The online magazine for cactus and succulent enthusiasts Issue 28 March 2021 2 Contents 6 Click to read 23 Click to read Rhytidocaulon The Reich stuff macrolobum Graham Evans Justin Gilbert A print of Myrmecodia 7 Click to read beccarii from the original description by Hooker, 1886. Myrmecodia beccarii See Page 7 Alain Buffel 43 Click to read Mammillarias – some of those that got away 27 Click to read Tony Roberts Looking at Fouquierias Ian Woolnough 15 Click to read 47 Click to read Evolution now The succulents of Ray Stephenson 33 Click to read Portmeirion pottery Carl Spitzweg Colin C Walker 18 Click to read Tony Clifford Some other succulents Jörg Ettelt 35 Click to read Hand-built cold frames Jos Huizer 54 Click to read 41 Click to read Whatever happened to Stapelia glanduliflora that Echinocereus Mike Cullen Peter Berresford 3 Welcome to the March issue Jenny inherited the plant of the ‘Cactus and Succulent which was labelled as Review’. S. grandiflorus, possibly a case of a nursery somewhere As always I have tried to putting the label on the plant provide a varied and that it thought the buyers interesting issue, but you wanted to see. If anyone has don’t need me to tell you all any further thoughts on about it here, as you can which species it is then look at our Contents page. please get in touch. We have slightly redesigned this to give it more space, To see an example of the real and hopefully make it S. grandiflorus go to page 52 clearer. Each article has a of this issue, where it is link (Click to read) which will illustrated on a magnificent take you straight to it. I very plate by Philip Miller (1691- much hope you will enjoy 1771). this issue. Most species of Selenicereus In the previous issue Jenny have large white nocturnal Nunn’s article on ‘Cactus flowers which, according to Flowers – do they make Wikipedia, are usually scents’ featured a picture of scented and are pollinated a Selenicereus (shown again Graham Charles emailed me to say by moths or occasionally here) which was originally that he did not believe this was bats. Joël Lodé remarks in his entry captioned Selenicereus indeed S. grandiflorus but that it on Selenicereus in ‘Taxonomy of grandiflorus, (that is leaving aside could be one of the smaller the Cactaceae’ that the flowers are the terrible typing error which was flowering Selenicereus such as ‘intensely fragrant, often smelling of down to me). S. spinulosus. vanilla’. Sheila Cude Back issues All back issues are available to download from the website. The Cactus and Succulent Review is a free quarterly magazine published in pdf format in March, June, September and December. Contact Editor Sheila Cude 25 Macleod Road Join our free mailing list to receive London N21 1SW an email notification of each issue. Phone 020 8340 1928 To subscribe please visit our website Email Sheila Cude © Copyright authors and photographers. The Cactus and Succulent Review may be freely distributed but permission is required for other than personal use. www.cactusandsucculentreview.org.uk 4 A hardy Opuntia growing in Norfolk These pictures were sent to me garden. The flower shown was by Roy Holmes, who grows this photographed last June, when Opuntia in his front there were plenty more buds. It grows completely unprotected, as you can see from the picture below, taken in the middle of January, when it snowed heavily. A new book on Adromischus issued by the Italian Cactus and Succulent Society (AIAS) On behalf of the Italian Africa. It is written in Italian, with an English summary Cactus and Succulent at the beginning. The photos of course need no Society (AIAS), I am translation. pleased to announce the The price is 40 euros for non-AIAS members, but publication of a special there is a special offer. The special Adromischus issue of our journal issue costs only 10 euros for all who subscribe to ‘Piante Grasse’ about ‘Piante Grasse’ for 2021. This year’s subscription the genus Adromischus. includes four issues of the journal, on average 200 This is the second pages a year, often with articles in Italian and monograph on the English, together with another special issue to be genus ever written and published at the end of 2021. Anyone who is the first to include the plants discovered in the interested can purchase the 2021 ‘Piante Grasse’ twenty-first century. It is illustrated with almost 150 subscription (50 euros) and the Adromischus special high quality pictures and provides readers with an issue (103 pages long) for only 60 euros. updated overview of these fascinating succulents, as More information can be found on the