GORDON ROWLEY-WUNDERKIND Rooms

'To The Point' Newsletter of CSSA January-February 2000, Vol. 72, No. 1. PRESIDENT'S COMMENTS book collection, the finest and most com• plete of its kind in the world, fills two GORDON ROWLEY-WUNDERKIND rooms. His favorite book is his copy of OF THE SUCCULENT WORLD Richard Bradley's History of Succulent Plants, the very first one on this subject, In my opinion, the succulent world has which once belonged to James Justice and never seen another person comparable to contains his list of the first succulent collec• Gordon Rowley. He is indeed an interna• tion in Scotland in 1730. Says Gordon, tional treasure, and succulent plant hobby• "My library was amassed largely in the ists have been very fortunate to benefit from 1950s when books were cheap—even splen• did old herbals and journal runs." He main• this exceptionally talented man. His virtues tains his succulent collection in a 24-foot are endless and, adds Gordon, "So are my greenhouse; semi-hardy succulents are faults." We can be most thankful for his planted outside his home in the front gar• books, articles, and leadership. And there is den. no way to beat his keen sense of humor. Gordon Douglas Rowley was born in Lon• Highly rewarding were his field trips to the don on July 31, 1921. He graduated from U.S. and Mexico in 1968, 1974 and 1983, the Lower School of John Lyon, Harrow- and Africa in 1971 because he observed on-the Hill, in 1938. His B.Sc. degree in how succulent plants grow in habitat. A botany was earned in 1942 at the University staunch conservationist, Gordon advocated of London, King's College. Because of conservation since the first International World War II, the university had to be Organization for Succulent Plant Research evacuated to Bristol to escape the air raids. (IOS) Congress was held in Reading in Says Gordon, "We were bombed out twice, 1973. and sat finals with fire engines roaring past the windows and charred flecks of black In 1939 he acquired Herman Jacobsen's settling on the exam papers." Succulent Plants and John Borg's Cacti. Thus began his world class library on suc• From 1948 to 1961 he worked at the John culent plant literature. After obtaining some Innes Horticultural Institution as founder copies of the CSSA Journal, he began writ• and keeper of the National Rose Species ing letters to some of the eminent cacto- Collection; five dictionaries carry his com• philes, including Scott Haselton, Howard mentary on the genus Rosa. A major contri• Gates, William T. Marshall, and Reid bution was his editing of the facsimile edi• Moran. They replied and often sent plants tion of Pierre J. Redout's masterpiece Les and slides as well. Says Gordon, "Little did Roses, published in four folio volumes be• I dream that I would one day meet some of tween 1974 and 1976. Remarks Gordon, these celebrities." "The first half of my working life succu• lents were strictly for spare-time amuse• He has made substantial contributions to ment only." encyclopedias and symposia, has served as editor of various botanical publications, and Gordon taught horticultural botany at Read• has written over 300 articles. In 1959 ing University from 1961 to his retirement Gordon published his first book, Flowering in 1981. He purchased a house in Reading Succulents. But that was only the begin• in 1968 and called it "Cactusville." Says ning. By the end of the 1970s, he had Gordon, "It is a bachelor's paradise and a turned quite prolific, authoring Illustrated housewife's nightmare." His phenomenal 3 and-tape lectures and one of his 16 mm Encyclopedia of Succulents, 1978; Name movies Cactus Polonaised was recently re• That Succulent, 1980; Adenium and Pachy- vived on British television. Says Gordon, podium Handbook, 1983; Haworthia Draw• "My unfulfilled ambitions are too numerous ings of John Thomas Bates, 1985; Field to list, but I would love to flower Seleni• Numbers of Succulent Plants, 1986; Caudi- cereus grandiflorus before I die—it has ciform and Pachycaul Succulents, 1987 been totally ungrowable so far!" (reissued in 1994); Didiereaceae, Cacti of the Old World, 1992; Succulent Composi- Seven taxa have been named for him. tae, A Grower's Guide to the Succulent Spe• Among the cacti are Lobivia rowleyi Ito cies of Senecio and Othonna, 1994; Ana- (1957), Pygmaeocereus rowleyanus Backe• campseros, Avonia, Grahamia, A Grower's berg (1962), Echinopsis rowleyi Friedrich Handbook, 1995; the superb ,4 History of (1974), and epicactus 'Gordon Rowley'In• Succulent Plants, 1997; and his newest nes (1977). In the Crassulaceae are Ae• Pachypodium and Adenium, 1999. At pres• onium x rowleyi Bramwell (1973) and ent he is working on a book on cristates and Greenovium variegates, the first book on the subject rowleyi Bram• since J. J. Verbeek Wolthuys's The Enigma well (1973). of the Origin of Monstrosity and Cristation The Composi• in Succulent Plants, published in Dutch and tae are repre• English in 1948, and a handbook on the ge• sented by Se• nus Crassula. necio rowley• anus Jacobsen He served as president of the Afri• (1968). • can Succulent Plant Society (ASPS) from 1966 to 1976, and the British Cactus and Larry W Succulent Society from 1983 onwards. He Mitich was named a CSSA Fellow in 1974. The 2223 citation read, "Author and translator of Amador Av many publications of succulent literature; Davis CA organizer and editor for the Repertorium 95616 Plantarum Succulentarumr Gordon is also a Trustee of the Succulent Plant Trust. The Veitch Memorial Medal of the Royal Horticultural Society, London, was pre• sented to him in 1981 "for services to horti• culture." In 1982 the IOS awarded Gordon the venerated "Cactus d'Or" for having ed• ited the annual Repertorium Plantarum Suc- culentarum from 1952 to 1982. Another prime Rowley interest is classical music, and the collecting urge extends to CDs, LPs, and tapes. He has a penchant for pre-World War II and silent films and now collects them on videotape. He delved into filmmaking, still photography, and slide- 4 .

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