g.d. rowley apparently disagrees with this species definition and maintains another taxonomical ranking altogether in two of his works covering this issue of the taxon, visible in: "homotypic synonym" "pachypodium rosulatum" variety "rosulatum" forma "bicolor" (lavranos & rapanarivo) g.d. rowley in bradleya 16: 107 (1998) and pachypodium & adenium, the cactus files handbook 5: 57 (1999), syn. nov