow any of these in my terrarium I'll use the sunken tube method, encasing the growing medium in a toilet roll, on top of a drainage layer of pumice, and covered with a clay/sand mixed substrate.


Hope this is as interesting for you as it is for me!!!

Cameron


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## s6t6nic6l (May 15, 2010)

makes an interesting read to be honest :2thumb:

would be great if there was some kinda database to follow up on when introducing plants/flowers for species specific viv's.

nice thread idea : victory:


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## CameronJames (May 30, 2012)

Thank you  

I'm going to build on this with some other species and create a blog to record my findings


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