Vet Brief March 2018

Next meeting Sunday 11 March 2018 Garden Tour Save The Date: Message from the Chair

March Meeting We all really appreciate the talk given by Macy Arnolds at our February 11 Mar. 2018 meeting. The people who have lived in our area for centuries have always found Calitzdorp ways to use the natural resources found here for their benefit. Please see the list of Garden Tour that she spoke of later in this newsletter.

April Meeting We continue to receive a small amount of rain that is putting off really severe 8 April restir2018 restrictions by the municipality. Unless we get a lot more rain in the next few months, Veldwalkw place we may be faced with a real water crisis in Calitzdorp. TBA. Vetplantfees will change in its second edition. We have made arrangements with the NG Church and with Jako Voges to hold the festival on their properties this May Meeting year. The sales will be held in the church grounds. There will be activities and 13 May 2018 on the stoop of the church hall on all three days. We will hold talks, workshops, art Vegetative and plant exhibitions at Jako’s buildings. The Museum will sell books from their own Propagation facility. Our Vetplantfees should begin to mature as a real Calitzdorp festival.

June Meeting Dues are due for the new year. Your Committee decided to leave the dues 10 June 2018 amount at R 50 per family. We hope that all of our members will continue to enjoy Photography the comradery of the group and learn more about succulent plants. Our meeting this month s a tour of some of the gardens of our members. We July Meeting will meet in front of Jako Voges’ office buildings at 2:00 PM on Sunday 11 March Member 4 X 4 and go from there. At the moment we are planning to visit 3 gardens, the final one Outing being Irma and Dewald’s on Weswoer.

We will begin regular planning meetings for Vetplantfees in the near future. 22–24 Sept. 2018 Please help and join in the effort to make our fees the best in . Vetplantfees 2018 See you at the meeting. .

Buck March Meeting: Members Gardens Tours. Meet at 2:00 PM at Jako Voges building.

Leadership Team Chairman – Buck Hemenway 076-298-7337 Treasurer – Yvonne Hemenway Vice Chairman – Allan Beech Director – Irma Welman Secretary – Jako Voges

Plant of the Month:Euphorbia gamkensis Euphorbia gamkensis (Marx 1999) (Calitzdorp Euphorbia. ) Our own Calitzdorp Euphorbia. Euphorbis gamkensis grows a large, more or less cylindrical underground caudex that may exceed 6 cm in diameter. Above-ground, a few rows of outwardly pointing thick, succulent stems grow on the often flat green top of the caudex. The outer row of stems are the longest, the oldest; new stems emerge in the centre as the plant grows in width. Scattered whitish stalks can be seen on the older stems where small greenish-yellow cyathia had bloomed in the past. The stems are covered in rhomboid tubercles, small rounded sections that bulge on the stems and multiply as new ones emerge from the centre at the top. The top parts of the stems are the greenest here, being the youngest. This has only been known since about 1999 when it was discovered near Calitzdorp in the Little and described by Gerhard Marx. It is extremely rare, found growing in farm soils near Calitzdorp to Oudtshoorn. It appears to be easy to grow. Planted is well drained soil and given some shade from the sun during the hottest days in the Klein Karoo.

Very healthy as a garden plant

Large plants in the veld

Botanical Term of the Month;

Cyathium (cyathia, pl) An inflorescence consisting of a cuplike cluster of modified leaves enclosing a female flower and several male flowers, as in Euphorbia plants.

Plants flowering right now

Crassula falcata Haemanthus sanguineus Orbea varieagata

Gasteria brachyphylla tomentosa v. ladismithensis

Pleiospilos bolusii