i l l m w xttm & m m " a s VOLUME 12 NUMBER 41 Calymmant hium substeri le Collection - Jardin Exotique Monaco CLEISTOCACTUS LANICEPS Collection AFH 8UINING Succulents 45. 2,1166 CLEISTOCACTUS LANICEPS FLOWERS From G. J. Charles A few years ago I purchased a seedling Cleistocactus from Holly Gate nursery, under the name of C. villamontesii. This particular plant appealed to me as it seemed to be rather different from any other Cleistocactus that I knew. On many plants of Cleistocactus the areoles and spines are so numerous that you can only see the general outline of the body; on this stem, which was about 1 Vz inches thick, there were only 8 ribs, the areoles were fairly wide apart and the spines were not very numerous, so that altogether you could see almost all of the body. It was easy to see that there was a furrow across the rib right above each areole, a furrow in the shape of a shallow vee with the point of the vee immediately above the areole. This furrow ran across the apex of the rib but not right down to the groove between the ribs. The crown of the shallow tubercle lay below each areole so that the areole gave the impression that it was sitting on a sort of platform and facing more or less upward rather than facing outwards. The areoles themselves were fairly large, with pretty long yellowish felt, about 7 mm in diameter and they were 18 mm from the top of one areole to the top of the next one on the same rib. The spines were a pale yellow colour and were variable in number. Generally there was one long downward pointing spine up to 30 mm long from the lower part of the areole. There were also up to 5 shorter spines up to 10 mm long, randomly arranged. Some areoles, especially the older ones, also had fine short spines up to 3 mm long which were sometimes quite numerous. This plant amazed me by coming into flower when it was not much more than one foot high, and still solitary. The buds all appeared on the top few inches of growth; they were flat-topped and covered in neat, short wool of a somewhat reddish-brown colour. The flower was about 1 Vz inches long and Vz inch in diameter. About a third of the flower near the stem tapered slightly and was inclined upwards a little, the outer two-thirds of the flower was cylindrical and horizontal. The base of the flower was a dark reddish-brown colour; the tube and petals were a bright red, possibly slightly orange-red, with aihost of small greenish-yellow scales. The very tips of the outermost petals were also greenish-yellow, the outer petals red with yellow tips, the inner petals red at the base and the outer half yellow, the innermost petals yellow, red afttlb base. There was a large number of short, narrow petals in several rows at the mouth of the flower, the outermost row being almost fully open, the outer row half-open, the innermost row more or less continuing the cylindrical line of the tube. The outer surface of the tube was divided into narrow flutes, slightly convex, by a series of fine parallel grooves; there may have been as many as twenty-two such flutes along the length of the tube. The scales on the tube were arranged in a typical spiral pattern, the base of each scale being almost as wide as the flute on which it lay. At the ovary, the thin scales lay close against the tube but from there to the corolla the scales became steadily thicker and steadily more of a rump-backed or tortoise-shell shape. There was a fair amount of short brown hairy wool on the exterior of the ovary, enough to cover the base of the flower completely. I suppose the flower may well have been red right down to the base and it could be just the dense hairy coat that made the ovary look dark reddish-brown in colour. There was a fair amount of hair in the axils of the scales above the ovary, reducing towards the opening until there was very little hair associated with the outermost scales. The cream-coloured anthers were level with the mouth of the flower, and almost filled it. The pale yellow-green style and greenish stigma protruded some 6mm or so from the mouth of the flower, with the stigma lobes held loosely together in a bunch. When the flower was sliced in two, a large nectar chamber was disclosed at the bend in the tubee. The ovary and nectar chamber together were about as long as the remaining length of flower tube. The flowers appeared a few at a time more or less continuously from July to October. The flowering did not seem to be much affected by the weather, except that better weather seemed to cause the flowers to open. The plant first flowered when it needed a new pot, but potting it on did not seem to make any difference to its production