Massachusetts Cactus and Succulent Show

Best in show for the 2015 Massachusetts Cactus and Succulent Show: a large, perfect specimen of Ariocarpus retusus.

 This weekend, the Massachusetts Cactus and Succulent Society is holding its annual Show and Sale, at the Americal Civic Center in Wakefield. There is a judged show, plant and supply vendors, and an auction; the CSSM show is pretty similar to the spring cactus show in Connecticut, although not quite as large.

The entrance to the show, which is in the main hall on the basketball court.

Conophytum and other mesembs, with ribbons after the judging. It's now the main flowering season for conophytums and some of the specimens were in bloom.

Haworthia koelmaniorum, with translucent windows on the upper surfaces of the leaves.

CSSM member Ken S., with his all-Adromischus sales table, stocked with extras from his enormous collection, which is grown under fluorescent lights in his basement.

Adenia globosa, a succulent member of the Passifloraceae (passion flower family), native to tropical East Africa.

Aloe plicatilis, the Fan Aloe, flanking the entrance to the show area and illuminated by a sun beam.

32nd Connecticut Cactus and Succulent Show

 The Connecticut Cactus and Succulent Society's annual show and sale is always a fun time, and is impressive as specialist plant shows go, especially considering that it is held by a club in a small state in a part of the country that is very challenging, climatically speaking, for growers of desert plants. And I don't just say this as the president of the CCSS: if you come to Naugatuck Valley Community College for the cactus show this weekend, I can pretty much guarantee that you will see some little gems of the succulent plant world that have never been exhibited at either the elite flower and garden shows of the east coast that have been running since Victorian times, or the dedicated C&S shows run by huge western clubs. I'm sometimes not exactly sure myself how it all comes together, but by tomorrow morning there is going to be another fantastic display of exotic horticulture, incongruously placed in the drab grey of central Connecticut in early April.

Part of the vendor area, getting set up Friday evening.

Some caudiciform plants waiting to get staged in the show area, from Chris Allen's collection. Chris's greenhouse had a heating failure on a particularly cold night this past winter and froze hard, but the survivors are coming back well. 

Tropical Succulents Talk

Myrmecodia platytyrea ssp. antoinii, an epiphyte from Southeast Asia with a symbiotic relationship with ants.

At next month's meeting of the Connecticut Cactus and Succulent Society, I'll be giving at talk about "Tropical Succulents." I'll be covering plants that grow in dry microhabitats in otherwise moist tropical forests, which sometimes have well-developed water storage tissues. Most of these rainforest succulents are epiphytes that grow without soil, clinging to branches high in the treetops. I'll have examples of myrmecophytes (ant-house plants) like Hydnophytum and Myrmecodia, orchids, jungle cacti like Rhipsalis and Selenicereus wittii, some unusual peperomias and hoyas, and others.

The meeting will be at Lauray of Salisbury, which will have a wide array of interesting succulents, begonias and orchids on sale. The trip through the Litchfield hills to Lauray should be nice in early October, too; I'd expect the fall foliage to be near its peak.

Uncarina grandidieri

Uncarina grandidieri is a small tree with a fat caudiciform base, originally from Madagascar. The eight foot high specimen at UConn flowers profusely every spring as it begins its growing season. During the warmer months, when Uncarina plants are active, they can be treated like tropicals, and watered and fertilized generously. In the winter, they are deciduous, and can be kept nearly dry.

Miraculotuberum, a New Caudiciform Succulent

Exciting discoveries in the plant world always seem to come from remote mountains in strange and foreign places, such as Canada. It came as a shock to the botanical community when a large and distinctive new caudex-forming succulent plant—Miraculotuberum stopandshopensis—was found right here in the northeastern United States.

Miraculotuberum stopandshopensis in the greenhouse of an anonymous collector.

Miraculotuberum was first collected in 2008, near Nyack, New York, by famed explorer and succulent plant enthusiast Dr. Don Javranos, seen in this video discussing his find. Little is known about the plant’s habitat, and the exact location is being kept secret. Presumably, M. stopandshopensis grows in a temperate desert environment, although desert conditions are uncommon in suburban New York. The plant exhibits several adaptations to life in an arid climate, including an absence of foliage leaves, and a thick waxy coating to prevent desiccation. The spectacular caudex of Miraculotuberum has a bitter taste and sulfurous smell, which deter herbivory by animals and children.

In cultivation, Miraculotuberum is challenging, and plants frequently fail to establish even under the best conditions. Given its northern range, Miraculotuberum is probably winter-hardy, and might make for an interesting addition to an outdoor cactus and succulent bed. Plants are not yet widely available, though they are offered on eBay, where large specimens imported from New York have sparked bidding wars among growers of caudiciform plants, and sold for thousands of dollars. Ironically, it is rumored that ignorant local people in Miraculotuberum’s native habitat sell specimen-size plants to unscrupulous nurserymen for as little as 19 cents per pound.