John W Pilbeam

4 June 1931 – 9 September 2023

We are so sad to have to report that our good friend, John Pilbeam, passed away peacefully in his sleep on 9 September 2023 after a short illness. John was extremely well-known, not just in the BCSS, but also internationally and particularly in the Cactus and Succulent Society of America. We knew him best as a member of the BCSS Bromley Branch, of which he was a founding member and Branch secretary for 40 years until Mike Partridge took over the role more than ten years ago.  He was recognised for his great contribution to the BCSS and our hobby generally, by both the award of Fellow of the BCSS and his election as a past President of the BCSS. He is perhaps best known for his books, which he produced prolifically over a long period, and which explained cacti and other succulent plants in an approachable and readable style that was easy for anyone, not just experts, to understand. This helps to explain why they have always been so popular, remain so today and why the out-of-print titles are still sought after. John stopped writing books in 2020, but he made use of the extra time this created to produce a great many articles for our CactusWorld journal (and we understand that the Editor has a stock of these for future publication) but also for various other specialist interest plant societies. This material continues to be an invaluable source recording John’s knowledge and experience of cacti and other succulents and we are very fortunate to have this now that he is no longer here to speak to us directly. We cannot hope to do justice to John’s achievements in the short space we have here, but a full obituary is planned for the December 2023 CactusWorld. If you have recollections of John that you would like to share with us, please send them to Hazel Taylor (contact details below) and we will pass them on to the family. John leaves four children, Michael, Alan, Margaret and Helen, several grandchildren and some great-grandchildren. Our deepest sympathies go to them on their sad loss.

Funeral arrangements

John’s funeral will take place at 12.30pm on Tuesday, 17 October in Orpington, Kent. If you would like to attend, please contact Hazel Taylor (email: hazeltaylorcs@outlook.com), for details of the venue. We understand that a live-stream of the funeral will also be available if you are unable to attend in person; details of this will also be available from Hazel Taylor.

Hazel Taylor and Mike Partridge

Pereskia: birth of the Cactaceae
with Ivor Crook

Time: Tuesday 17 October 2023 at 7.30 pm (BST)
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https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81547211050?pwd=OU51RWVFcUQwV0lMWUNkRnRMMGZiUT09 
Meeting ID: 815 4721 1050
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We are so pleased to see Ivor return to us to give another talk.  Ivor was one of the first pioneering speakers to give a BCSS Zoom talk.  He has always been a popular speaker and is widely travelled.  In this fascinating talk Ivor will present evidence from the Pereskia family tree against a background of past geological and climatic changes. A hypothesis for the origins of the Pereskia and thus Cactus family is presented and then followed by a review of each species. This really is a talk not to be missed if you are interested in cacti and evolution!  

Ivor is a retired general medical practitioner and has been a member of the BCSS and the Manchester branch for over 25 years. His interest in succulent plants was ignited by finding a copy of Nel's Gibbaeum Handbook, an old family heirloom. Over the years he has written articles for the Tephrocactus Study Group, The Haworthia Society, Cactus World and Bradleya. Travel across southern Africa and cactus habitats on both sides of the equator has led to the production of numerous talks that have been presented to BCSS branches across England and Scotland. Known as an avid lover of Opuntias this remains one of his key interests within the hobby.

If you are interested in how Cacti evolved this is the talk to watch!

Galapagos: A Nature Paradise with Elisabeth Sarnes 

Time: Tuesday 3 October 2023 at 7.30 pm (BST)
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Meeting ID: 831 0349 2389 
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We are so excited to announce that one of our most popular speakers is returning to give us a talk on this very special place.  Elisabeth is one of the world’s most popular speakers and this year alone has spoken in the UK, USA and Europe.  Every presentation that Elisabeth gives is accompanied with stunning photography.  Elisabeth and her husband Norbert have published several books on plants and their travels.   

Speaking about this talk Elisabeth says, “Cacti have accompanied me since about the beginning of my studies and I have the rare good fortune to be able to share my passion for cacti with my husband Norbert. So, it was natural for us to make our cactus trips together. Two of these travels took us to the magical world of Galapagos. That way we were able to visit almost all the islands. In my talk I would like to show the diversity and beauty of this natural paradise. This time, however, the cacti will not play the main role.”

