This looks very very wrong. its called an elephant bush, not elephant trailing plant...

Get a cutting and start from scratch. This needs a lot more light than it currently has.

Mine , a variegated one , even with minimal pruning branches upwards and sideways..

The branches are firm. They do not trail... The plant is stiff, as its should be

This one is from bot garden in spain. It was a meter, maybe taller.

Another photo from the web

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-G-8LcpY0_-M/UA4-HhiBcbI/AAAAAAAACUg/uXG9s4h9FZs/s1600/Portulacaria+afra+04.jpg

Are you sure it is Portulacaria afra? Looks like different plant to me (that is trailing) - BUT I need a sharp close-up photo to be sure...Portulacaria should have woody stems - older ones. Only new growth is soft, often reddish, and while PA could have down-pointing branches, they are not trailing.

Above is a close-up photo of young plants: they are small cuttings that I rooted this year. You can see how woody stems are. Leaves could be all green, or variegated - depends on sp.

There actually is a trailing elephant bush form, called portulacaria afra 'prostrata'. I think that's the form that I have, it wasn't labeled when I bought it. It does get several hours of direct sunlight a day though, as it's in a southwest window. I'd have to put it outside to give it more light, which I'm unable to do in an apartment

It's hard to see, but the older growth does have woody stems, newer is more red

Emily

I wasn't aware there is P.a. prostrata!!! Thank you for pointing that out, I learned something new :) I looked it up on net and see that it is much more trailing. I guess it has that trailing growth habit, so I would pot it up in a hanging basket and let it grow the way it wants to. I do not know if you can get it grow upright - maybe with some very bonzai-like techniques? - I am just guessing here...Here is nice photo of prostrate form in tall container from THIS SITE:

I appologize for giving you a lesson...

No worries! I just discovered it for myself today. When Stefan pointed out that P afra doesn’t trail, I looked online to see if there were other PAs that for some reason trailed and I found the prostrata form. Now that I know that’s how it wants to grow, I’ll probably just let it do its thing

If a hanging basket is difficult in an apartment, put it up on something like a stand, larger upside down pot or whatever you can find so it can dangle if you'd like it that way. Good for you making sure it gets plenty of light. I have one in full blasting sun outside most of the day.

socks

Do you have same plant - P.a. prostrata?

No, I have uprights outside. Sorry I wasn’t clear about that above.

This plant grows such that leaves and branches are in opposite pairs and each pair will be 90* to the last pair on the branch. If you look at a cross section of the branch, you'll see that if pair A is one leaf on top of and the other below the branch, the next or previous pair will be one right - one left. You can make the plant grow vertically by pruning off all but one branch, then pruning that branch back to an upward facing bud and removing the downward facing bud in that pair. Then, the only way the plant CAN grow is up. When it starts to flop over again, prune back to another upward facing leaf. This will be a painfully slow process, so it's best to buy the (upright) species plant which is much more vigorous anyway.

Al

Portulacaria afra prostrata