Spine MARCH 2016

Journal of the Cactus and Succulent Society of Australia Inc.

www.cssaustralia.org.au Inc. No. A0007275Y

P.O. Box 999 Braeside Victoria 3195 ABN 84 396 127 171

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Cactus and Succulent Society of Australia

Inc. A0007275Y

P.O. Box 999 Braeside Victoria 3195 www.cssaustralia.org.au

Patron

Professor Tim Entwisle

President

Wayne Robinson wrobo@dcsi.net.au

Vice-President

Brett Anderson 0429 363 749 brett.anderson-cactophil@hotmail.com

Secretary

Barby Alston 0403 050 516 barbyalston@gmail.com

Memberships

Logan Thurairatnam 9803 9492

memberships@cssaustralia.org.au

Committee

Grant Young Bob Mitchell 9718 2250

Librarian

Noelene Tomlinson 9889 5237 tomlinsonfamily@bigpond.com

FRONT COVER

Succulent wall at Pitzer College Los Angeles. A dear friend Joe Clements who was in charge of the Succulent section at the Huntington Botanic Gardens moved on to Pitzer College and totally changed the landscape of the place. This was one of the constructions that was part of the renovation.

Photo courtesy of Attila Kapitany

“The views and opinions expressed by contributors, especially in articles, are their personal opinions, not necessarily those of, or endorsed by the society, its

officers, or the editor.

All material herein is copyright and may not be reproduced without the permission of the

author.”

ACTION PRINTING

Hawthorn Vic 3122

actionpr@bigpond.net.au

CONTENTS

Page 2 Weingartia lanata by Wayne Robinson

Page 3 Sulcorebutia rauschii and its friends

by Vincente Bueno

Page 8 Early Days of CSSA by Noelene Tomlinson

Editor: always looking for new fresh articles for Spine. Your

favourite plant, what’s in flower at your place or any succulent

related topic. Can you help?

Weingartia lanata

From Bolivia , growing at 1600-3000 metres above sea level. This delightfully rewarding

plant is an easy to grow and care for plant. It tolerates full sun and loves heat. Its

flowering is typical of this genus with multiple flowers arising from the same areole.

Three, as in here, is most common. They open up to a bright yellow that is quite showy.

As with all cacti, good drainage is very important. The only thing to be wary of with

Weingatias is that if you water them they will suck up all that is there even if they split

their sides doing so. I have a few that are completely torn apart from too much water.

So water well but much less often.

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Sulcorebutia, Rebutia or Weingartia?

rauschii and its relatives. By Vicente Bueno (Spain) published with permission

After the studies of Christiane Ritz (l) and Augustin & Hentschel's later classification (2), it seems rather clear, and if nobody

demonstrates the contrary, our well-loved cactus (Sulcorebutia rauschii) has to be called Weingartia, so, giving credit to

Brandt, who in 1978, named it Weingartia rauschii L Weingartia rauschii (G Frank) Brandt Kakt. Orchid. Rundschau: 95,

19781 (3). Afterward, in 1989, Hunt named it Rebutia rauschii (4) and in 2007 Halda & Malina relegated it to a subspecies

of tarabucoensis (5). "What a mess" some will say. However, we will see what each want to tell us. On one hand, in a more

ample spectrum, it is relative to Rebutias (like all Weingartias), they are genetically close and could be grouped as say some

taxonomists (6) and also some phylogenetic studies (7). On the other hand, in a narrower circle, it is related to

tarabucoensis which grows near and obviously the majority of its neighbours are likely considered subspecies or varieties

of tarabucoensis. We can say that the taxonomy, is like the pig, everything is edible, we can thus learn all the variants, and

what is not a good example will be at least good information. We do not have to forget, that the determination of the

limits for a species is purely subjective and, thus, exposed to personal interpretations.

Now, although our brain calls it henceforth Weingartia, for the Sulcorebutia lovers, the name which our heart kept

is that of Sulcorebutia rauschii, which Frank (8) described in 1969 in honour of its discoverer, Walter Rausch, Austrian

expert of Lobivia, Rebutia and Sulcorebutia and so is its written on the labels which accompany our beloved plants. Do not

forget the article in which the highest authorities of sulcorebutias, Gertel and de Vries (9) resume the proposition of Brandt

in 1983 (10), considering Sulcorebutia like a sub-genus of Weingartia and they have no qualms about using the term

Sulcorebutia.