Insights into the Evolution of Mesembs with Derek Tribble 

Top R to L
Fig. 1  D. angustiloba (Photo: Dennis de Kock)
Fig. 2  D. caespitosa (Photo: Bill Weightman)
Bottom R to L
Fig. 3  D. elegans (Photo: Dennis de Kock)
Fig. 4  D. galgallensis (Photo: John Trager)

Duvalia

Small stapeliads with attractive flowers – the genus
Duvalia is well worth growing 
By John Pilbeam
Photos as indicated

This is a rather modest genus with small, mostly narrow-lobed flowers radiating from a small raised cylindrical centre, in a variety of colours, mostly red or brown but with a few in green. It was named in 1812 by Adrian Hardy Haworth as a tit-for-tat for Duval’s naming of the genus Haworthia. Duvalia is well-defined by its disc-like corona.  It has not suffered from any attempts to amalgamate it with other genera over the last 200 plus years (the recent amalgamation of all the stapeliads under Ceropegia by Peter Bruyns is yet to be pronounced upon by the botanical fraternity but has had little impact as yet on growers of these plants). 

Nearly 20 species have been described, with a few subspecies, with several not readily available commercially, but worth attempting to obtain.  Most species come from South Africa, and most of them have thin, red lobes with variable centre parts: D. angustiloba (Fig. 1), D. caespitosa (Fig. 2), D. elegans (Fig. 3), D. galgallensis (Fig. 4), D. immaculata (Fig. 5), D. pubescens (Fig. 6), and D. vestita (Fig. 7) are similarly representatives of this shape, with slight differences, while D. corderoyi (Fig. 8), D. pillansii (Fig. 9), and D. polita (Fig. 10) have wider lobes, the former with an attractively hairy centre part. All these hail from South Africa. Showier are those from a more northerly occurrence, namely D. sulcata (Fig. 11) from the Yemen, and D. velutina (Fig. 12) from Saudi Arabia and the Yemen, which have more pinkish-brown, wide lobes. 

Early Ariocarpus Flowers

Text and photos by David Quail

As my Ariocarpus plants come into bud and their beautiful flowers open, I am reminded each year that the growing season is now well advanced and will soon come to an end.  This year I had an especially early reminder as my first Ariocarpus flower opened on 16 August (Fig. 1).  Invariably it was an Ariocarpus bravoanus subsp. hintonii, which is always quick off the mark, and its siblings from the same sowing around 20 years ago soon followed suit.  The flowers are all a similar bright shade of pink and hide much of the plant body.  This is one of the delightful miniature Ariocarpus species with delicately wrinkled tubercles. None of my plants have, as yet, shown any signs of producing any offsets, yet some plants have grown to a width of around 8cm.

The next Ariocarpus to come into flower, on 6 September, is an oddity and, I felt, well worthy of special attention and comment (Fig. 2).  It is the result of a chance crossing when I was pollinating some Ariocarpus trigonus flowers many years ago.  When the resulting seedlings were reaching flowering size, I started noticing that one, whilst having the typical, upward-pointed long, straight tubercles of a deep green colour, also had some slight wrinkling unlike all the other smooth-tubercled seedlings.  When the flowers started to open, its mixed parentage became slightly clearer, as unlike other trigonus, its flowers were not a bright (or occasionally pale) yellow colour, but delicately pink, and consistently so.  I suspect that it is a cross between trigonus and bravoanus hintonii or perhaps fissuratus, both of which are pink-flowered.  Bravoanus hintonii is most likely the other parent, as it has also flowered very early, in this case on 5 September.  As I write this on 10 September, most of my other bravoanus hintonii plants are in flower or have flowered, and my fissuratus plants are well into bud with the pink bud-tips already showing.  Most of my other Ariocarpus are also now in bud and I shall have the pleasure of admiring them for much of September and perhaps into October as well.

European Plant Lovers' Festival

Text and photos by Ðoan Tran

Finally, after wishing to go for three years, I visited ELK in Belgium. Of the three days I only managed to free my calendar for the Saturday. That day also happened to include a presentation “La culture des Conophytums” by Marc Mougin that sounded very interesting. 

