Epi News San Diego Epiphyllum Society, Inc. August, 2011 Volume 36, Number 8 August, 2011 SDES Epi News Page 2 President’s Corner: Don‘t forget about the Volunteer Appreciation Party on August is here already. I hope you are the 20th this month. (See page 5) all staying cool and having time to play If you are interested in becoming more with your plants. During July I still had a bunch of involved in the Society, consider serving on the Board. epies blooming. I was very happy with the extended The nominating committee will be forming in August season. and looking for wonderful members to serve. Come It was great to see so many at the July join the fun. meeting. There were 54 members and a guest who attended the meeting— that is a recent record. I hope Till next time – Happy Growing! to see more meetings filled with many epi enthusi- asts. To keep interest please feel free to tell any Board member what you would like to see at a meeting. You can also attend a Board meeting the 4th Wednesday of the month and share your thoughts. SDES Meetings– —Velma Crain Pre-Meeting Workshop: At last month‘s pre-meeting workshop, Ron Crain discussed epis and their native habitat, with photos of epis growing wild in trees, etc. He also brought in some species plants to share. The topic for the August workshop was still in the works at press time. Please come to room 104 at 7:00 pm on August 10th to see what he‘ll talk about next!! July Meeting’s Program: Lasts month‘s program ―Big Buds Gone Wild‖ was a wonderful photo presentation of Extra Large Epi flowers. The sounds of pens and pencils scribbling furiously to add more names to a wish last were heard among the ―ooohs‖ and ―aaahs‖!! Many thanks again to Linda Sinkovic for compiling photographs from several sources to put a show together for us and to Ron Crain and Jerry Moreau for presenting the show!! August Meeting’s Program: Our August program was yet to be confirmed at press time. Please check our SDES website (SanDiegoEpi.org) and SDES Facebook page, we will post information about our speaker as soon as we have a confirmation!!. SDES Calendar of Events August 20: September 16-18: SDES Annual Volunteer Appreciation Party Del Mar Home/Garden Show (See page 5) (See page 5) August 27: Southwestern Botanic Garden 4th Annual ―Green Scene‖ (See pages 7-8) August, 2011 SDES Epi News Page 3 Safari Park Epi Display House —–By Jerry Moreau We continued doing regular mainte- Greene, Beth Jackson, Jerry Moreau, Yogi & Carol nance at the park, weeding, feeding, deadheading LeBlanc and Janice Wakefield. the spent flowers, and repotting and trimming back If you are interested in joining the fun and any old or dead branches. We also continued to want to volunteer at the Park there is information prepare some temporary space to move everything can be found on the website from the workhouse. There is always a lot going www.SanDiegoEpi.org click on the Safari Park tab on so if you are interested in volunteering, this is or contact me. the place to come and become an epi expert. Come join the fun. The next work party will be August 13 & maybe Helping out this month was Ron & Velma the 27 . Crain, Sandra Chapin, Marie Dempewolf, Bill Species on the cover This month‘s featured bloom is the species, Epiphyllum anguliger. When referring to the official directories, it can be a bit of a puzzle to figure out just who discovered and named the species. According to the current ESA Directory of Species and Hybrids, E. anguliger is described: E. anguliger (Lemaire) Don. (E. darrahii, E. “gertrudeanum”[invalid name], E.“beahmeanum”[invalid name]) Mexico. Stems deeply lobed, lobes more or less triangular. Flowers fragrant, inner petals white, outer petals lemon or anguliger was first named and described as Phyllo- golden yellow. According to ―The New Cactus Lexicon", David cactus anguliger by Charles A. Lemaire in 1851 in Hunt, Nigel Taylor and Graham Charles, et al, the journal Jardin Fleuriste. Cited as Epiphyllum 2006: anguliger by Don in Loudon's Encyclopedia of 02569 E. anguliger (Lem) Don 1855/EP3 1380. B: Plants, 3rd ed. in 1855. [Judging by the dates it 07366 Phyllocactus anguliger Lem 1851/JF 1: t92. would appear to be George Don] T: nd. LT (Bauer 2003/CSI 17: 26): the plate cited. In addition, there is a description of the Distr: MX (Guerrero, Jalisco, Nayarit, Oaxaca); flowers being 15-18 cm by 10-13 cm. If that is 1100-1800 m. Br cylindric or 3-angled towards the length by width, it would make them small to base, flattened and linear or narrowly lanceolate medium size. above, obtuse or acute, <100 x 4-8(-16) cm, rather E anguliger is in the parentage of many stiff, deeply lobed, the lobes more or less triangular; hybrids, including 'El Tecolote', 'Epicon fl 15-18 x 10-13 cm, scented; otep lemon or golden VIII', 'Katsi', 'Lucky Lennie', 'What Luck' (all by yellow; itep white; fr greenish, fragrant. Wressey Cocke); 'Kaguyahime', 'Kewpie Doll', Translated, this information indicates that E. 