INT

ER

NE

T E

DIT

ION

Opuntia basilaris var. treleasei

Election Time!Election Time!

please considerplease considerrunningrunning

for officefor office

Volume 16 November 2013 Number 11

THE NEWSLETTER OF THE BAKERSFIELD CACTUS & SUCCULENT SOCIETY

Monthly Meeting

Tuesday, Nov. 12

Olive Drive Church, 5500 Olive drive

at 6:30 PM

(Building 6, Room 604)The

Ba

kers

field

Ca

ctus

& S

ucc

ulen

t Soc

iety

% S

tep

hen

Coo

ley,

edi

tor

the

cact

usp

atc

h@ba

k.rr

.co

m

This Month's Program

Next Meeting:November 12th

Orb

ea

va

rieg

ata

A b

rag

pla

nt

bro

ugh

t by

Ric

har

d R

aw

ling

sph

oto

by

Ste

phe

n C

ool

ey

Volume 16 Number 11

November 2013The is the official publication of the Bakersfield

Cactus & Succulent Society of Bakersfield, California

Membership in the Bakersfield Cactus &Succulent Society costs $10 per year for an individual and only

$15 a year for a family.

Visit Us On the Web!www.BakersfieldCactus.org

-2-

Field Trip: O See 'Em Grow NurseryIt was a lovely Saturday morning, November 2nd, when a few

members met at O See 'Em Bloom nursery/landscaping. We visitedamong ourselves, had coffee and tea, listened to a guitar player, admired & purchased a fewitems; and were able to askquestions of Olga See. Shealso gave a short talk ongeneral fall planting to agroup of sorority womenfrom Shafter, and we listenedin. A civilized way to beginthe weekend.

Lynn-3-

CONTACT INFORMATION

President: Lynn McDonald wjljmcd@aol.comMembership: Maynard Moe lmmoe44@gmail.comNewsletter/Website: Stephen Cooley thecactuspatch@bak.rr.com

So here I am sitting in my hotel room in theMarriott Hotel, Burbank. The Golden State Bonsai Federationis having its annual convention and I have just finished the quince workshop. Steve has

sent out the monthly deadline notice and I am up against it as usual. Yes, I was one of those students who waited until the night before the term paperwas due to bang in outon the typewriter in an“all nighter”.

I decide to select asucculent native to NewZealand because I amplanning to go theresoon and it is alwaysnice to know at least alittle about the flora ofany exotic place. A littlebrowsing on the internetprovides me with agood candidate for plantof the month. D. crassifolium (alsoknown as D. australe), is in the family Aizoaceae and resembles our local ice plant. In fact when it was first named by Linnaeus in

-4-

1753, he called it Mesembryanthemum crassifolium. There have been several revisions since then and in the 1980ʼs the monotypic genus Disphyma was erected. In New Zealand it goes by several common names, Round Leaved Pig-face, Horokaka, and New Zealand ice plant.

It grows on cliff faces, rock piles, sand dunes in saline areas incoastal regions of New Zealand, Australia and So. Africa. It has a creeping growth habit with long jointed stems 9-12 mm. (0.5 in.) indiameter. Succulent leaves emerge at the joints. Leaves are three angled in cross-section and 10-40 mm. (0.4-1.5 in.) long. Prostrate stems will root at the joints when in contact with the ground. Flowers bloom year round and are white to deep pink in color. They are 20-40 mm. (0.75-1.5 in.) in diameter with 3-5 rows of petals. Petals are 10-30 mm. (0.5-1.2 in.) long.

These plants are easily propagated from cuttings or seed. Theyare not considered to be frost tolerant, favoring sunny coastal areasto live.

[Stephen adds: I started this from seed many years ago. It grew quickly and spread well. The large flowers made quite a display. It only lasted about three years, then a cold winter did it in.]

Jack G. Reynolds

upcoming events

Nov. 12 BCSS Meeting at 6:30PM Olive Dr. Church.Dec. 12 BCSS Meeting at 6:00PM Olive Dr. Church.