All identical, all different

It is one of the most beautiful cacti within our collections. Like Willy Gertel said well in his article on Sulcorebutias de

Zudåfiez (11), S. rauschii quickly became the favourite of many cactus amateurs. So beautiful, that collectors who prefer

the others cactus have S rauschii as a unique Sulcorebutia. The same Gertel finishes his article, in which he describes the

sulcorebutias growing at Zudåfiez close to S. rauschii, that "Now, we can, natural like Hunt and al. (12) group together all

these sulcorebutias, combine them with a specify unique name, but we do not gain more consistency by putting them in

this group. Certainly the amateurs of these beautiful cacti do not follow this suggestion." We, the collectors of cactus,

especially sulcorebutias, settle a lot on the details which differentiate some population from others. Thus, all regional

clones differ, but is this not to be expected? Why not to look also at the aspects which relate each? It seems to be the

interest of the DNA specialists, to check elements which clones have in common and see, through their clades, a little light

in taxonomic tunnel (13).

Like L. Pot said about Sulcorebutia — it is a "food for taxonomists" (14). His article in different aspects, is very interesting,

but my eyes remained motionless on a very beautiful photo of a hybrid of Weingartia fidaiana with Sulcorebutia tarijensis

JK242.

Let us cross!

Yes, I have to confess, it is interesting for me to know the close relationship between sulcorebutias to be able to obtain

hybrids between these with more ease. The more closely related are two sulcorebutias, the greater will be the probability

to obtain viable seeds, if these Sulcorebutias have a rather different appearance, all the better. And if furthermore I can

obtain a hybrid with notable characteristics of both relatives, this is excellent.

Among the most appreciated forms of S. rauschii, is that with golden spines nicknamed. ‘golden spines’ ( fig. 1 ). However,

if we compare them with those of other S rauschii, its flowers are small. It would be prudent to try to obtain something

close "golden spines", but with bigger flowers and longer spines? For that purpose, we have to find a S. rauschii which

produces big flowers and we have to look for a close relative which has longer and golden spines.

I crossed a S. rauschii with a close relative S. patriciae (fig.2) and obtained this hybrid which I named cv. 'Sun' in quechüa,

because it reminded me of the sun on the Argentinian and Uruguayan flags. This hybrid has intermediate characters of

both relatives.

According to Ritz (13), "The clades "canigueralii" and "mentosa" were well-supported by the chloroplast phylogeny but

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their taxa were assigned to different clusters by

a Bayesian clustering approach based on the

AFLP data set. These incongruent clades are

distributed in the central area of the range at

moderate elevations of 2000—3000 m. These

data support the hypothesis that taxa of the

"steinbachii", "verticillacantha" and "tarijenis"

clade from the edges of the distribution area

may have evolved by recent colonization events

after the last glaciations period, whereas the

great genetic diversity within the "canigueralii"

and "mentosa" clades may be maintained by

ongoing hybridization." Thus, the horizontal

genetic transfer and the interspecific

hybridization in S. rauschii and its relatives were

able to play a more important role in evolution,

than the one the taxonomists attributed to

them.

A catalogue of living jewels

Out of curiosity, also for the pleasure, I looked in

the magnificent book of Willi Gertel and Latin

Wolfgang on the " Bolivian jewels " (15) among

their 1359 photos of Sulcorebutia and their

habitat, and looked at some which were close, in

their appearance to the hybrid of S. rauschii x

patriciae, and I found one resembling rauschii S.

G263/5, although with much longer spines.

However, as Gertel comments (11), G263 does

not really look like S. rauschii.

The typical form is R289 with a greenish purple skin and of short black spines (fig. 5), but there are many other forms,

like that form with green apple skin (fig. 6) and in various ranges of colours, like purple (fig. 7) and other tones (fig. 8).

The colour of its spines can be black, yellow, red or even white. The combinations of the skin and the spine colours are

numerous (fig. 9).

The colour of flowers is also varied (fig. 10). The clone with almost white flower, R289/4 is specially sought after (fig. 11).

A relationship with glamour

The closest species to Sulcorebutia rauschii is S. hertusii (fig. 12). Both grow in hills close to Zudåfiez. It is very beautiful,

with many small heads, tanned with a purple tinge, wrapped by tangled, white or golden hairs. The first specimens

arrived to me with the names of senilis and gerosenilis.

Gertel & Latin say that both grow at approximately 30 km distance, and that S. patriciae has one or few bigger heads,

and with "combed" hairs, while S. hertusii has many small heads with tangled hairs.

