ThCe actus Explorer The first free on-line Journal for Cactus and Succulent Enthusiasts 1 Siccobaccatus 2 Morangaya pensilis Number 17 3 Espostoa in Tenerife ISSN 2048-0482 4 Barranco Rambla de Ruiz December 2016 5 Juab and Utah County The Cactus Explorer ISSN 2048-0482 Number 17 December2016 IN THIS EDITION Regular Features Articles Introduction 3 A naturalised population of News and Events 4 Espostoa melanostele on Tenerife 21 In the Glasshouse 9 Travel with the cactus expert (16) 25 Journal Roundup 14 Where lizards dare: an excursion to Barranco On-line Journals 15 Rambla de Ruiz (Tenerife) 29 The Love of Books 18 Juab and Utah County, Utah, throughout the Society Pages 51 year 2015 36 Plants and Seeds for Sale 55 A Happy Medium? Morangaya pensilis . 41 Books for Sale 62 Cover Picture: Siccobaccatus dolichospermaticus See page 9 The No.1 source for on-line information about cacti and succulents is http://www.cactus-mall.com The best on-line library of succulent literature can be found at: https://www.cactuspro.com/biblio/en:accueil Invitation to Contributors Please consider the Cactus Explorer as the place to publish your articles. We welcome contributions for any of the regular features or a longer article with pictures on any aspect of cacti and succulents. The editorial team is happy to help you with preparing your work. Please send your submissions as plain text in a ‘Word’ document together with jpeg or tiff images with the maximum resolution available. A major advantage of this on-line format is the possibility of publishing contributions quickly and any issue is never full! We aim to publish your article quickly and the copy deadline is just a few days before the publication date. There will usually be three issues per year, published when sufficient material is available. Please note that advertising and links are free and provided for the benefit of readers. Adverts are placed at the discretion of the editorial team, based on their relevance to the readership. Publisher: The Cactus Explorers Club, Briars Bank, Fosters Bridge, Ketton, Stamford, PE9 3BF U.K. The Cactus Explorer is available as a PDF file downloadable from www.cactusexplorers.org.uk The Editorial Team: Organiser:Graham Charles [email protected] Paul Hoxey [email protected] This issue published on Zlatko Janeba [email protected] 5th December 2016 Martin Lowry [email protected] Opinions expressed in the articles are those of the authors, and not necessarily those of the editorial team. ©The Cactus Explorer may be freely distributed whilst the copyright of the text and pictures remains with the authors and photographers. Permission is required for any use other than reading, printing or storage. 2 Number 17 December 2016 ISSN 2048-0482 The Cactus Explorer INTRODUCTION Time to think about buying seeds matucanas in preparation for my next project, a book about the genera Matucana and Oroya . Now that another growing season has come The only specialist book on the subject, written to an end here in England, I can turn my by Rob Bregman, was published in 1996. It is attention to the garden and indoor activities. I now quite difficult to find for sale, and there have just finished producing Bradleya 34 have been significant new discoveries since it which, like last year, was very short of material was written so it’s time for a new one. at the start of August but after a hectic couple of months, ended up at a record size of 240 I would really appreciate hearing from pages. It is a rich legacy of which the BCSS anyone who has found matucanas in habitat or should be proud. I say a big ‘Thank You’ to the has good pictures of documented plants in many members who subscribe to it, for cultivation that I could use in the book. supporting a valuable resource of knowledge Raising plants from seeds must surely be for the future. one of the best parts of our hobby. It gives you The contents of Bradleya are the usual broad the chance to grow plants which are not easily mix of subjects but my particular interest in available any other way. Earlier, I mentioned cacti is especially catered for by a very useful the genus Cleistocactus . Anyone reading review of Cleistocactus by Martin Lowry and a Martin’s article in Bradleya will realise that only learned explanation of what constitutes a a few of the many species are readily available cephalium by Root Gorelick. You can see more for sale in the trade. At the end of this edition, information about the contents and how to buy you will find lots of advertisements for seeds Bradleya 34 on page 7 . and many of these dealers offer species that are rarely offered for sale as plants. Thinking of the succulent experts who generously contribute articles to Bradleya It is really exciting