of flowers. It is my experience that Cleistocacti flower best when growing strongly. Perhaps I should mention that I put a mark on my pots so that if they happen to be taken off the staging or moved around for any reason they can be kept facing in the same direction when they are replaced. Because of this I can say that the flowers were not confined to any particular compass direction. I am now quite certain that this Cleistocactus is not villamontesii — but what is it? Presumably it is nothing to do with the group of species with the long S-shaped flowers around chacoensis-baumanii-santacruzensis, which was featured in the Chileans some time ago. Obviously it is not one with numerous ribs and many spines like straussii, tupizensis or tarijensis. It is nothing to do with the slender-stemmed and fine-spined candellila or pojoensis. From the body and flower habit one can rule out micropetalus and morawetzianus. Again it is not of the wendlandiorum type. But what is it? Perhaps Tom Lavender could help? ........... From Mr. and Mrs. Lavender We have had a look at the slides of Graham Charles’ Cleistocactus and noted the rib count, then we went carefully through all the descriptions of Cleistocactus in Backeberg’s Die Cactaceae. As far as we could see, the only species with a description that could match this plant is that of C. laniceps. We do not have a plant of this species, nor do we have anything among our slides which shows this species in another collection. There are various names for Cleistocacti for which we do not have a description, so we could not be absolutely certain that this particular plant really is C. laniceps. 51 CEREUS LANICEPS By K. Schumann Translated by H. Middleditch from Gesamtbeschreibung der Kakteen 1904. Columnaris ramosous, costis 9 modice altis obtusis; aculeis radialibus paucis vulgo 3 solis subulatus saepe superpostis; flore tubuloso-infundibuliformi brevi, ovario squamoso lanato; bacca parva globosa lanuginosa. Body upright, columnar, up to 4 m high, branching. Stem more or less 5 cm thick; ribs 9, vertical, blunt, separated by shallow, acute, 1 cm deep parallel furrows, faintly jointed by cross grooves. Areoles large, even the non-flowering ones of 6 mm and more in diameter, covered with a convex cushion of grey woolly felt, which becomes golden brown on those with flower buds. Few spines, usually three, from the upper part of the areole, often disposed in a line one above the other, stiff, straight, awl-like, cylindrical, rarely more than 1.5 cm long, grey. Flowers at the side, singly from the areole, usually from only one rib, the others completely flowerless; overall length of flower 3.5 cm. Ovary almost globular, 5 mm long, furnished with awl-like scales from whose axils abundant brown wool protrudes. Flower sheath probably red, tube funneliform, somewhat curved. Tube elongated, bearing awl-like, somewhat thickened scales, from whose axils appears thick curly wool. Outer petals lanceolate, pointed, somewhat thickened; inner ones relatively very narrow lanceolate, pointed, barely 8 mm long, membranous. Anthers projecting, in two groups, the lowest about 3 mm above the bottom of the body of the flower, the upper inserted in the throat. Fruit globular, red, very thickly covered with wool, barely 1 cm in diameter. Seeds 1 mm in diameter, lenticular, circular or angular outline, thinner than broad, dotted with parallel lines of fine lacunae, shiny black. Geographical distribution: Bolivia, near Tunari in the cordillera, 1,300 m above sea level; found by Otto Kuntze. Flowering in May. CLEISTOCACTUS LANICEPS (K. Sch.) Gosselin 1904 Translated by H. Middleditch from “ South American Cacti” Vol. 2 by F. Ritter. I provide information supplementary to Schumann’s description:- Body with numerous branches, especially from below, often in the lower parts semi-procumbent and then becoming 2-3 m high; stem 3-5 cm thick, grey-green, ribs 8-11; areoles about 5-7 mm diameter with prolific orange-brown felt later becoming grey, more or less 1 cm gap between adjacent areoles; spines straight, honey yellow, later going grey; radial spines only a few, needle-like, outstanding, around the lower margin of the areole, usually 2-3 mm long, central spines 1-3, awl-like, projecting 5-20 mm long, occasionally diminuitive or even absent. Flower 3-4 cm long, straight, sloping upward somewhat adjacent to the stem; pericarpel and tube red with grey-green scales, with abundant grey-brown wool around the base; tube cylindrical with much less wool; nectar chamber 4-7 mm long, 2-5 mm broad, with slight inward thickening of wall at the exit, without a diaphragm but half closed by the basal stamens.