CACTUS COURIER Newsletter of the Palomar Cactus and Succulent Society The North San Diego County Cactus and Succulent Society Volume 65, Number 1 January 2019 NEXT MEETING This Month’s Presentation: Sat., January 26th The Cacti of San Diego County Park Ave. Community Center 210 Park Ave., Escondido Jon P. Rebman, Ph.D. Brag plants, Exchange Table, Benefit Drawing Curator of Botany, San Diego Natural History Museum 11:00am - 3:00pm San Diego County has 30 different taxa in the family Cactaceae. Of these, 23 are native species, 3 species have escaped from cultivation and naturalized, Membership Renewal Time and 3 opuntioid species are of putative hybrid origin. There are 7 cactus It’s that time of year again! genera listed for the County but most of the diversity is in the genera Renewals will be accepted until Cylindropuntia and Opuntia. Cacti occur natively throughout San Diego the end of FEBRUARY, after which County with the greatest diversity (18 taxa) found in the desert areas, but you will be removed from the both coastal (10 taxa) and mountain (5 taxa) habitats have native taxa as well. membership and newsletter lists. The Cactaceae of our area are a fascinating group of plants in respect to Cash, checks, & credit cards are natural history exhibiting such characteristics as extrafloral nectaries accepted at meetings. (Ferocactus and Cylindropuntia), gynodioecy (Mammillaria and Cylindropuntia), asexual propagation (Opuntia and Cylindropuntia), and natural hybridization (Opuntia and Cylindropuntia). IN THIS ISSUE Speaker Information p. 1 - 2 San Diego County is one of the most botanically diverse counties in the USA Notices p. 3 with more than 2700 different native and naturalized plants present. As a Holiday Party Photos p. 4 - 5 result, the Botany Department at the San Diego Natural History Museum Spring Festival Information p. 5 created the San Diego County Plant Atlas project (Plant Atlas) to improve our Plant of the Month – Aloes p. 6 -7 Coffee in the Garden - Palomar College p. 7- 8 understanding of the local flora. The Plant Atlas is a multi-year project An Assortment of Articles p. 8 designed to improve scientific knowledge of regional plants through better Rick’s Coffee in the Garden p. 9 documentation of the flora of San Diego County by using volunteers from the CSSA Day at the Huntington p. 9 community (called parabotanists) to properly survey, collect herbarium- Garden Brag Plants p. 10 quality voucher specimens, and record field data about plants in natural SDCSS Show/Sale Info., FREE Bamboo p. 10 areas throughout the County. So. California Event Calendar p. 11 Misc. Club. Information & Calendars p. 12 REFRESHMENTS 1 – Vivian Folmer 2 – Nancy Dunn 3 – Jamaye Despaigne 4 – Barbara Rabb . and YOU! Click here to visit our webpage: www.palomarcactus.org We’re on Facebook! Questions: [email protected] Since its inception in August 2003 the project has developed a comprehensive website (www.sdplantatlas.org) to assist parabotanists and provide an outlet to the public, designed an efficient system for online data submission and delivery of specimens to the SDNHM, added over 69,700 new voucher specimens to the SD Herbarium (including more than 450 discoveries of new County records and four new taxa for science) that are fully databased and with precise geographic coordinates, created online floristic search processes and resources for mapping plant distributions, and trained over 600 volunteers. Consequently, this project is fostering the public’s awareness and respect for local natural history, increasing our scientific collections of the regional flora, and providing essential botanical data on the distribution, variation, and diversity of the plants found in our County. Consequently, this project is fostering the public’s awareness and respect for local natural history, increasing our scientific collections of the regional flora, and providing essential botanical data on the distribution, variation, and diversity of the plants found in our County. More recently, with the creation and development of iNaturalist (www.inaturalist.org) our knowledge of what plants are where in our County continues to improve using data provided by the public, especially in respect to our native cacti and succulents. Come join Dr. Rebman as he presents the diversity of cacti that are found in our County and learn how you can help to contribute to our scientific knowledge on the distribution of cacti in our own backyards. BIO: Jon P. Rebman, Ph.D. has been the Mary and Dallas Clark Endowed Chair/Curator of Botany at the San Diego Natural History Museum (SDNHM) since 1996. Dr. Rebman is a plant taxonomist and conducts extensive floristic research on the Baja California peninsula and in San Diego and Imperial Counties of California. He leads various field classes and botanical expeditions each year and is actively