Essex SucculentReview Issue 16 (Vol 55 No 1) March 2018 This issue includes: Epiphyte or not by Paul Klaassen Chilean Cinderellas Thelocephala Hardy bromeliads by Roger Ferryman by Paul Spracklin Editorial BCSS Zone 15 Events March–July 2018 Those of you who have read the online Essex Succulent Review Sunday 18 March 12noon–5.00pm from the beginning will have Zone 15 Mini-convention realised that it is getting steadily Speakers Roger Ferryman and Alan Rollason longer. This issue is the longest yet, Saturday/Sunday 21/22 April 10.00am–6.00pm at 36 pages and I am hoping to Display and plant sales at RHS Hyde Hall (Chelmsford Branch) maintain issues throughout 2018 at Saturday/Sunday 12/13 May 10.00am–4.00pm around 28–36 pages. This should Display and sales at Southend Parks Nursery Open Weekend enable me to spread out the longer (Southend Branch) articles, with plenty of pictures, and hopefully add shorter items to Friday/Saturday/Sunday 18/19/20 May provide variety. Display and sales at Flower Show, Hyland Hall and Estate, Chelmsford, CM2 8WQ (Southend Branch) Of course to achieve this I need more and more material, so if Saturday 26 May 12noon–4.00pm anyone has an idea for an article Lea Valley Branch Annual Show: do please get in touch. It need not Capel Manor College, Bullsmoor Lane, Enfield EN1 4RQ be a full-length feature, I always The plants remain on display over the May Bank Holiday weekend and the welcome shorter items and fillers, show includes sales of cacti, succulents and garden plants. an interesting plant for example, or Saturday 2 June 11.00am–4.00pm something which has done Havering Branch Annual Show particularly well for you. 1st Floor, YMCA, Rush Green Road, RM7 0PH I’ll look forward to hearing from you. Saturday 9 June 11.00am–4.00pm Southend-on-Sea Branch Show: Essex St George’s United Reformed Church Hall, 91 Crowstone Road, Westcliff- SucculentReview on-Sea, SSO 8LH Saturday 7 July 10.30am–4.00pm The Essex Succulent Review is Waltham Forest Branch Show: published quarterly in March, Chingford Horticultural Hall, Larkshall Road, Chingford E4 6PE June, September and December. Plant sales from 9.00am It is available on-line free of Saturday/Sunday 14/15 July 10.00am-4.00pm charge. Visit the website Zone 15 Annual Show www.essexsucculentreview.org.uk RHS Hyde Hall, Creephedge Lane, Rettendon, Chelmsford, Essex to subscribe to the mailing list or CM3 8ET email: Sheila Cude Past issues are archived on the website. Havering Cactus Mart © The Essex Succulent Review Saturday 12 May 2018 may be freely distributed while the 10.00am–3.00pm copyright of the text and pictures remains with the writers and North Romford Community Centre, photographers. Permission is Clockhouse Lane, Collier Row, required for any use other than North Romford RM5 3QJ reading, printing for your own Large hall with at least 12 leading nurseries use or storage. Admission £1 Editor Sheila Cude Refreshments available all day Address 25 Macleod Road For a printed map and details of parking send SAE to London N21 1SW Mr Eddy Harris, Phone 020 8340 1928 49 Chestnut Glen, Hornchurch, Essex RM12 4HL Email Sheila Cude South East England Cactus Mart The British Cactus and Saturday 7 April 2018 Succulent Society (BCSS) is 10.00am–3.00pm the National Society for growers Swalecliffe Community Centre, of cacti and succulents in the 19 St John’s Road, Whitstable CT5 2QU UK. Zone 15 covers Essex and north-east London. For full details contact Dave Appleton 2 Epiphyte or not? by Paul Klaassen A terrestrial epiphyte can be defined as an organism that grows on the surface of a plant and derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rain or from debris accumulating around it. Over millions of years of evolutionary adaptations and so it comes as no surprise changes, epiphytes have adapted to that some cacti are epiphytes. survive in habitats that provide minimal Argentina – Salta In 1998, on a trip with Marlon Machado in water and soil and so have a minimal root Above: Parodia the Brazilian States of Bahia and Minas system, often used to enable them to penicillata on a tree Gerais, I expressed disappointment at not attach themselves to other plants, or items having seen more epiphytic cacti. He such as rocks or telephone wires. The Below: Seedlings of smiled. “We have passed plenty, but we Cactaceae have also made such Parodia penicillata spent most of the time looking at the and an Echinopsis ground, looking for Discocactus, (Trichocereus) Melocactus and Uebelmannia.” growing on trees 3 Epiphyte or not continued Rhipsalis baccifera at El Tajin Brazil – Rhipsalis lindbergiana, Epiphyllum phyllanthus growing on Cereus jamacaru In 2017, we decided to visit some of the “What is the matter?” we asked. “We think remnants of buildings, built by the