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BCSS Southampton & District Branch June 2011 Newsletter Branch Secretary Newsletter EditorPage 1 British Cactus & Succulent Society David Neville Vinay Shah 6 Parkville Road 29 Heathlands Road Swaythling Eastleigh Southampton & District Branch Southampton Hampshire Newsletter Hampshire SO53 1GU SO16 2JA [email protected] [email protected] June 2011 (023) 80551173 or (023) 80261989 07974 191354 be putting out a selection of titles each month, so Editorial ...........................................................1 please check the library to see what’s on offer. Announcements ...............................................1 Last Month’s Meeting.....................................1 Plants of Interest ................................................... 1 Last Month’s Meeting Bolivia................................................................... 1 Plants of Interest Table Show Results .............................................. 6 Next Month’s Meeting ....................................6 Dot England had brought along some Pelargoniums Forthcoming Events........................................6 which were originally part of Margaret Corina's collection. She had also printed out some Editorial information about the plants from the Internet, but she asked anyone who had more information to let The weather continued with its dry streak through her know. The plants were Pelargonium campestre the month of May although I’m glad to say that which was just coming into flower, Pelargonium there has been some rain during the past week or triandrum with spotted yellow flowers, and an two. unnamed species from Areb Farm (Bushmanland) with white flowers. Plants in my conservatory seem to have resumed full growth after a couple of heavy waterings. Ivor Biddlecombe had also brought along some Sometimes they stop growing when the items. Apart from growing cacti and succulent temperatures are two high but that has yet to happen plants, his other main hobby is woodcarving. He had this year. Plants in flower recently have included a carving of a cactus plant and a bird and had come Rebutia, Mammillaria, Gymnocalycium, Echeveria up with a clever way of attaching this 2-part and Aloe. sculpture by having the bird poke its long beak into a flower on the cactus. Announcements Our branch took part in 2 events over the past month He had also brought along some Opuntia plants. All - the Countryside Day at Sparsholt College, and a of these had-been propagated from bits of plants and weekend display at Hilliers Arboretum. Both events pads picked up from various shows and individuals. were well attended and there was good interest from Opuntias are one of the easiest of plants to the public. propagate and the jointed pads provide an easy means to take a piece off an existing plant. The The Branch Annual Branch Dinner will be held on plants on the table included Opuntia microdasys, Friday July 1st, at the Luzborough Inn near Romsey. Opuntia invicta, Pterocactus geometricus, two Please let David Neville know if you would like to examples of Tephrocactus molinensis, Opuntia attend. pachypus and Opuntia berteri. Ivor ended by saying that some Opuntias can grow into massive plants but Doug Donaldson’s plants will be auctioned on the ones he had brought along would remain a Sunday, 10th July at High Wycombe. The list of 400 manageable size. plants up for sale is available on the Internet at http://zone8.bcss.org.uk and there is also a copy of Bolivia the list on the front table. Some branch members Geoff introduced our speaker - who was none other may attend the auction, so if you are interested in than our president - Peter Down. Peter mentioned going along, please discuss with David. that he would be talking about a trip he made to Bolivia some time ago, long enough in the past to be The library has received donations of books in counted in the last century. At the time, the country recent months, and many of these are duplicates and was quite unstable with political coups and it will be sold off to members. Our librarian Dot will BCSS Southampton & District Branch June 2011 Newsletter Page 2 seemed rare for the government to last more than 6 plants they found was Lobivia pentlandii. This again months. The roads were quite bad and one can have variable forms and variable spines. This consequence is that they couldn’t move milk example was growing in a ditch and getting some around, so there were no dairy products. If you more extra moisture as a result. Peter collected an asked for butter, you were likely to be offered some offset and showed us the plant which he eventually cheese. The sanitation also left a lot to be desired. grew in his greenhouse. Anyway it was quite an adventure, and he would attempt to show us a bit of the country