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[prasada]

 Hi everyone.  congratulations to all 100 members ,you know who you are  
I have a couple of potted desmanthus illonois,that I buried  in the pot .
 I did it to blend in to the scenery,and keep from drying out.
  It has developed black patches along the stem.
It was in filtered light and might have been too moist, maybe not draining enough .
 When I saw it I lifted the pot out of the dirt .
  Any ideas or advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Sunshine]

It could be mold on the stem or the soil is not draining fast enough.

[Mandrake]

Yes, that doesn't look good. Did you bury the whole pot in the ground, without cutting the base? Normally the base should be sliced off, or more holes should be opened so it drains properly. Otherwise draining can be too slow, the soil inside of the buried pot can become quickly waterlogged and molds are easily caught outdoors when the soil is inviting.

There appears to be a lot of mold rot in the stem, and most likely the roots will be rotting. I don't know if you'll be able to save that one, but if the plant was mine, I'd try to save some healthy cuttings to try to root them if possible, remove the root ball and the main plant from the soil, clean it, wash it with dilluted peroxide/fungicide, and plant it again in sterile rich soil, applying more fungicide to the aerial parts of the plant. But according to the picture, it may be difficult to save.

Good luck,

Mandrake

[prasada]

     That sounds about right. I unpotted the  plant to check for root rot.
The pot had about 4 inches of perlite in the bottom. The roots looked healthy.
 I repotted in sterile soil mix,and will see how it goes .
 The weird thing is is that the black is inside of the stem ,its not on the surface like a black mould.
 The other thing is that that plant has already died back to a dead stem in the spring.
 I didnt give up on it ,being a perrenial,and it grew back from the base.
 I'm really on a learning curve with desmanthus,its been quirky.

[New Wisdom]

The weird thing is is that the black is inside of the stem ,its not on the surface like a black mould.

If i'm correct, that means that the infection has traveled up the roots and is taking over the plant from the inside.  It happens with cactus and it'll turn a different color like black or orange.  Everytime i've seen this I checked the roots and there was mold down there. 

I hope it can recover!

[Cane Blossom]

are desmanthus drought hardy?
it might be best to keep it parched for a while..