The Cactus Patch Membership NOW DUE! March 2019

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1 The Cactus Patch Opuntia basilaris var. treleasei THE NEWSLETTER OF THE BAKERSFIELD CACTUS & SUCCULENT SOCIETY Volume 22 March 2019 Number 01 Woody Minnich "20 Years in the ATACAMA, The Land of the Copiapoa" March 7:00 Near San Simeon Furcraea macdougallii St. Paul's Church, th St. pollypearl@hotmail.com The Bakersfield Cactus & Succulent Society % Polly Hargreaves, editor This Month's Program 2019 Membership NOW DUE! Meet the Speaker! Dinner at Sizzler 5:00 PM 900 Real Road

2 The Cactus Patch Volume 22 Number 03 March 2019 The Cactus Patch is the official publication of the Bakersfield Cactus & Succulent Society of Bakersfield, California Membership in the Bakersfield Cactus & Succulent Society costs $20 per year for an individual and $25 a year for a family. CONTACT INF ORMATION Vice-President: Jill Brennan jbrennan@bak.rr.com Membership: Maynard Moe lmmoe44@gmail.com Newsletter: Polly Hargreaves pollypearl@hotmail.com Website: Stephen Cooley thecactuspatch@bak.rr.com Visit Us On the Web! ~2~ March 12th Meeting Woody Minnich "20 Years in the ATACAMA, The Land of the Copiapoa" Similar to the coast of Namibia, the coastal and inland regions of northern Chile, known as the Atacama, is mainly watered by amazing fogs, the Camanchacas. These fog-fed regions, in two of the driest deserts in the world, have some of the most interesting cactus and succulents to be found anywhere. The Atacama of northern Chile has an endemic genus considered by many to be one of the most dramatic to have ever evolved, the Copiapoa. This ancient genus is also believed to be tens of thousands of years old, and there are those who feel it might well be on its way out! The ocean currents that affect the coastal Atacama have changed considerably over the last hundreds of years, and now its only source of moisture is primarily from consistent dense fogs. Some of these areas rarely, if ever, get rain and the plants that have evolved there live almost entirely off the heavy condensation from the Camanchaca. There are many different Copiapoa species ranging from small quarter sized subterranean geophytes to giant 1,000-year-old, 300-head mounding clusters. Thanks to Rudolf Schulz s excellent field work and his two comprehensive Copiapoa books, we have all been introduced to these amazing plants. Having worked with Rudolf in Chile, I can honestly say that the genus Copiapoa is without comparison! Now, having visited Chile numerous times over the last 20+ years, I have become familiar with most all of the representatives of this genus. With this presentation, I hope to taxonomically introduce you to most of the Copiapoa species as well as show their relationships and synonyms. Along with the Copiapoa, we will also encounter many other genera including the Neochilenias, Neoporterias, Eriosyce, Eulychnias, Trichocereus, as well as many of the other Chilean succulents. Chile also offers some of the best lunar landscapes, geologic formations, and spectacular beaches to be found in all of South America. This last August 2018, I had the pleasure of leading a group of 20 crazy cactophiles in seven four-wheel drive trucks. Our objectives were to see most of the fantastic plants and spectacular scenery that are to be found in this the land of the Camanchaca. Most of our group were very young adults (25-35yrs), and they all wanted to see and know how us old timers (Rudolf, Woody, Ritter and Charles) used to do our explorations to the wild and seldom seen places of Chile. Not only did we take them on very bad roads, the kind of dusty, dirty two tracks we used to have to maneuver, we also had them camp out in the middle of nowhere with the scorpions. No restaurants, no showers, no beds, and no bar! ~3~

