Description
DECEMBER 2014 CONTENTS:
- The BCSS International Convention – 2014 by Roland Tebbenham
- Casarabonela – Spain’s largest collection of cacti and succulents by Robin Savory
- Gasteria barbae, a new cliff-dwelling species from the Western Cape, South Africa by E J Van Jaarsveld
- Chilean cactus adventures (part 1) by Jonathan Y Clark
- Favourite mesembs (part 9) by Eddy Harris
- In my greenhouse by Magdi Greiss
- Seed List 2014/2015 by Peter Arthurs
- Euphorbias worth knowing and growing (part 3) by Detlef H Schnabel
- E. kunzei Gurke: one of the final mysteries in the genus Echinocereus by Michael Lange
- Aloe hardyi – a rare South African cremnophyte by Colin C Walker
- A pictorial record of an Agave attenuata blooming by Hamish McKelvie
- Crenulluma collenetteae Plowes, a new stapeliad from Saudi Arabia by Darrel Plowes
- Worthwhile hybrid succulents 15: xAlworthia ‘Fantasy’ by Gordon Rowley
- Opuntia in Iowa by Eric Ribbens and Summer A Zwetkow
- CactusTalk
- Literature review
Front cover: Pachypodium saundersii. When I was living in Mozambique I collected Commelinaceae for the Smithsonian’s National Herbarium. With one batch I included seeds of Pachypodium saundersii which were planted in the Smithsonian’s research greenhouse. Years later, by coincidence, I moved to the Washington DC area and was able to borrow one of the plants when it finally flowered, in order to paint it. Its common names in southern Africa include kudu lily and lundi star. Seedlings of 3cm already have the characteristic fat trunk and they can reach up to about 2m in height and 1m in width. It occurs in rocky, open habitats, often in rock fissures. When cultivated from seed it needs to be allowed a number of months without being watered each year, which mimics ‘dry season’ conditions in its normal range (Painting and text: Doreen Bolnick)
