Spring awakening in the coldhouse

All of the photos in this post were taken at the beginning of April to illustrate some of the spring activity in my coldhouse. The plants have been kept dormant all through winter and received their first drink of water only a few days before these pictures were shot.


Flowering Lophophora williamsii (El Huizache, San Luis Potosí)

The first plant I want to show off is a flowering Lophophora williamsii grown from seed originating from the El Huizache, San Luis Potosí, Mexico population (the population Anderson assigned as the neotype for the species). These plants are from a more southerly location than the ones I'm usually growing and I'm happy to see they are coping so well with the cold conditions during winter. I was getting used to thinking of all L. williamsii varieties as self-fertile but according to the Cactus Conservation Institute, greenhouse breeding experiments by Bohata and colleagues in the Czech Republic and by Köhres in Germany have shown that plants from the El Huizache population are self-sterile and therefore obligate outcrossers (leading one to suspect a great deal of genetic diversity within plants from this population – in contrast to the self-fertile populations that have little to no genetic diversity among individuals as they outcross very little).


Lophophora williamsii (El Huizache) flower with long style

The flowers of the El Huizache plants also seem to have a very long style that raises the stigma well above the stamens, making it hard, if not impossible, for the plants to reproduce without the help of a pollinator.


Bumble bee having fun with a Lophophora williamsii flower

Speaking of pollinators a bumble bee visited while I took these pictures – unfortunately only this one Lophophora flowered at the time making it impossible for the bee to fertilize the plant. The bumble bees that are active in early spring are huge; I don't know much about bees but am told that these large slow individuals are queen bees looking for nectar and pollen to feed their newly hatched brood.


Lophophora williamsii (SB 854; Starr Co, Texas) with fresh fruit

One of the Lophophora williamsii (SB 854; Starr Co, Texas) plants that I recently repotted has spawned a fruit. This variety of Lophophora williamsii is self-fertile to an extent where it happily sets seed if you just shake the flower a bit.


Flowering Acharagma roseana (LX 578; Ramon Arizpe, Coahuila)

My Acharagma roseana plants (LX 578; Ramon Arizpe, Coahuila - “Ramon” should probably read “Ramos” but I'll stick to the information from the vendors seed list) are coming of age. The plants were started from seed 4 years ago and are all ready to flower, displaying a wealth of flower buds. Only one, shown in the picture above, flowered when I took the pictures. Unfortunately it will be a while before I can visit my summerhouse (and coldhouse) again – I hope at least a few of the flowers will be saved for then. My Echinocereus reichenbachii plants are also growing a multitude of buds, getting ready for a flower fest I would hate to miss.


Frost damaged Matucana madisoniorum

Until now I have focused entirely on the success stories but a few of my plants didn't like being without heat during winter. My Matucana madisoniorum definitely didn't like the cold conditions (even being wrapped in multiple layers of horticultural fleece). The plant is heavily marked by the experience but survives.

I also lost a few plants: a couple of Carnegia gigantea (saguaro cactus), a Cylindropuntia bigelovii (teddy-bear cholla), and a Cylindropuntia tunicata (thistle cholla); I managed to save cuttings of the chollas though. These plants were kept out on the terrace all summer and I probably left them out for too long, exposing them to the autumn storms so the plants were not able to dry out completely before winter. I'm especially sad about the Carnegia gigantea plants as they were great specimens and are now completely reduced to mush.

The power of grafting – 5th anniversary

Five years ago today, I grafted a tiny Lophophora williamsii (SB 854; Starr Co, Tx) seedling onto a robust Trichocereus pachanoi stock. The Lophophora scion has since grown considerably – the main head is approximately 8 cm (~3.2'') wide; the total width including the offshoots now exceeds 14 cm (~5.5'').


Lophophora williamsii grafted onto Trichocereus pachanoi stock

This growing season the plant hasn't flowered yet but one of the “pups” (new offshoot stems) will do so within days as is evident from the next picture.


Flower bud and red spider mites

Unfortunately not only the plants are returning to life after their winter hibernation – the dreaded red spider mites are also fully active again (you should be able to spot at least four mites in the photo above) so the fight is on once more.