3 These camp-outs were exceptional as we could often see, without light pollution, the Southern Cross and the Magellanic Lights until the Camanchaca fog slowly blanketed our campfire discussions. What an incredible trip it was! The energy of the young people and my memories of the last 20+ years in Chile made this an epic adventure, one I will never forget! Join me at the meeting, and hopefully you ll share our exhilarating experience and the overall magic of this wonderful arid region, the Atacama. th February 12, 2019 Mark Muradian "Building an Outdoor C & S Garden" Mark has a good way of showing off his expertize in growing plants; he also has more room than most of us. His pottery has developed over the years and quite harmonizes with succulent plants, Biography: Woody, as he is commonly known, grew up in the Mojave Desert and has had an attraction to desert plants and animals since the early 1950 s. He has been involved with the cactus and succulent world as a grower, field explorer, club and organization leader, writer, photographer, lecturer and presenter. Having been a speaker all over the world, Woody is most often associated with giving presentations on his field work from the places he has traveled, such as: Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Madagascar, Mexico, Namibia, New Zealand, Peru, Socotra, South Africa, the United States and Yemen. He is also recognized for having operated the nursery Cactus Data Plants since As of November 2017, he is featured as the primary photographer in the new book The Xerophile. This book specializes in what the authors call, The Obsessed Field workers from around the world. He is also featured in electronic articles about conservation from MNN Mother Nature Network and The Guardian Newspaper. Woody and his wife, Kathy, live in Cedar Grove, New Mexico. He is a retired secondary school teacher of 32 years where he taught Graphics, Art and Architecture. ~4~ ~5~

4 BRAG TABLE Stephen Cooley and Jack Reynolds each brought a plant of Adromischus cristatus as it was the plant of the month. Stephen s plant was large and he gave away leaves of it for rooting. Jill brought a mystery plant which had us stumped. It almost looked artificial, but she says it has grown some. It might be a strange Pedilanthus (now included in Euphorbia). I found a dwarf subspecies which matches. It is Euphorbia tithymaloides subsp. smalii. Cultivars are known as Nana and Nana Compacta. Common names are small redbird flower, Jacob s ladder, dwarf zigzag plant and dwarf devil s backbone. Polly brought a Corallocarpus bainesii which is a small caudiciform cucumber which is widespread in Africa. She compared it to a large Corallocarpus sp. form Kenya which is pictured in the recent Cactus and Succulent Journal. This and pictures of other large cucumbers were photographed by our friend Rob Skillin. Bruce brought a plant of Manfreda sileri to show an example of this odd genus which is sometimes included with Agaves, sometimes with tuberoses (Pollanthes sp.) and sometimes given its own genus. ~6~ Plant of the Month Tylecodon buchholzianus Continuing in Dortort we move on to the next section of the family Crassulaceae. This includes two genera, Cotyledon and Tylecodon. For many years these two genera were lumped together into Cotyledon but in 1978, the botanist Helmut R. Toelken split the group out and gave the genus a new name Tylecodon which is an anagram of the name Cotyledon. Dortort does a good job of differentiating the two genera. Cotyledon is a stem and leaf succulent with perennial leaves. It is a summer grower and flowers are fleshy and pendant. Tylecodon is a winter grower with deciduous leaves making it a stem succulent, some like T. buchholzianus may go for years without producing leaves. Flowers are dry and upright Tylecodon buchholzianus is native to the west coast of South Africa (Namaqualand-Richtersveldt). It grows on rocky hillsides in locations that provide some shade but nevertheless likes strong light. Mature plants can reach 12 in. (30 cm.) in height and about the same diameter. The plants have a caudex underground and a central stem with numerous irregular and somewhat untidy branches. Leaves. if they form, are almost cylindrical and short about 0.5 in. (6 mm.) long. My T. buchholzianus has only had a half dozen leaves over the ten years I have had it. Flowers are small, dry, tubular about 0.5 in. (12 mm.) long, with 5 pink recurved petals. They generally bloom in about Jan. - Mar.. Mine bloomed early in Nov. or Dec. this year. This plant needs a gritty soil with little or no organic matter and good drainage. It can be watered weekly during the growing season but only every two to three weeks when dormant in the summer. Small plants in small pots will need more frequent watering. They grow easily from cuttings. Leaves are difficult to start. They should not be considered to be frost tolerant although some have lived to about 28 F. Jack G. Reynolds ~7~