as well. Opuntia orurensis grows near the town of Oruro. The hillside was covered in many Trichocerei A A map of the region showed Bolivia almost in the plant which looked good because of the backlighting centre of South America. The legend said “Heart of of the sun was Lobivia formosa v. bertramiana. South America” but after having been there, one The main stem was around 4 feet tall and the side might be tempted to describe it in terms of some stems were 18-24" tall. It was almost in flower. An other body parts! The country is named after Simón unusual plant reminded him of a Ceropegia, because Bolívar who was instrumental in liberating many of of its lantern-like flower. They scurried about on the the South American countries from Spanish rule. At hillsides looking for a bit of colour in the hope it one time Bolivia's borders reach across to the was a cactus, but quite often it turned out to be western coast of South America, but neighbours something else. Austrocylindropuntia weingartiana Peru, Chile, Argentina and Paraguay have all taken had reddish purple flowers. Cacti grow in all sorts of some land and now the country is half the size it was places, and there was a 2 foot tall by 6 inches wide 200 years ago. plant growing on a piece of rock, and you had to wonder where its roots were. There were many other Peter showed a more detailed map, showing the spiky plants around and you needed stout boots. A areas he visited. Starting at the capital, La Paz, they Tephrocactus with a red flower was again T. headed south to Oruro and Potosi and Tarija on the orurensis and we also saw two adjacent forms of border with Argentina. On the way back, they went this, one with white flowers, the other with red. through Sucre (the business capital), Tarabuco, Aiquile, Cochabamba and Lake Titicaca which is on One of the reasons he wanted to go to Bolivia was to the border with Peru. The trip was in the month of find plants like Parodia massii. There were many December and the whole experience was amazing. forms of this plant in habitat but Peter said the featured plant was the “British Standard”. La Paz is the highest airport in the world at 12,000 Oreocereus celsianus varies enormously. In the feet and the town is situated in crater of an extinct early 1950’s Friedrich Ritter was exploring this part volcano. In the backdrop were the snow covered of the world and was making up dozens of names peaks of Mouth Illimani which is over 21,000 feet for the different plants he found. We also saw the high. On their first day it poured with rain which plant in flower. One of the other Oreocereus found rushed down the sides of the crater and into the here was O. trollii. This never gets more than 2 feet town, and all the roads were like a river. They were tall and tends to grow out sideways from the base. also suffering from altitude sickness. Some of the There were lots of little opuntias nearby too. We roads were cobbled and a street repair team saw the fruit of Orecereus trollii – it’s a dry seed consisted entirely of women, each with black plaits pod unlike cleistocactus seed which grows in a pithy and felt hats. The other people on the trip were berry. It was good to see some regeneration here, Secretary of Liverpool Branch Roysten Hughes, and with young plants of O. trollii which were a couple the then secretary of Doncaster branch, Brian Bates. of inches tall. Brian now lives in Bolivia. We saw Royston posing near tall plants of Roysten was into Tephrocactus and the first plant Helianthocereus and Oreocereus. Helianthocereus we saw was Tephrocactus bolivianus. Peter tarijensis has red flowers and is now classified as an explained how Roysten used to spend the evenings Echinopsis. Rebutia pectinata would have been very cutting off the spines from collected pieces of hard to see if not in flower. A succlent plant in the plants, to get them to fit inside film canisters. The picture looked like a Crassula but was obviously first Rebutia they found was Rebutia pygmaea. This something else. We saw a big Lobivia with a group is very variable, which is typical of many South of Rebutia pectinata at the base, followed by American plants. As a result, dozens of different Lobivia ferox and Lobivia versicolor. Brian Bates names are associated with forms of R. pygmaea. The had been told there was Weingartia westii here and rebutias tended to grow at the bottom of a big rock he eventually found it and shouted out to the others. where some moisture runs off. One of the best All the local people from the cafe rushed out BCSS Southampton & District Branch June 2011 Newsletter Page 3 thinking he’d found a gold nugget and were quite directed to a chap who apparently had a 50 gallon surprised that these foreigners were getting excited tank.

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