COLLECTIONS NEWS A Safari of : The 11th Conference on Biology

NOT YOUR TYPICAL EXCURSION, corners of the world. The conference we were packed like sheep in the back of offered much valuable information a Toyota 4x4 headed for what appeared with topics covering everything to be an impossible track up the boulder from conservation, ethnobotany and strewn hill. Our driver and guide Neil, horticulture, to genetics and systematics, LEFT: Paul Mills with an immense plant of whose farm we were on, assured us that pollination biology and evolution. It was princeps. TOP RIGHT: Encephalartos he takes this route all the time. Our an amazing opportunity to interact with heenanii BOTTOM RIGHT: Encephalartos horridus with Aloe ferox in the foreground destination was a saddle between two and reinforce our relationships with the mountains in the distance and waiting world leaders in the study of . in the world. These plants will be used as for us there were three different cycads part of an “assurance colony” for breeding In conjunction with the conference is the — Encephalartos princeps, E. friderici- and reintroduction to the wild over the meeting of the IUCN Survival guilielmi and E. caffer. This was the perfect long term. Commission’s Cycad Specialist Group culmination of the post-conference tour (CSG), of which Lotusland is a member. of the 11th Conference on Cycad Biology Lotusland is part of a strong network Being the most threatened plant group in South Africa. Our group experienced of cycad specialists and is starting to on the planet, the CSG works tirelessly to 14 different species of cycads in the coordinate with researchers, allowing conserve individual species of cycads and wild and the myriad plants that grow in samples to be taken from our collection for their habitats while working to educate and association with them that we know so DNA studies of the evolutionary history raise awareness around this unique plant well from the gardens at Lotusland. of this group of plants. Often promoted group. We are in the preliminary stages of as plants from the time of dinosaurs, The conference itself was held outside working with the CSG and colleagues in modern day cycads are believed to be of Nelspruit, South Africa, in White South Africa to develop a species survival only about 12 million years old — it is River, and was hosted by the Cycad action plan for Encephalartos heenanii their distant ancestors that were around Society of South Africa. Because of our — one of the most threatened species of during the dinosaur’s heyday. Hopefully globally important cycad collection, cycad. In 2012 Lotusland produced seed by aiding in this research Lotusland’s can Lotusland curatorial staff has attended of E. heenanii for the first time ever in the help to further unravel the mysteries of this conference almost since its inception, United States and most likely the first time these enigmatic plants. — Paul Mills which is held every three years in distinct ever in a public botanic garden anywhere LOTUSLAND.ORG 7