naming new plant species from the region. His primary research interests have centered on the systematics of the Cactus family in Baja California, especially the genera Cylindropuntia (chollas) and Opuntia (prickly-pears). However, Dr. Rebman also does a lot of general floristic research and he has co-published the new Annotated Checklist of the Vascular Plants of Baja California, Mexico and the most recent edition of the Checklist of the Vascular Plants of San Diego County. He has over 25 years of field experience with surveying and documenting plants including rare and endangered species. As a field botanist, he is a very active collector of scientific specimens with his personal collections numbering over 35,000. He is the director of the San Diego County Plant Atlas project (www.sdplantatlas.org) and identifies/verifies all of the new specimens (currently over 69,000) coming into the herbarium through this scientific endeavor. As the curator of the SD Herbarium at the SDNHM, he is in charge of this dried plant specimen collection that contains over 270,000 specimens dating back to the 1870s. Rebman published the newest edition of the Baja California Plant Field Guide with co-author Norman Roberts in 2012, and is working on a new bilingual plant field guide for the Cape region of Baja California Sur. “The desert regions of Baja California and Southern California satisfy my need for scientific adventure while providing a sense of excitement towards botany, reverence for nature and its unaltered beauty, appreciation for the complexity of natural history, and an overall feeling of peace and purpose.” p. 2 Dear PCSS Members, As your new President I want to thank you for electing me and giving me your support. I am so happy that our club is made up of such friendly and welcoming members who make our meetings and events so enjoyable. Please feel free to contact me about any new ideas you have for our club, or any issues, good or bad, and of course offers to volunteer. Take care, Brita Miller ~ NOTICES ~ BOARD OF DIRECTORS ELECTIONS At our December meeting we held our yearly elections. Results were: Brita Miller – President – 2-year term Open – Vice President Annie Morgan – Secretary – 2-year term David Buffington – Member at Large – 2-year term Lorie Johansen – Member at Large – 2-year term Peter Walkowiak – Member at Large – 1-year term (completing Jim Anderson’s term) We want to thank Peter Walkowiak for his many years as President, but he won’t be going far and will still be our resident Plant Expert. We also want to thank Francis Granger and Mike Nelson for their years of dedication and helpful input as Board Members. Welcome to the team David and Lorie! We are looking forward to your fresh ideas and input. MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL Thank you to everyone who renewed in November and December! There is a form you can print and mail in on the back page, or forms are available at meetings. Starting this year, we now ask that ALL RENEWALS BE SUBMITTED BY THE END OF FEBRUARY. So, if we have NOT received your renewal by the end of FEBRUARY your information will be removed from the rooster and newsletter lists, and you will no longer receive newsletters. You may renew at a meeting with CASH, CHECKS, or a CREDIT CARD. MEMBERSHIP DIRECTORY Once again, we will be printing up a Member Directory that will be available at the March meeting, after all membership renewals have been received. Please indicate on the Membership Form which information you’d like to have included. Please contact Annie if you have any questions. YEARLY CALENDAR - ALWAYS ON THE LAST PAGE OF THE NEWSLETTER - FYI – our meeting schedule for the year is always on the back page at the bottom of each newsletter issue. Also, always on the back page is a box listing the next few months’ Southern California events, and this is updated monthly. Additionally, Brita and Annie’s contact info is also always on the back page. ATTENTION Newer Members, and a Reminder to ALL members re: Food at our Meetings Our meetings are known for delicious snacks to enjoy during our break. Some of our newer members may not know that the food comes from – our members! Some members bring food in every month, and it’s time for them to be able to take a break and have the rest of us help out! Lately the table has been a little sparse and we’ve had to go next door to buy more food. This is expensive and a hassle. So, to keep up with one of the things our members love during our meeting break, if each member could bring some finger food, homemade or purchased a few times a year we would be back on track. (We are most often missing non-sweet items.) There is a sign-up sheet at each meeting – SO PLEASE DO SIGN UP! At the November meeting a gold women’s ring was found on the floor and an earring in the parking lot, and a man’s jacket disappeared.