Succulent of the month

[ihc6480]

Looking good John and I have to admit that I like the looks of the Sedum

[templegatejohn]

Thanks Bill, the comments you and Daiv usually make are always much appreciated.

Have a good one,

John

[hob]

hi John, just thought i should mention you have 2 for may in both cacti and succulents, should the new ones be june?

[templegatejohn]

Hi mate, I am afraid there is no prize for spotting the deliberate mistake but thanks very much for letting me know, it is much appreciated and I will rectify now.

John

[templegatejohn]

Hi guys and gals, Succulent of the Month is now up. Kalanche tomentosa is an old favourite of mine, but a plant that nowadays is often passed over as not being 'exotic' enough for the modern day enthusiast. They don't know what they are missing. One of these plants in top condition takes a lot of beating.

Still waiting for summer to kick in here in England. It has been very wet recently, but the plants are in the greenhouse and don't seem to mind.

PS: Sorry everybody, for the first hour after putting Plant of the Month up, there was no picture, I am not sure why, but it is OK now.

Cheers,
John

[templegatejohn]

Hi everybody, I hope that you all like the Succulent of the Month. To my eyes anyway, it is one of the most beautiful succulents of them all. I hae once again turned to David Angus for the photograph because I thought that his picture was absolutely stunning.

Regarding the little quip I put in the comments about people touching the spines, I have a little story, although my wife does not think it is at all funny.

A casual visitor once touched mine and drew blood. I asked them if they were feeling OK, because I was sure I had the antidote somewhere in the house. They immediately felt faint and had to sit down, until I explained to them that I was joking and my wife apologised profusely for my weird sense of humour. Talk about the witch doctor putting a curse on someone.

Take care all,

John

[ihc6480]

John said:

A casual visitor once touched mine and drew blood. I asked them if they were feeling OK, because I was sure I had the antidote somewhere in the house. They immediately felt faint and had to sit down, until I explained to them that I was joking and my wife apologised profusely for my weird sense of humour. Talk about the witch doctor putting a curse on someone.

I love it, can't beat a guy with a since of humor and I can picture you doing it

Great looking plant John. Hopefully my youngster will look like that someday.

Take care buddy.

[templegatejohn]

Hi all, the plant of the month is up and running. I am sure that at least some of you will have kept this plant in the past, although it is not as popular as it once was. But what comes around, goes around as they say and next year it may be flavour of the month.

Anyway, I hope that you like it, it is quite unusual. I do not think there is anything else quite like it.

Cheers,
John

[Buck Hemenway]

John,

I really love that plant.

According to Ernst van Jaarsveld who wrote both "Cotyledon and Tylecodon" and the Cotyleedon section in the "Illustrated Handbook of Succulents", this plant's name is a synonym of C. orbiculata var. oblanga. Var. oblanga is found in a wisespread swath in eastern South Africa. He does not mention C. undulata separately at all.

[templegatejohn]

Hi Buck, thanks for the information, I will certainly make mention of it in the article.

John

[hablu]

Great plant John, I have two of them and yes I handle them with great care. No flowers yet.

There are some more with that beautiful silverly "skin". I saw once a Duddleya with that and Pachyphytum oviferum is also on the good way. And how about Senecio scapulosus?

Buck, Maybe you're right with C orbiculata oblonga. I have this one under that name, but ofcourse I can be wrong with that tag.

greets Harry

[Buck Hemenway]

I'm just quoting the top expert in South African succulents Harry. The variablilty of C. orbiculata from seed is really astonishing.

[templegatejohn]

Hi all,

it seems that this months Succulent of the Month has caused quite a lot of interest. Eduart sent me a personal message regarding the taxonomy of the plant and I felt that like Buck's it should be available to all those who are interested in ensuring they have the correct name for a plant.

Hi John,

Very interesting and taxonomically speaking very difficult plants as there is a tremendous variation of forms. My knowledge is that C. undulata (sensu Jacobsen, or C. orbiculata var. undulata = C. undulata var. mucronata) is an earlier heterotype of Coptyledon orbiculata var. orbiculata, which makes sense to me as the name oblonga points to plants with longer leaves.

Haworth's C. undulata seems to be a quite different plant.

Here's a list of synonyms (probably most of them heterotypes):

http://www.ville-ge.ch/cjb/bd/africa/de ... n&id=55450

including a distribution map.

also: Urs Eggli - Illustrated Handbook of Succulent Plants – vol. 4, Crassulaceae (2003) - very useful (but I can't remember now his coments on C. undulata if any).

I've also tried to have a decent view about this complex (rather than species in a traditional way I would say):

http://www.cactusi.com/cactus.php?name= ... specie=282

but with focus on C. orbiculata var. orbiculata (and I have also missed few things by the time I wrote the text).

Although in Romanian you might find useful the list of synonyms and the list of names linked to other recognized varieties, plus some other names used by collectors and plant distributors, most of them not valid.

The number of forms, varieties, variants or regional types goes allegedly close to 100. Some of them it is said that once cultivated lose their characteristic feature so that the enormous range of habitat conditions may also play a role in the apparent huge variety of the plant. Even look-alike nursery stock plants end in few years as being total different to each other. Sometimes the plants are very reduced, not even 30 cm high, sometimes shrubby-like, with or without red leaf margins, more or less glaucous, with undulate margins or (mostly) not, deep green to silver grey, from big leaves to rather smallish - everything is possible.

One of the photos from my article (C. orbiculata var. orbiculata) is showing a quite different plant (smaller, with greenish-yellow leaves, different colour of the flowers) in a group of plants growing wild in New Zealand (it is naturalized here in coastal regions). Have no idea how it could be that different, just one plant out of few dozens forming this small population at Piha, on a high rocky outcrop isolated in the middle of the beach. The plants seem to vary quite a lot and regional "forms" (hybrids?) have been noticed even here. It's a taxonomic nightmare this plant!

Cheers,

Eduart

[templegatejohn]

Hi all, Succulent of the month is now up on the Forum. It is quite a common plant but nevertheless has its own charm. I hope that you like it as much as I do.

Almost time, certainly in England to start battening down the hatches for winter. I am already easing off on the watering for most species. Soon there will be little to do apart from rewrite labels, check nursery catalogues for new acquisitions and start having conversations with the missus that don't include the words: "Is that all you think about your cacti."

Take care everyone,

John

[templegatejohn]

Hi Everyone,

Succulent of the month is up on the Forum, I hope that you enjoy it. It is one of my all time favourites.

It is almost time to lock the greenhouse door and get out the seed catalogues and plant nursery brochures. I am now trying to figure out how Father Christmas is going to get a bigger greenhouse down the chimney? Perhaps some cacti books would be a safer bet.

Take care everyone,

John