Ripe Lophophora williamsii fruit

Even though most of last year's fruits have long since ripened (and been harvested) the odd fruit is still showing. A plant this size gives hundreds of seeds each year making it a virtual seed “factory”.


Lophophora williamsii - rib count increasing?

The plant seems set on increasing its rib count beyond 8 – if I'm lucky it will not be content with growing just a few more ribs but go straight for the next number in the Fibonacci sequence, 13. The more ribs the merrier as it means more areoles and consequently more flowers and seeds.

The main head of the grafted Lophophora williamsii has grown 14 pups (15 if you also count a pup's pup – I guess you could call that a grandpup ;-) and has reached a size where it needs to be repotted soon.

For comparison you can check the posts on the same graft as one, two, three, and four years old.

Peyote harvest regrowth

In 2008 the Cactus Conservation Institute launched a four-year study on the effects of harvesting on regrowth and mortality of peyote in habitat in South Texas.

50 plants were transected (harvested March 13, 2008) and tagged, and follow-up data were collected eight months later (November 22-23, 2008). Mortality of a harvested plant is inferred if it produces no regrowth of buttons - after 8 months 5 of the 50 plants had not grown any new pups (coming surveys will provide a more certain estimate of post-harvest mortality). Interestingly 11 out of the original 50 numbered tags and the plants to which they referred had gone missing – maybe washed down by rains, maybe dug up and buried by feral hogs. The 11 plants where neither plant nor tag were found are, at present, eliminated from the study resulting in a preliminary figure for mortality attributable to harvesting of 5/39, or about 13%. 

20 more plants were harvested, measured and tagged on November 23, 2008, bringing the total number of plants in the “harvested” group up to 59. Furthermore a control group of 50 plants were also tagged and measured on November 23, 2008 – these plants will be used to indicate the magnitude of natural mortality not associated with harvesting in the future.

The surviving plants show good regrowth which is attributed to the benefit of the good harvesting practice of cutting high (at or above the junction of green aerial stem and the beige subterranean stem) and relatively level.

You can read an update on the results in the “Peyote harvest regrowth – observations after one year” post and find the complete data from the peyote harvest regrowth study here.

Yavia cryptocarpa habitat pictures

As mentioned in the Blossfeldia liliputana post Sebastián Santecchia from Salta, Argentina has been kind enough to let me post some of his wonderful habitat pictures. The following Yavia cryptocarpa photos are all courtesy of Sebastián.


Yavia cryptocarpa mimicking its environment

The genus and species Yavia cryptocarpa was described from Argentina by Kiesling and Piltz in 2001. Yavia is only known from a small area just on the Argentinian side of the border with Bolivia, in the province of Jujuy, near La Quiaca, at 3,700m. Although the species probably has a wider distribution, its small size plus the strongly camouflaged aspect make it difficult to know its distribution with any degree of confidence.


Hydrated Yavia cryptocarpa

As is evident from the above photo, a fully hydrated Yavia is very exposed to the sun. As the plant dehydrates the small spines “lock up” to form an armor that helps protect the plant from the sun.

The genus is named after the Department of Yavi, Argentina and the specific name cryptocarpa refers to the plant being a cryptocarp, i.e. bearing fruits that are retained concealed inside the stem of the plant, only becoming visible when the plant shrinks in the drought period.


Yavia cryptocarpa with two fruits

You can find more of Sebastián's Yavia photos here and view all his pictures of cactuses in habitat (Bolivia and northern Argentina) at the SagtaCactus flickr photostream.

References
Roberto Kiesling & Jörg Piltz, Yavia cryptocarpa R. Kiesling & Piltz, gen. & sp. nov. Kakteen und andere Sukkulenten 52 (3): 57-63, 2001.

Roberto Kiesling & O Ferrari, Yavia cryptocarpa – conservation action on a new and interesting cactus. British Cactus and Succulent Journal 21 (1): 20–25, 2003

Blossfeldia liliputana habitat pictures

Sebastián Santecchia from Salta, Argentina has generously allowed me to post some of his amazing habitat photos.