Because of the almost 350km drive from home, we stayed at my sister's (still 277km to go) and left her house at 9am to drive to Blankenberge. That day’s weather forecast of very high temperatures came true. It was hot and, as family and friends know, my whole being slows down when the temperature rises. The net result was that I probably could not stay for the whole day. I met the people I wanted to meet. I saw some of the sellers I wanted to see and left without attending the presentation. But I was very impressed by the venue: a friendly atmosphere and I even bought some plants. Can’t wait for the next one. After paying the entrance fee you were given a wristband; I kept mine on for the next three days.

C is for...

Text and photos by Gareth Darbon

By now you are all familiar with the concept: one cactus and one succulent. The letter C provides the opportunity to highlight two of the author’s favourite genera: Copiapoa and Crassula.

Copiapoas originate in South America, Chile in particular. The plants are very wide-ranging in terms of location and altitude, being found from sea level to high altitudes. Due to this Copiapoas require a very free-draining compost and a typical cactus watering regime. However, between waterings, they can last a little longer than most genera.

In terms of identification, this genus is characterised by a yellow flower as shown in Fig. 1. This colour is almost ubiquitous in the genus with only a few species deviating with two-tone yellow flowers such as C. hypogea (Fig. 2). Plants are often self-fertile and will produce seed easily.

Fig. 1 Copiapoa coquimbana in flower

Fig. 2 Copiapoa hypogea showing two-tone flowers

The bodies of Copiapoas fall into two categories: dark or glaucous (light bluish-green). This glaucescence occurs at varying levels from almost white to a very slight silvery green. It acts like a sunscreen and is typically more prevalent on plants in habitat.

All Copiapoas will eventually cluster, although some forms such as Copiapoa cinerea (Fig. 3) can take many years to offset.  This plant also demonstrates glaucescence as described above.

Fig. 3 Copiapoa cinerea with a small offset

Known for their longevity, especially in habitat, plants can be hundreds of years old. Mature plants in cultivation may be ex-habitat plants or sometimes passed from generation to generation in cultivation. For example, I was lucky enough to take custody of a C. coquimbana (Fig. 4) from the collection of Brian Robinson. It is in a 14in bowl and must be many decades old - certainly older than the author.

Fig. 4 Large mature plant of Copiapoa coquimbana ex-Brian Robinson

Not all the Copiapoa genus have large heads or grow large. Some can be delicate and even have softer spines but as can be seen in Fig. 5 they still exhibit darker body characteristics and will still bear yellow flowers.

Fig. 5 Mature Copiapoa laui showing smaller heads with soft spines in a 6in pot

The plants of the Crassula genus are somewhat more difficult to identify. They have so many different body forms and even succulence, ranging from tree types such as C. ovata (Fig. 6) to leaf succulents like C. ausensis subsp. giessi (Fig. 7). There are even tubers such as C. nemorosa. 

Fig. 6 Crassula ovata ‘Hummels Sunset’

Fig. 7 Crassula ausensis var. giessi

Most Crassulas have white flowers, but some varieties do have red or pink flowers such as C. falcata and most will occur in small clusters as shown in Fig. 8. These flowers can be very strong-scented and not necessarily in a pleasant way: some can resemble cat urine but others are often sweet smelling.

Fig. 8 Crassula tecta showing flower clusters

Unlike most Crassulaceae, Crassulas tend not to cross with other genera. However, they do cross and produce many different hybrids among themselves, the most famous of which is probably ‘Morgan’s Beauty’. But there are many other newer versions such as ‘Celia’ or ‘Dorothea’. Crassulas tend to be autumn-winter growers and will require a little winter water to keep them growing. The softer leafed versions don’t require quite as much sun and can even burn in very bright sun.  However, some varieties can cope with and respond well to full sun, producing some spectacular colours as seen in Fig. 6. 

One of the main reasons I grow Crassulas is their ‘architectural’ nature (illustrated in Fig. 9). Also, they provide colour and interest in the greenhouse at different times of the year compared to other genera. And, of course, they are so diverse.

Fig. 9 Drawing of Crassula cornuta illustrating the ‘architectural’ nature of this plant