'Liberty Cara Belle', 'Nancy Paetz', as well as The abbreviations are: Br branches (stems) Rudolf Hessing's 'Jalisco' series ('Jalisco Beauty', B: basionym fl flower 'Jalisco Disco', 'Jalisco Flirt', 'Jalisco Grace', T: type/typification otep outer tepals 'Jalisco Joy', 'Jalisco Passion', 'Jalisco Queen', LT: lectotype itep inner tepals 'Jalisco Starlight') Distr: distribution fr fruit —- Linda Sinkovic, Librarian MX Mexico August, 2011 SDES Epi News Page 4 The Essence of Iridescence in the Inflorescence By Ron Crain An e-mail was passed along to me recently that pleasing to people, could our favorite plants be using raised the question: Has anything been written humans in the form of epi hybridizers to further their about the iridescent quality that is present in some cause? The author, Michael Pollan has written epicactus flowers? I surfed the ‗net to see if any extensively in his book, The Botany of Desire, on the material on the subject existed online. I found way plants may use people to gain an advantage over nothing specifically related to epies and was their evolutionary competitors. But I digress… surprised to find very little else extant on irides- cence in the many other kinds of flowers that share Iridescence is not the product of the way light is this characteristic with epies. Flowers like hibiscus, reflected from a chemically colored surface where a iris, tulips and various species of wildflowers. pigment absorbs most of the wavelengths of the spectrum except for a particular range and reflects the Iridescence, also known as goniochromism (doesn‘t rest back to the eye, producing its apparent color, but exactly roll off the tongue, does it?) is an optical is generated structurally because of the way light is phenomenon of surfaces like that of a flower petal diffracted from a microscopically striated surface like that change color depending upon the angle from that of an iridescent flower petal. These tiny parallel which it is viewed or the angle from which it is striations form what is known as a diffraction grating. illuminated, producing a shimmering effect. This, incidentally, is the same physical structure that Iridescence is seen commonly in the natural world makes a compact disc or CD iridesce. The surface in things such as soap bubbles, oil sheen on the cells of an iridescent flower petal are patterned with surface of water, butterfly wings, the shells of many parallel lines of cuticle about a micrometer apart, very species of beetles, the multi-faceted compound eyes much like but somewhat less regularly arranged than of many insects, the feathers of birds, particularly the striations on a compact disc. peacocks and hummingbirds, sea shells as in mother -of-pearl, semi-precious stones such as opal and Researchers are discovering that many more kinds of other minerals and the petals of many different flowers than previously believed may be iridescent kinds of flowers including many hybrid epicactus. because most of the iridescence may be expressed in the ultraviolet portion of the light spectrum that What material I was able to find on this seemingly insects can see but to humans is invisible. So, many neglected subject suggests that iridescence in more flowers may be iridescent than previously flowers might be an adaptation that is important in thought. More research is being done on just how the attraction of pollinators. Iridescent flowers may many different kinds of flowers may iridesce in the have an evolutionary advantage over non-iridescent visible and invisible parts of the light spectrum and flowers in coaxing a bee or other pollinator to come how often this characteristic has evolved. There to them instead of their less flashy competition. should be much more information available on this Come to think of it, from the plant‘s point of view, fascinating topic in the not too distant future since iridescence is a trait that is aesthetically Now is the Time Monitor humidity. Mist when necessary. Groom plants. Remove dried up or scarred Do not let soil dry out. foliage. Keep debris out of branches and con- Protect developing fruit. Some birds love to tainers. eat it. Protect plants from extreme sun and wind. Bait for snails and slugs. August, 2011 SDES Epi News Page 5 From our Librarian: Outside of A Dog Outside of a dog, a man's best friend is a book. Inside of a dog it's too The second book is a bit more general in subject dark to read.