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Dear
Auntie G |
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Dear Auntie G,
I am new to the hobby. In
nurseries and seed lists I often see names with initials and numbers and
sometimes with no species name. What do these mean?
‘Perplexed’
Dear Perplexed,
Well the short answer is
that these are generally ‘field collection numbers’ and refer to seeds
or plants collected from a particular location in the wild, or
propagations from these. Sometimes the species is unknown or it may be
new. Some of the initials are well known, ‘L’ is for Lau who was a
prolific collector of plants and seeds in Mexico and South America. SB
stands for Steven Brack, a seed dealer in the US, and I notice there were
several species with his numbers on the last BCSS seed list. Because the
plants have a direct connection with wild populations they are more highly
regarded, especially by specialists. You can often find a Latin name and
location for a collection number by reference to specialist books but the
easiest way is through Ralph Martin’s field number site on the
internet. You should be warned that
some collectors use a number to refer to several different species growing
at a location.
This is the short answer,
you can guess that there is a longer one!
With seeds the field number
only has great significance if they are collected from actual plants in
the wild. Plants grown from such seeds will produce a range of plants
which will reflect the variation growing at that location. In practice
plants in cultivation are carefully hand pollinated (though perhaps bee
pollinated,) and still given the number of the wild population. Plants
grown from these seeds will only show the variation of the collected
plants which may have been selected for some reason (white spines, dense
spines, no spines, flower colour…) They can have great horticultural
merit (as could the bee produced hybrid!) but little relation to wild
plants.
Over the years numbers get
mixed up and can be nonsense. Not all numbers and initials are field
numbers, some are accession numbers. Many of my purchases from John
Pilbeam bear the letters JPS or JPA with a number. These are John’s
Sulcorebutia and Adromischus accession numbers and not field numbers,
though they may also have these. Many people over the years have scrounged
cuttings from my propagation plant of the strange leafless form of Tylecodon
buchholtzianus and written down the number MC967 from its original
label thinking again that this is a field number. They will puzzle over
this for some while because this is another accession number but from
quite close to home – Marjorie and Colin (Walker)!
Anyway, treasure your
plants with field numbers, they probably have some connection with plants
in the wild and that is important in these conservation minded times. Then
don’t forget to record the number carefully when you propagate from
them.
So that’s the short and
the long of it. Good growing!
Your Auntie G
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When I was in Denver this Spring,
my friend Don asked me if I knew what his small cactus-like plant was. I say ‘cactus-like’
but it was not obviously like most of the cacti we normally grow in England. You’d
best look at the digi-picture I took. A tiny piece had broken from his plant…
later in Northampton it fell out of my suitcase; I should send it back to the
US, but instead I rooted it up. Why send it back to the US when this species
never originated there? In Denver, I thought immediately of a monstrose form of
some Rhipsalis. Friends in Phoenix who saw this picture suggested Cereus
hildmannianus, ‘tetragonus’ also called ‘Manhattan skyline’, ‘fairy
castles’ etc. Later, back in England in the wee hours, I turned the power of
Google towards the ultimate solution. I was fairly convinced and said the plant
was ugly and I would present my plant to the next raffle. It was definitely C.
hildmannianus. |
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Don was sceptical – and told me
that an identical plant called ‘x Disapora hybrid (monstrose)’ was
auctioned at the US National Convention (Yes – our reporters were there!)
Don reported “not only that,
but the opening bid was $50 (Ed: What? That’s 30 quid!) I asked
John Trager if he had any additional info re this little plant. Basically
he said its identity had been confirmed and that they had received the plant
from the same person (Norma Lewis) who had given me my cutting a couple of years
ago. He indicated that, at least for the moment, it was something of a
rarity. I expect that will change shortly. Hope you kept your
cutting...it could probably make you very rich and hasten your retirement.”