to grow seedlings of reminds me of the sad death of Heidi plants you have never seen before. I remember Hartmann earlier this year. She was a regular when the new Lobivia species discovered by contributor of detailed scientific studies to Walter Rausch were first offered as seeds and Bradleya and I very much enjoyed working watching the young plants develop into plants with her to get everything just right. Her I didn’t recognize! friendly and very polite emails sometimes Please remember to send me pictures of referred to the health problems which had unusual plants that have flowered in your affected her in recent years. collection to share with other readers. Then, only last month, I heard of the sad GrahamCharles death of Darrel Plowes at the age of 91. Just a few days before I had been in communication P.S. Those of you who attend the Cactus with him about a paper he was working on for Explorers Club Weekend will be pleased to Bradleya about the stapeliad genus Angolluma . know that I have booked it for next year, the His health was already failing and regrettably weekend of September 15–17th 2017. The he never finished the work. You can find an invitations to regular participants will be sent appreciation of Darrel on page 4 . out in January. At last, I have got around to rationalising If you have not already told me and would my gymnocalycium collection. I accumulated like to be advised when the next issue of the hundreds of speciments which I used to Cactus Explorer is available for down - research and illustrate my book. Now I need load, please send me your E-mail address to the space to grow other plants, notably be added to the distribution list. 3 The Cactus Explorer ISSN 2048-0482 Number 17 December2016 NEWS AND EVENTS †Plowes, Darrel Charles Herbert A. Castellanos & H. Lelong (1925-2016) Publications devoted to cacti b. Estcourt, Natal, 4 Apr 1925; This, the second e-book (416 pages) published by Au Cactus Francophone is Mutare, Zimbabwe, 19 Oct 2016. devoted to articles by Castellanos and Lelong. The introduction presents the life of The celebrated 91-year old veteran of both authors who were husband and wife. stapeliads, Darrel Plowes, finally After the series of articles, some original succumbed to a 2-day bout of pneumonia pictures by Castellanos are reproduced. on the night of 19 Oct., leaving two This very useful reference for Argentinian children from his first marriage, Carolyn cacti can be downloaded (76Mbyte) from & Robert, and Mrs. Nina Bauer, with https://www.cactuspro.com/biblio_fichiers/p whom he had been sharing a home df/KieslingRoberto/CastellanosLelong.pdf during his final few years. Following wartime service, Darrel Bradleya Index graduated from Witwatersrand University in 1948 with a degree in agriculture, soil conservation and ecology, An index to Bradleya and then emigrated in 1949 to Zimbabwe, 1–34 has been where he occupied several positions, first compiled by Roy as a Research Officer, then Superintend- Mottram and can be ent, and finally as a Regional Director of downloaded as a African Agriculture in Zimbabwe’s searchable PDF file Manicaland Province. When not involved in his career work, he devoted himself to studying the natural history of Zimbabwe, sometimes www.cactusexplorers.org.uk/Explorer17/Bra being named for several plants and dleya Index 1–34.pdf animals of his own discovery, and became a leading light in the National Trust of Thank you Roy! Zimbabwe, from where tributes are already pouring in. His particular Cactáceas y Suculentas speciality in stapeliads came rather later Mexicanas in life, but he soon made up for that by The Mexican journal has been published becoming an internationally recognised since 1955 with the aim of sharing knowledge authority in their classification, describing about succulent plant families, especially the numerous new taxa. His level of Cactaceae, and to promote interest and classification was considered by many to research on different aspects of these amazing be too liberal, but he was a careful, hands- plants. on observer and his work could never be The journal is available on line and free at: dismissed lightly. web.ecologia.unam.mx/cactsucmex/ Any comments please contact: Dra. Mariana Roy Mottram Rojas-Aréchiga ( [email protected] ) 4 Number 17 December 2016 ISSN 2048-0482 The Cactus Explorer What a Wonderful Day! The BCSS National Show, August 20th 2016 This is the day when the BCSS feels at its best. It is not At a time when we hear about the worry of reducing just the plants on show, nor the plants for sale, but the membership and branches struggling to keep going, it is chance to meet friends and enjoy the atmosphere of a encouraging to see how many people will turn out to successful event.