Annual Holiday potluck & Silent Auction

-5-

Our club members will surely miss Linda Green, who diedunexpectedly in October. Linda was one of our liveliestmembers. She & Gary (aka garygreen) loved out of townfield trips, and were always ready to help with any project theclub was up to. She had a quick wit and an easy, contagiouslaugh. She loved Gary, her dogs, her garden. Ourcondolences to Gary and their family.

Jack Reynolds brought a Monadenium (Euphorbia) ritchiei whichwas in full bloom. He also brought a smallcutting of last month’s plant of the month, Euphorbia ammak.

Darlene Wyatt brought some “chocolate”vine fruits. These are new to me. The scientific nameis Akebia quinata and it is from Japan and China.The fruits are edible. It belongsto the family Lardizabalaceae which some lump inwith the barberry family.

Jill Brennan brought a small caudiciform figwhich she then took to the show.

Richard Rawlings brought a blooming Orbeavariegata which was also at the show.

I brought a copy of the Journal Asklepios 117 ( Sept. 2013) which has an article I wrote on“Medicinal Milkweed Tubers and Roots (part 2). I apologize if I offended anyone by using the “p” word. Back in 1976 I had an article on succulent use in the American Cactus and Succulent Journal. The editor Charlie Glass apologized because one line had been censored from it, but he did leave the “p” word in- and wondered how many readers he would lose.

-6-

The October meeting started with a lot of talk about the Show &Sale – set up, plants, take down, etc. Everyone was encouraged tobring some plants and volunteer some time. Also discussed was theChristmas parade float. We have a trailer and a few ideas. Ameeting will be held on October 24 to make some decisions. The

parade is December 5. Also, the KernCounty Fair has asked us to put upanother display at next year's fair. Wethen had a quick demonstration byStephen on how to get your plants readyfor the show.

CLUB OFFICIALSPresident Lynn McDonald Vice President Nancy Harper

Secretary Anne LeeTreasurer Maynard MoeEditor Stephen Cooley

Librarian Carol Gates Hospitality Bill McDonald-7-

-8- -9-

FairsA Letter From Bruce

On the 14th and 15th of September we took plants to the fair. While the club exhibit was excellent, I miss the garden displays. We

glanced in at the new “beer garden” and found it barren. I was pleased to note there were two letters in the Californian

protesting the change. Friday the 20th was free for seniors, so we went and toured a few of the exhibits. We then tried to find the seafood mentioned in the Californian. To quote the paper, “On the healthier side, a concession has expanded outside the Villa Festiva area, offering a menu focused on fish. Two guaranteed items are a shrimp, octopus and abalone cocktail and a cevich and shrimp tostada.” [Actually none of these are fish!] We asked at stands in the Villa Festiva but no-one knew about any pulpo (octopus). I finally settled for a chili verde taco. Finally, we watched a dance troupe of many “Aztecs.”

On the 24th we returned to the fair and took the tram ride around. We finally found the sea food over next to the main grandstand. The cocktail of shrimp, octopus and abalone was delicious! I have not eaten abalone in years. After that we watched a bird show which was small but good. Most of the birds were parrot relatives, but there was one toucan which, although it didn’t talk, did perform on command. We then went to watch a cooking demonstration done in a red car. It used so much garlic I

-10-

could smell it from theaudience. I did not eatthe free offerings! Thatevening we watched theFour Tops, a Motowngroup from the past.One of them wasoriginal and the othersrelatives and friends. Ionly knew a few of theirnumbers.

On the 29th wehad breakfast at Denny’sso Polly could have afree meal for herbirthday. She has nowreached the Biblicalthree score and ten.That afternoon we ate atCactus Valley, her choice, but she found the cactus soup overcooked and too salty. (A new cook?) Next day we returned tothe fair one last time to pick up plants.

On the 3rd of October we went to the Fresno Fair (with free parking and entrance thanks to the Fresno CSS). It was lunch time,

so our first stop was to get a Sonora sausage, a delicious bacon wrapped sausage (not a hot dog) with a stuffed jalapeno. We then watched over the FCSS display and talked to visitors. We then walked around the fair. It isinteresting that therewere only four

garden displays (not including the FCSS), but at least the tradition

-11-

Aztec Dancers

Toucan at KC Fair

Polly @ Fresno Fair

continues. Incidentally, the little fair up at Quincy had about a dozen garden displays! That evening we heard Rob Skillin speak on Madagascar. It was interesting how different his visit was fromours.

