Maple Sugaring Begins

On Saturday I got set up with the two Sugar Maples that I tapped last year, and the sap is now flowing. It hasn't been much so far, but the weather forecast for the next week is looking OK for sap runs. I'm going to try making syrup from a Red Maple this year, too. Red Maple sap is supposed to be lower in sugar content, and the season ends earlier, but I'm curious about what the resulting syrup will be like. Red Maples are also relatively common in my neighborhood, so if they yield a tasty product, it might be worth tapping more of them.

Maple Sugaring: 2012 Mayan Apocalypse-style

Sugar Maples, Eastern Hemlocks and others on a decidedly non-wintry Connecticut day a week ago.

Here in New England, the 2011-12 winter season is most likely going to be the warmest on record. We had a freak snowstorm just before Halloween, that knocked out the power for three days at my place, and for almost two weeks in some towns to the northwest of here (a combination of high winds and heavy wet snow that stuck to trees still in full leaf due to a warm autumn, caused catastrophic damage in wooded areas). For the next three months, and continuing this week, the weather seemed to get stuck in something similar to early April conditions, with just two brief winter-like cold snaps.

The Sugar Maples weathered the October storm just fine, being tough northern trees that tend to drop their leaves early, but I have no idea what sort of maple sugaring season to expect, if any, after such a balmy winter. The sap run doesn't seem to be starting early; we're just a week away from the traditional start and I don't see any of the usual signs like sap icicles dripping from broken maple twigs. Frigid night temperatures and a thick snow pack are some of the factors usually associated with good sugaring years, and we have neither of these things now. It doesn't look good for the 2012 maple syrup harvest, but the weather has been so far outside of normal experience that I don't think anyone knows for sure what's coming. I guess I'll clean up my tapping equipment, get it into the woods this weekend, and see what happens.

Anigozanthos manglesii

Anigozanthos--or "Kangaroo Paws"--is a genus endemic to the southwestern corner of Australia, where a Mediterranean-type climate and nutrient-poor, acidic soils have lead to the development of a scrubby vegetation called Kwongan. Kwongan resembles the Fynbos vegetation of South Africa, which occurs under similar conditions, and the two vegetation types share quite a few of their characteristic plant families. Anigozanthos is part of the Haemodoracaeae or Bloodroot Family (no relation to the North American wildflower Sanguinaria, which is also called Bloodroot), which is represented in South Africa by the genera Wachendorfia, Dilatris and others. The Haemodoraceae have generally hairy inflorescences of flowers that are dorsiventrally symmetrical (can be divided into mirror images by only a single plane) or asymmetrical, and roots that are often brightly pigmented, and sometimes blood red.

The most common Kangaroo Paws in cultivation are A. flavidus and hybrids that incorporate A. flavidus, which are all relatively robust and vigorous plants. Anigozanthos manglesii is more finicky, requiring stronger sun to grow properly, and reportedly being very susceptible to a fungal infection called Ink Spot Disease, which fortunately doesn't seem to have made it into the botanical collections at UConn. The plants pictured here are flowering for the first time at UConn, at about two years old from seed collected near Perth, Australia. They do well in full sun in a cool greenhouse, in an acidic, peat-based soil that is allowed to surface-dry between waterings. Potted Anigozanthos plants grow and flower best when given a regular dose of dilute high-nitrogen fertilizer, but intense light and a cool winter growth period are probably the more critical requirements for success.

Talk in Philly

Ferocactus viridescens var. viridescens, Dudleya edulis.

This Sunday I'm giving a talk at the Philadelphia Cactus and Succulent Society, titled "Succulents of Southern California." The presentation will include elements from my blog posts on the subject earlier this year, but greatly expanded.

Tylecodon opelii

There's big excitement (for me, at least) in the latest issue of the Cactus and Succulent Journal: Ernst van Jaarsveld of Kirstenbosch and Steve Hammer of the Sphaeroid Institute have named a new species of Tylecodon in my honor. Tylecodon opelii is a winter-growing geophyte, with dark marble-sized and marble-shaped leaves, endemic to fields of broken quartz in the northern Knersvlakte in South Africa's Western Cape.

Tylecodon opelii in cultivation, late winter.

The new Tylecodon is set apart from its relatives by spheroid leaves that are dark green to nearly black and almost glabrous, with just a few fine hairs. It's probably most closely related to T. occultans, though that species has more flattened leaves and less elongated tubers.

The quartz field habitat of Tylecodon opelii.

The corner of the Knersvlakte where I first ran into what is now T. opelii back in the austral winter of 2000 is loaded with little geophytes and succulents. The white quartz covering the ground reflects and disperses sunlight, creating a microhabitat where dwarf vegetation can thrive. In places without the quartz, darker soils absorb light and heat up to the point where small plants at ground level get cooked. I have fond memories of hiking through this strange landscape, scanning the ground for interesting plants, finding round black leaves coming up between the pebbles and thinking: "Hmm, what Tylecodon is this? I've never seen it before." I'm very grateful that it wound up getting named after me, years later.

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van Jaarsveld, E.J. and S. Hammer 2011. Tylecodon opelii, a new obligatory quartz-gravel species from the Northern Knersvlakte (Western Cape, South Africa). Cactus and Succulent Journal (US) 83: 140-145.

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There's a short blurb on Tylecodon opelii on the University of Connecticut website, too.