5 An Agave on a tree trunk? A Letter From Bruce Quite some time back we visited a Mexican Restaurant at San Simeon which had large plantings of succulents. What originally caught my attention were two succulent trees which I mistakenly thought were branchless dragon trees. I have since learned they are actually trees of Furcraea macdougallii, a plant which is very similar to an AGAVE. (In fact, some authorities include them in the genus Agave.) I actually have three of them which I bought at Home Depot. I didn t realize they grew a tall trunk! (Mine still have no trunk.) Not all Furcraeas have trunks. The most common in cultivation is Mauritius hemp, Furcraea foetida from South America. This species looks very similar to Agaves and has fibrous leaves as the common name tells us. So, what is the difference between an Agave and a Furcraea? Furcraeas have teeth along the edge of the leaf, but not the stiff spine at the tip as in Agaves. (They are much friendlier.) Also, they do not form suckers from the base. Instead, they produce lots of bulblets from the flower stalks which are tall and rather lax. (Some Agaves form bulblets as well and when I saw Furcraea foetida in Santa Cruz I thought it was a weeping Agave.) The most telling difference is in the flower. Whereas Agaves have tubular flowers, Furcraeas have bulbous flowers. We did not go to the February meeting of the FCSS as Woody Minnich gave the same talk which he will give here. On the 3rd of February we did not have a family dinner as we were having a non -- Super Bowl party later. We joined our son John for lunch at Texcoco, a new Mexican Restaurant in East Bakersfield which has a very different cuisine. For instance, I had Huitlacoche, a fungus which grows on maize on top of nopales (prickly pear pads. The fungus was rather tasteless, but the nopales were good. That evening we went to Anne s for the party which consists of games interrupted to watch the Super Bowl ads. (A few people actually were watching the game.) On the 12th, of course, we heard Mark Muradian speak on building his C&S garden. As members of the Fresno Club, we have seen his garden, but we did not see the tremendous effort of moving rocks, soil and plants to create it. Having built gardens myself, I can appreciate the effort it took. Incidentally, I think one lesson he gave us was not to assume succulents like sand. I learned this in Botswana where most of the country is covered with sand, but the succulents are mostly in the rocky edges of the country! Bruce Hargreaves [Bruce's opinions are his own and are not necessarily that of the BCSS] Garden BC Saturday, April 27th The Garden fest is a good way to connect with people who don't even know we exist. We provide info about our club and give cuttings to children. We usually get a few people who will check out our meetings later. We need volunteers to sit at our booth for a few hours and we need donations of lots of cuttings to give away We have tables and chairs, but we need to borrow a shade canopy (~10'x10') ~9~

6 The Succulent Garden at Cal State. Rain and Weeds With all the storms, rain and fog it seems a little odd that this has been just another average year for us. Perhaps it is those recent drought years that have tampered with our memory of what it should be like. It is always nice to see the plumpness of the succulents in the garden when we get some decent rains. The picture in the upper left is Glottiphyllum neilii which has ballooned to near bursting (for scale I have put a quarter on the leaf). And though Bakersfield is not wet by most standards we have plenty of weeds eager to take advantage of what water we get. They aren't too bad at the moment but with El Nino now officially here the possibility of warm, drenching rains could turbocharge them. It seems it is time to think about some garden work days. March 12th Woody Minnich "20 Years in the ATACAMA, The Land of the Copiapoa" April 6th & 7th South Coast Show and Sale April 9th BCSS Meeting Rob McGregor Mojave National Preserve April 27th BC Garden Fest Garden Work (Weeding) Days In the past our workdays have been held on a Sunday from 9AMNoon. This has always had the best turnout compared to other days. However, I would like your input on when you might be able to come and help. Please me with suggestions at: thecactuspatch@bak.rr.com Stephen Cooley ~10~ Visit Us On the Web! Facebook: ~11~

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