I recently read an article that reminded me how difficult it is to pin down the definition of “species”. As a colleague at Kew Gardens, Dick Brummit, told us at a conference once, “A species iswhatever the experts in a particular field decide it is.” Or as the article in Discovery June 2010 (Unclassified by Richard Conniff) says, “Looking at species, Jody Hey says, is like looking at clouds”. “I don’t necessarily care what the taxonomic rank would be of the units I’m studying”, says Hey, whose current research involves cichlid fish* in Lake Malawi. “I could go in and study thelevel of divergence in a population and never care about whether they’re ranked as separate species.” This is not to suggest that species are unimportant. Personally I think we should group things in whatever way is useful.

*Cichlids are mouth brooding fish which include the Tilapia which is now popular in the States. This African group (known as Chambo in Malawiand Thlape (fish) in Botswana) reaches a high degree of diversity in Malawi. We used to take third

year biology students at the University of Malawi to the lake for a week at Christmas time to study these and other wonders of the area.

[Bruce's opinions are his own and are not necessarily that of the BCSS]

-12-

To catch up on a few things....On September 29th, Jack and Itraveled south to the Long Beachclub meeting that featured anauction of club member's plants.We were able to pick up Tam onthe way, which gave us some timeto catch up on things. The sale,and all their meetings, are held atthe Rancho Los Alamitos. It's abeautiful place for the meeting. Icould write a complete article juston the Rancho. The weather wasgreat. There were plants from the"normal" to the "exotic". Prices

ranged from $20 to $500. Of course the ones we liked were on the pricier side. One of our favorites was the Dorstenia gigas with a Tillandsia recurvata on its side. This (ugly - in the eye of the beholder) one was the highest priced one. (For those of you who saw our cat, Corky, you'll understand why it reminds me of

him!) I didn't get the name. We had fun time watching the bidders. It was very lively with Woody as the auctioneer and several others helping. They served a very nice luncheon. We had a tour of the Rancho. We didn't have time to tour the succulent garden. Maybe another time. It would be worth the trip. On the way home, we stopped at the Foster Freeze in Castaic. The woman working there asked after our group. She said to say Hi!

The Kern County Fair display was a great success. We received many compliments. We used three of the posters: one on club membership, one on our garden in the ESA area at Cal State, and one on the Show & Sale. We had a good variety of plants. A lot of

-13-

Skillin @ FCSS

club information handouts were taken.The response was so good that Mary,the coordinator of that department,asked if we would do it again in 2014.Richard Rawlings has agreed to head itup. It was suggested by Mary that itwould be a benefit to our club if wecould have someone there to answerquestions, especially on the first Friday"Senior Day".

The Show & Sale was a hit, too. Therewas a good interest in the plants. TheFree Plant winner was happy with herwin. I forgot to keep her name. The

Faux Plant category turned out to be an eye catcher. The public was quite taken with them. I'm going to show only the People's Choice winners here because of space. I'll post all of the faux plants on the BCSS facebook page.

The "One You Like The Best"(Best of Show) went to JackReynolds' Pseudobombaxellipticum. I want to thank Jackfor bringing his gigantic Pseudobombax ellipticum . Itlooked great on the front table.A real eye-catcher.

"Gotta Get This One" went to Polly Hargreaves' Stapelia gigantea. It had a wonderful big bud teasing if it would open during the show. Polly told me that this plant was the "Thank You Plant" the

-14-

club gave to her. Last year those who brought plants to the 'Brag Table' were given a plant at the May potluck at our garden at ESA.

The "Most Vicious" one went to my mammillaria.

The "Cutest One" went to mycolumnar cactus in the banana pot.

The "Best Of The Faux" plants went to my 'peanut cactus'. I have to say that everyone ofthe faux plantswere veryingenious.Only four

members participated in this category.Some were more prolific than others.It's very addictive. The public reallystudied all of them. They commentedthat they enjoyed all of them.

Another good time at the Show & Sale.

-15-