website of well as with the account of two travels to South AIAS Marco Cristini 5 The unusual flowers of Cyanotis somaliensis The savannah is characterised by a arid regions of northern Somalia. relatively warm and dry climate. The trailing plant’s leaves have The main vegetation is grass, with hairy edges and it produces small trees here and there. Among the blue flowers (‘pussy ears’) in grasses, Cyanotis can be found summer. creeping. These plants enjoy a light location Joseph Dalton Hooker, a British but do not tolerate direct sunlight. botanist, was the first to discover a They do not need much water, so it Cyanotis, but it was Raphael is enough to water them once a Herman Anna Govaerts who first week in summer. Like their near described and classified the plant relatives Tradescantia and Callisia, correctly. they are best in a hanging basket. Ray Stephenson Countless types of Cyanotis are known to exist, but C. somaliensis Taken from the newsletter of the BCSS Cyanotis somaliensis – the flower is a succulent originating from the Northumbria Branch shown is c5mm high 6 Rhytidocaulon macrolobum by Justin Gilbert A fascinating Stapeliad from Yemen Rhytidocaulon macrolobum y plant came from Uhlig’s patches on the epidermis so it is I suspect that it will propagate from Mstand at the 2016 British not a very pretty plant. cuttings but I do not have enough Cactus and Succulent Society It lives on a sunny windowsill and material to experiment with so, National Show and has more than has a drink once a week, less often barring an accident, I will not justified the price paid. during the winter. It seems very find out. At the time I thought it was a content in my standard cactus John Pilbeam’s book ‘Stapeliads’ chancy acquisition as I had read compost (John Innes No 2 and has a couple of pages of pictures about these plants and did not about 60% grit) with gravel top and they are also mentioned in really expect to keep it very long. dressing and a layer of grit in the Sheila Collenette’s excellent ‘An Four years on it is still with me and bottom of the pot to give good Illustrated Guide to the Flowers of the original two arms have drainage. Saudi Arabia’. expanded to three and grown In the spring I intend to move it on I have not tried to describe the significantly. to a 4inch (10cm) square pot and flowers – the picture says it all. n The arms are just finger width and will look forward to more flowers in deep olive green. It does have a 2021. If it is anything like 2020 it Photo: Justin Gilbert tendency to develop brown will be in bloom for months. 7 Myrmecodia beccarii Hook.f. 1886 by Alain Buffel The Australian ant house plant, a curious symbiotic succulent from NE Queensland his story starts during a lecture at our To my surprise, I become the new owner of Tlocal cactus club, Lophophora, in Ghent a spiny stem succulent that is grown in (Belgium) during the summer of 2018. coconut fibre as a medium (Fig. 1). During the coffee/toilet break halfway Someone from the local club board nudges through each lecture there is a raffle where me during the break, laughs and asks if I plants get a new home and owner. These have any idea of what I just won; to which plants mostly come from members of the I can answer positively, “Yes sir, the club who feel too old and/or sick to go on northern form of the Australian ant house with the hobby and therefore donate their plant”. plants to the club. Fig. 1 The plant obtained from the Cactus Club in Ghent. Myrmecodia beccarii continued 8 Fig. 2 The distribution area of Myrmecodia beccarii in north-eastern Queensland is the Daintree National Park. This tropical rainforest is more than 110 million years old and covers an area of 894,000 hectares. The fellow plant lover looks at me in Myrmecodia beccarii was first described by surprise but nods approvingly. Little does Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817–1911) in he know that a few weeks after this lecture 1886. See the front cover for the original I will be travelling for an extended period of pen drawing showing the entire plant time to distant Australia and, in preparation without roots but with flower, fruit and for that trip, I am at that moment busy seedling in the first description. Joseph studying the various interesting succulents Dalton Hooker was director of the botanical of that immense country. garden at Kew, near London, for 20 years where he succeeded his father, (William I have good friends who a few years ago, Jackson Hooker). He was also known as a after active careers with the Ghent police, good friend of Charles Darwin.