Contents Volume 26. No 2
Summer 2015
Editorial and more | Trevor Wray |
Viscum minimum Again | LLoyd Gordon |
Peru 2014 (Part 2) | David Kirkbright |
A Hill in Coahuilla, Mexico | Trevor Wray |
Roland Tebbenham |
Cover
picture: This
is a flowering plant of Cumulopuntia
sphaerica seen
by our David in Peru on his visit last year, (lucky devil!). I wrote
similar in the last issue but this issue has his most welcome article
’Part 2’ on
page 8. Which on the internet edition is here
|
|
EDITORIAL and more..... |
Welcome to the summer
2015 issue of NN, your branch magazine.
Chelsea
2015
When I looked at the
TV series about Chelsea in May I was fascinated, enthralled, captivated,
charmed, entranced and all those other gushing superlatives the presenters use.
Also appalled, shocked, horrified, bored and revolted. Chelsea can produce the
full range of emotions.
However I am not a
great Chelsea person – too many people and a great many of them are not
gardeners. “Must do Chelsea, daarling.” And I must get to the point…
There was a garden
featured which included some cacti. Fair enough. But these were in a planter
floating in a pond. Gush, gush went the presenters.
What a load of bxxxxs
went your editor.
So Chelsea – you
can keep it.
Total
Trivia
While
I was away in Mexico I emailed the FL from our hotel using their computer.
(Which spoke only Spanish, naturally.) Most
of my English email was underlined in red to indicate misspellings and in an
idle moment I ‘corrected’ my text, when there was a suggestion, as
follows…
Hi
hope weekend cent OK watt twips. (Prease excuse sparrings aguín, I see
Spellcheck is in Spines aguín.) Secta yo Willy be retornan tema tomaros, ratera
toda yogur time.
Tingas
ere gong as usual and de ave ven show soma raro plantas vi a guide toda. I round
tao interesting especies of Sedan chile rating lunch chicha anudes te partí.
De
ave ven haming soma interesting dineros ratel. Lasto light de ha Margaritas
(phis, sport chat light), in polystyrene beepers whch costa 80 pesos (A bit les
tan tour pounds… etc.
Here
‘spines’ has nothing to do with cacti and ‘Sedans’ are to my taste!
Kildare
Green?
I
grow two plants with the name Echeveria
macdougallii,
though strictly speaking one came under the name Echeveria
sedoides,
a synonym. They are quite different though both have ‘sedoides’ leaves. One
had ‘ex ISI’ on the label though this has been distributed twice from
different habitat collections. This plant flowers frequently with typical
Echeveria flowers. The other, under the E.
sedoides name, was forming a small shrub and looks really Sedum-like. It has not flowered yet.
To
try and clarify what was going on I looked up the first description and the
distribution details for ISI plants. Describing the new species in 1958 in the
US journal, Eric Walther wrote…
Color:
Leaves oil- to cosse-green, in sun tinged oxblood-red at edges and apex;
peduncle chrysolite-green; bracts as the leaves, or more absinthe-green; sepals
kildare-green tinged deep corinthian-red; corolla peach-red to spectrum-red on
outside, lemon-chrome inside; carpels bittersweet-pink; styles
corinthian-purple; nectaries straw-yellow.
Kildare-green,
bittersweet-pink… Ah, they don’t write descriptions like that anymore!
Watch
out for the Madagascan palm cactus
In the Daily Mail I
read this report in July
OAP
is poisoned by her pot plant
A
PENSIONER was left ‘writhing in agony’ and in hospital for a week after
being poisoned by one of her pot plants.
Rita
Savage, 70, was spiked by the rare Madagascar palm cactus while repotting it.
She was soon in agony as her fingers swelled up and she had to be rushed to
hospital in an ambulance.
Mrs.
Savage was treated with antihistamines and antibiotics to control the swelling
for several days before being discharged. Now she is warning others of the
danger of the poisonous plant.
She
said; ‘The pain was just unimaginable. I would have chopped of my hand off if
I could have. …
Husband William, 81, said; ‘it was like The Day of the Triffids…’
You will know that the Madagascan palm cactus is not, (in a botanical sense), a palm, or a cactus either. True, it is a native of Madagascar. It is the well known Pachypodium lamerei, grown in huge numbers in Dutch nurseries, and elsewhere, as a house plant.