pre- you should know that the Mayan Columbian civilisations. At one of these monuments, that are the main attractions in sites, we spotted a tree bedecked with this park, are behind you.” We looked, and Rhipsalis baccifera and soon had our sure enough, there they were. “What are One of the Mayan cameras clicking away. We stopped briefly you taking pictures of?” “Cacti!” Their eyes monuments at to see why a family group of Mexicans rolled sky-ward and the word ‘loco’ (= mad) El Tajin were laughing at us. seemed to be used a lot. 4 Epiphyte or not continued There are plenty of bromeliads, particularly And they grow on trees and even on cacti! Above: A bromeliad in the genus Tillandsia (airplants), that grow at El Tajin While there is a well-documented group of on anything from rocks, to telephone wires. cacti that have adopted an epiphytic life- In Brazil, this can cause quite a few style, such as the popular Christmas problems during heavy rains, when the Below left: Cactus (Schlumbergera cvs) and Easter weight of the wet plants is enough to bring Tillandsia sp on Cactus, most of our collections tend to be the wires down. Echinopsis filled with terrestrial cacti. This means that (Trichocereus) sp we can write papers, hold meetings and Below: Argentina – even devote whole books to the subject of Anillaco. the best potting mix for our plants to put Trichocereus sp in their roots into. a tree 5 Epiphyte or not continued Occasionally, in habitat, Mother Nature likes to tap us on the shoulder by presenting us with something unexpected. Last year, on a trip to Mexico, Ian Woolnough took us to a spot to show us a cactus he had spotted a year earlier while driving through the Barranca de Metztitlan. It appears that the axil between stems of this Cephalocereus senilis contains enough detritus to support a mature clump of Mammillaria geminispina. This brought to mind other occasions where we have found other cacti, usually regarded as terrestrial in habitat, growing epiphytically. During a comfort break on another Mexican cactus trip, my eyes wandered upwards along the tree Right and inset: Mexico – Barranca de Metztitlan Mammillaria geminispina growing on Cephalocereus senilis Below: Mexico – Nuevo Leon, in the Sierra de Lampazos, Opuntia engelmannia in a tree 6 Epiphyte or not continued Ferocactus histrix and Mammillaria Above and inset: decipiens subsp. camptotricha. I would Mexico – I was Stenocereus have gladly put the last taxon on my wish watering and dumortieri, list for that day as, unlike the other two, it there, in the axil, were three different cacti. Ferocactus histrix, is quite rare and said to occur only in a Now I do not bring my camera along to Mammillaria small area. such activities but, after a quick run back decipiens subsp camptotricha on a to the car, I was able to return to It raises the interesting question of how pine tree photograph a ceroid, a Ferocactus and a they got there. Given the somewhat Mammillaria, each suitable for potting into short stature of most Mexicans, a 5cm pot. compared to my 195 cm height, Back home, after enlarging and brightening I think that we can rule out up the image somewhat I was able to that humans had a hand in identify them as Stenocereus dumortieri, sowing the seed here. Above and inset: Sonora – Stenocereus (Hertrichocereus) thurberi and an Opuntia 7 Epiphyte or not continued Usually birds are the distributors of the I photographed Trichocereus chiloensis and seed of epiphytes, either cleaning their commented in my scribbled notes that the beaks after a meal of berries where the bright red flowers were much smaller than seed got stuck to their bill or by the seed I had expected for such a large plant. The leaving the body at the end of its journey answer is that the flowers did not belong to through the bird’s digestive system. But the Trichocereus but to Tristerix three very different cacti having been (Phnygilanthus) aphyllus, a plant that after brought here on a single occasion seems flowering produces a mass of white berries, unlikely. Perhaps one of the higher just like mistletoe. The berries turn to red branches was the regular perch for a local when ripe. finch that used it as its toilet stop. Many parasites are limited to one specific Epiphytes differ from parasites in that host and Tristerix (Phnygilanthus) aphyllus, epiphytes do not necessarily negatively is said to grow exclusively on Trichocereus. affect the host. On our first visit to Chile in However, during our many trips in Chile we 2001, and unfamiliar with the Chilean flora, have also seen it growing on we snapped away at the cacti and Miqueliopuntia miquelii, Eriosyce Tristerix aphyllus promised ourselves to sort out the IDs subgibbosa and on Eulychnia acida and flower on Eulychnia once we were back in England.