 |
- Lithops scrapbook: part I by Keith Green
- The voice of experience: a guide to cultivation specially for newcomers and juniors by John Carr
- Growing agaves in Melbourne by Robert D Stephenson
- Two significant new aloes from Kenya by Tom McCoy & John Lavranos
- Seed Offer 2007/2008 by David Rushforth
- Cacti of the Cahete river basin, Lima, Peru: a research and conservation study by Dr Carlos Ostolaza (SPECS), Aldo Ceroni MSc (UNALM), Jonatan Zapata (UNMSM student), Johanna Cortéz (UNALM student), Lourdes Salinas (SPECS), & Emilia Garcia (SPECS)
- Name conservation - a case for cultivars by Gordon D Rowley
- My hybrids by Ray Horton
- CactusTalk
- Literature Review
Our cover this month supports the lithops theme at the start of a series of three articles dealing with newly described lithops by Keith Green.
Front cover: a group of Lithops fulviceps seedlings, each up to 2.5cm diameter, demonstrating the great variation that is possible within this species, in common with most other lithops. The pale yellowish-green examples, which also flower white instead of yellow, equate to one of the older colour breaks that has been christened with the cultivar name Aurea, and is now raised from seed in significant quantities. Such variants occur spontaneously among naturally occurring populations, while other new forms may arise as a result of hybridisation, either in the wild or in cultivation. Thankfully, lithops are very obliging in being capable of being fixed by back-crossing, so that stable reproduction of unusual colours or patterns from seeds becomes possible after just a few generations. The scope for producing a race of very striking cultivars is immense, and yet to date we have barely begun to discover these often bizarrely-coloured, designer living-stones that could launch a new and very fashionable branch of the succulent hobby. Keith sets the scene for us by cataloguing and illustrating those that have recently been described formally and established (Photo: Roy Mottram)
Rear cover: the talented and imaginative artist who created this superb image of Lithops julii ssp.fulleri var.brunnea C179 (N Cape, 10km NE of Pofadder) is our very own Jim Porter, who was commissioned by Keith Green in 1996 to immortalise this striking plant in his collection, originally raised from seed supplied by Des and Naureen Cole. Jim is a self-taught, freelance, professional artist, born in East London and now living in Doncaster. He has not done many works on succulents, through lack of opportunity, but sometimes his favourite plants, usually dwarf mesembs, will creep into the scenery of his landscapes (Photo: Jim Porter).
|
|