Blossfeldia liliputana (Tupiza, Potosí, Bolivia) displaying a fruit

I was immediately taken with the beauty of the above picture – it almost seems surreal seeing a Blossfeldia liliputana in such a lush green environment. According to Sebastián the individual stems of the Tupiza plants grow to a maximum size of 2 cm in diameter – a fairly large size for this species. The plants grow in rock crevices, usually associated with mosses.


Blossfeldia liliputana habitat (Tupiza, Potosí, Bolivia)

The habitat of Blossfeldia is severe and plants are subjected to extreme desiccation. In contrast to most other cactus species Blossfeldia has no thickened cuticle (thickened outer cell wall) but instead appears to be poikilohydric, meaning the plants can endure severe drying out, like many mosses and lichens (see this link for a more detailed explanation of what being poikilohydric means).

Another interesting feature of Blossfeldia is that the plants virtually lack stomata, their being restricted to the areolar pits. According to Ted Anderson, Blossfeldia probably has the lowest number of stomata per unit of surface area of any photosynthesizing plant.


Blossfeldia liliputana about to flower (Alemania, Salta, Argentina)

The flowers of Blossfeldia liliputana are capable of self-pollination. The photo above shows a plant at the beginning of flowering in early spring.

Blossfeldia liliputana is fairly common and widespread, occurring over a north-south range of more than 1200 km, primarily on the eastern side of the Andes in southern Bolivia and northern and northwestern Argentina at elevations of 1200-3500m. Several species of Blossfeldia have been described but most botanists agree that there is but one species (given the extent of its habitat the plants are bound to show some variation).

You can find more of Sebastián's Blossfeldia photos here and view all his pictures of cactuses in habitat (Bolivia and northern Argentina) at the SagtaCactus flickr photostream.

References
Edward F. Anderson, The Cactus Family (Timber Press, 2001) ISBN 0-88192-498-9, pp. 129-130

Ramsons covering the forest floor

This post is very much off the usual topic – now you are warned ;-)


Ramsons basking in the spring sun

Spring has finally arrived in Denmark and is being heralded by one of its early messengers: ramsons. Ramson (Allium ursinum) (also known as buckrams, wild garlic, broad-leaved garlic, wood garlic, and bear's garlic) is a wild relative of chives and grows in deciduous woodlands – fortunately such a forest is located only a couple of kilometers from where I live.


Ramsons covering the forest floor

Ramson is easily distinguished from other plants of the forest by the distinctive, garlicky smell of its leaves. On calm warm days, during the ramson season, the whole forest is enveloped in a cloud of mild garlic odors. When the plants flower the smell can grow really intense – some might even refer to it as a pungent stench ;-)


Carpet of ramsons


Ramson leaves, close-up

When not flowering, the extremely poisonous Lily of the Valley (Convallaria majalis) might be mistaken for ramsons – fortunately you can tell ramson by its smell ;-) All parts of ramson are edible and make for a great supplement to your spring menu.


Lesser celandine flower, close-up

Another messenger of spring in many Danish deciduous forests is the lesser celandine (Ranunculus ficaria (syn. Ficaria verna)) (also known as fig buttercup, and fig wort). Their extremely shiny, looking almost plastic-like, yellow flowers and lustrous dark-green heart-shaped leaves make these plants stand out on the spring forest floor.


Lesser celandine

Last but not least, I must mention the white anemone (Anemone nemorosa) (also known as wood anemone, windflower, thimble weed, and smell fox) – in select locations the anemones virtually blanket the forest floor.


Wood anemone flower, close-up


Wood anemone blanket


Flowering wood anemones

In a few weeks the canopy will be covered in foliage again – until then the dwellers of the forest floor rule.


Forest overlooking the Aarhus bay

Update - May 11, 2009
The deciduous forest is now almost fully leafed-out and it is time for the ramsons to flower.


Flowering ramsons covering the forest floor

The older leaves tend to have a more pungent smell than the small, younger ones and if you trample through a stand of flowering ramsons the garlicky odor can be really overwhelming.


Ramsons flower, close-up

As all other parts of ramsons the flowers may also be eaten and are said to make an interesting garnish for salads – I haven't tried that though.