My retirement… I snatched my
plant back from that raffle table. It might be ugly but this was money. ($50 in
America must be at least the same in pounds here, surely?) Perhaps I could send
my inch of this extreme rarity to those EU microprop wizards we have
mentioned in recent years. Everyone in Europe could grow an ugly lump of green
stumps at a vast price. A quick web search confirmed the rarity of this plant.
I searched for ‘cactus Disapora’
on Google – did you mean ‘cactus Diaspora’ said Google. Well
I wasn’t completely convinced but the cactus had just 42 ‘hits’ and ‘cactus
diaspora’ had 9,460. I am not sure what diaspora is but it is not a cactus. Of
the Disapora ‘hits’, many were totally irrelevant and many of the remainder
of the rest were in French.
Disapora was searched through the
Wray mini-library. The CITEs Checklist is the defining modern reference and
there was not a squeak there.
Rumour has it that this plant
will feature in the next ISI listing in the US and then we will know what it is.
However because of CITES regulations you won’t be able to buy it. So anyone
who wants a snip from this extreme rarity can send me an email on a five pound
note and I will post one.
No, I don’t think I will take
that path. It is still ugly and it will appear on the raffle table at a
branch meeting. Perhaps the capitalist in me will snip a cutting before that
day. I hope the recipient of the raffle prize will treasure this morsel and a
cutting from it will fetch a fortune at the BCSS Convention auction this year.
Trev
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Coffee
with live rabbits Ian
& Julie Priestley |
In October
last year several NMK members went to the auction of Keith Mortimer’s plants.
This is Ian and Julie’s report…
The day dawned brightly,
albeit cold, the autumn mists still hung around as the Priestley family drove
north en route to Huntingdon, to attend the auction of the late Keith Mortimer’s
collection.
After finding the house, we
cast an eye over the auction items, plenty of interest for the succulentophiles,
especially any with an eye for unusual Euphorbias, of which there where more
than a few. The cactophiles were not neglected either, with a very attractive
range of plants, particularly those available from the genera Ariocarpus and
Aztekiums.
There were, I guess, about
forty attendees. To clear the 300+ lots, the auctioneer started off with an
attractive Melocactus in a 9” pot, then worked hard to complete the sale in
one go; no breaks for lunch! The sale was completed in about 3½ hours, good
going, assisted by the good-natured humour and banter from the keen audience.
Best buys of the day?
Difficult to say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder but prices were
competitive. The Aztekiums were costing £60+, the best plant going for £115
and similar prices were paid for the Ariocarpus plants although it went
much higher for the beautiful, single best specimen of A. retusus in a 6”
pan, which reached the giddy heights of £140, before taking its ride north to
the green vales of Leicestershire.
On the succulent front, the
massive plant of Crassula suzannae finally went for £100, I guess that
we will probably be seeing it again at the next National Show?
What else, well, lots of
quotes, but most cannot be reused because of their libellous content! Of the
rest,
Tina – sitting in her chair,
and stretching to see the auctioneer “I’m trying to see what I’m
getting” as she made another bid.
Graham Charles – “Oh, I’ve
got a plant – finally”, as Alluaudia comosa changed owners.
Elanor to me loudly – “Daddy
did you win anything?” Yes darling, but only at a cost!
Anon – concerning the plane
buzzing overhead – “It’s probably the Inland Revenue, Graham”!
Other memories of the day;
well firstly and foremost, the realisation that this must have really been a
fabulous C&S collection in its heyday, probably one of the best in the UK,
(although there has been some deterioration with Keith’s illness). Many of the
plants originated from Continental sources and were probably rare when acquired.
Many of them are just not available today, hence the enthusiasm generated from
the willing purchasers - itself a fitting legacy.
Finally, coffee with wild
rabbits? Oh that; well on the way home we stopped for a meal at a Little Chef.
There were lots of wild rabbits on the lawn outside the restaurant and we sat,
eating ice cream and drinking coffee, whilst we watched them happily playing in
the sunshine. A very nice ending to a very pleasant day.
Ian & Julie
Ed: £140 for a six inch
Ariocarpus? I better get out and water my half inch ones a bit more!