So
what of the paper’s report? ‘Mind-Altering and Poisonous
Plants of the World’ tells
us, ‘All
species of Pachypodium are toxic to humans' And
in answer to the question ‘Will the Madagascar
palm injure my cat?’ the
SFGate website says The
Madagascar palm (Pachypodium
lamerei)
may resemble a palm tree, but it's actually a type of succulent. Although
it's an attractive addition to your home, the Madagascar palm is toxic to
both people and cats if ingested, and has dangerously sharp spines. Perhaps the most dangerous aspect of the Madagascar palm is its large, sharp, tri-tipped spines that are around 2½ inches in size, according to the University of Oklahoma Department of Microbiology & Plant Biology. If this plant is placed in the path of your feline friend, it could become seriously injured if it brushes past or runs into the plant's spine-covered trunk. Any scratches or punctures can quickly become infected if not treated by a veterinarian, warns the Catster website. More serious injuries can affect the cat's eyes, nose or mouth if it tries to chew on the plant. I might treat this website with some respect if the illustration of that dangerous Madagascan palm was not of an actual cactus of the Trichocereus persuasion. Also having lived with four long lived cats over the last 25 years they have coexisted with cacti and succulents (including Pachypodiums) without any problems. They soon learnt that although they could sleep in the warm sunny greenhouses on the cacti it was better to sleep on the Lithops. They occasionally ate grass but never, ever anything with spines. |
So
the moral of this story is – Do not, or let your cats, eat Pachypodiums.
‘Pink Ruffles’
|
I grow a form of Cotyledon
orbiculata that has undulate leaf margins and was called C.
undulata. It was brought home as a stem cutting from a
bush growing near Graaff-Reinet in South Africa. It is an attractive form
of this very variable species but the flowers are the same as other clones
I have of orbiculata. At the last National Convention I bought a plant called Cotyledon undulata ‘Pink Ruffles’. It was more heavily dusted with the attractive farina seen on some forms of orbiculata but suffused pink as suggested in the name. Quite unusual, but I had real reservations about the name; a great many Echeveria hybrids are similar and there were no results at the time from a web search. (Though C. undulata ‘Silver Ruffles’ was there.) |
I thought my suspicions were confirmed when ‘Pink Ruffles’ sent up a flower spike with several leaves along the stalk, (what the botanists sometimes call ‘bracts’). Now my Cotyledon orbiculata almost never do this and my Echeveria often do so case solved. Except the flower stem developed regular Cotyledon orbiculata flowers. (See right) There is still nearly nothing on the internet, (though now there will be more), but this is an interesting and attractive variation to add to my collection of related plants. The plant has proved easy to grow in a sunny greenhouse kept (mostly) frost free. For fun I have pollinated it with pollen from one of the small-leaved, orange flowered clones I have of C. orbiculata. Above: Two forms of Cotyledon orbiculata compared. My new 'Pink Ruffles' on the left and a clone of 'undulata' from Graaff-Reinet on the right. Right:
'Pink
Ruffles' in flower has typical Cotyledon orbiculata flowers. |
Opuntia
pulchella
The cuttings I collected in Nevada in the spring of 2008 rooted and flowered immediately. Possibly the flowers were buds just waiting to grow when I took the cuttings. |
The plants have flowered regularly since and the flower
on the cover was from 2011. Anyway in autumn 2014 I noticed the flower
pots were gently bulging and discovered that they had produced the caudex,
(or swollen root), noted for the species, though not always, some
apparently do not form one. As I gave this plant
a bigger, deeper pot I wondered whether I should give the swollen root
some prominence above the ground. This is the fashion since caudiciforms
were ‘invented’. No, I
thought; in habitat there is no clue that much of this plant, like an
iceberg, was beneath the surface. So I potted it with just the stem above
the compost level. We read that whole plants are collected in habitats, but for many sorts, both cacti and other succulents, cuttings or even leaves are sufficient to replicate the plant in our greenhouses. Or even better seeds. You can capture some of the natural variation in a species with just one fruit. Worth thinking about. Right: Like an iceberg, much of Opuntia pulchella is out of sight. |
This
issue
Not much room here
(in the printed edition), but enjoy the magazine, write something, (anything),
for it and come to our meetings. There is a great programme.
Cactophilitically
Trev
recent back issues of the NMK Branch magazine |
Northants News Volume 26.1 |
Northants News Volume 25.2 |