Another question is its direct relationship with S. tarabucoensis or with S. crispata. The distribution areas of the

tarabucoensis and crispata are relatively wide, while that of S. hertusii, which is between both, is very small (we can say

the same thing of S. rauschii, S. patriciae or S. callecallensis). To give an idea of its habitat, we can note that Horacek (14)

indicates that the size of the complete population of the S. hertusii is 200m x 200m.

The resemblance between S. hertusii and S. crispata engendered a lot of confusion. The taxon HS 125 (fig. 13) came

labelled as S. crispata, while it is S. hertusii. I bought a cristate form labelled S. crispata, but for me, it is also a S. hertusii

(fig. 14). With the naked eye, S. crispata with white spines looks like the S. hertusii (fig. 15).

However, there are other S. hertusii HS125 forms (fig, 16) which do not look so much like S. hertusii HS 125. HS 125A (fig.

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17), if it is now considered to be S. hertusii with yellow flowers, at the beginning was labelled S. tarabucoensis. It does not

look like the type R66 (fig. 18), but instead more like S. tarabucoensis aureiflora G201 (fig. 19). Also, we must say that, S.

hertusii, as well as S. patriciae, S. rauschii or S. callecallensis, grow a little closer to the distribution area of S. tarabucoensis

than to that of S. crispata. And naturally, it is clear that these two last ones are directly related. Besides, I acquired

specimens labelled S. hertusii subsp. auricapillata, however I do not see any significant differences (fig. 20).

If we cross the long, white-spined S. hertusii with S. rauschii, an intermediate form may appear between both (fig. 21). The

one that I obtained from small heads with short spines looks like some forms of S. hertusii which can be found in habitat,

like G341, G342 and G343. It would have been interesting to obtain a form with long black hairs like the one described by

Horacek (14) and which drew his attention during a visit he made to the greenhouse of Heinz Swoboda, in 1990.

Very close to Cerro Ayrampo, where S. rauschii grows, is Cerro Calle Calle, where Alfred Lau collected S. callecallensis

L389, [Weingartia tarabucoensis (Rausch) Brandt var. callecallensis (Brandt) Hentzschel & Augustin, Gymnocalycium 21

(2): 781, 2008], one of the smallest of the genus, with stems of lcm in diameter, light green and with adpressed, short,

white spines, but with spectacular bicoloured, yellow and red flowers (fig. 22). I crossed S. rauschii with S. callecallensis,

and the obtained hybrid (fig. 23) reminds me in some way of S. callecallensis VZ l96, one of the most beautiful, although of

a bigger size than the tiny S. callecallensis. Another hybrid obtained from the crossing of these looks more like S.

callecallensis (fig. 24), although also of a bigger size.

If we go a little more away from S. rauschii,

north-northwest of the S. patriciae location

and lining the relatively wide area of S.

tarabucoensis, at Pasopaya, we find S.

pasopayana [Weingartia pasopayana Brandt.

Kakt. Orchid. Rundschau 9(3): 53-55, 1984].

Alfred Lau discovered it and has the collection

number L387 (fig. 25). It is very beautiful, with

numerous small heads of a bright green colour

and glittering dark red flowers, sometimes

with a yellow throat.

Between S. patriciae and S. pasopayana we

find a taxon, S. lenkae (fig. 26) which was

classified as a subspecies of S. pulchra by

Halda, Hertus & Horacek (16) and for Augustin

& Hentschel (2), is a synonym of S. pulchra. For

Vries & Gertel, however, it is S. pasopayana

(18).

Lost and rediscovered beauties

Another candidate to be the rediscovered R.

pulchra was R 599 (fig. 28), collected by

Rausch further West in the direction of Sucre,

but it does not fill the condition of Cárdenas R.

pulchra's original description, with pale

magenta flowers. Brandt named R 599 S.

perplexiflora, and Augustin, Gertel &

Hentzschel (20) classified it as S. canigueralii

and so did Gertel in his Kompendium (21). I

also received a clone labelled Sulcorebutia

perplexiflora R 599 with flowers of an intense pink (fig. 29) and an appearance close to S. canigueralii var. applanata. In

each case, the nearness between S. tarabucoensis and the S. canigueralii is very obvious, and S. perplexiflora, like other

forms is only intermediate.

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And they are not the only ones. In the Cites Cactaceae Checklist 2 (22), our dear S. rauschii was the rediscovered R.

pulchra.

Now, the most likely candidates were HS78 (fig. 30) and HS78a (fig. 31), with respectively short and long spines,

discovered by Heinz Swoboda in 1983 and considered until recently the rediscovered R. pulchra. With its flowers light

purple, sometimes with a white centre, its bluish skin and the red furrows which separate tubercles, Gertel (23)

supposed that it was R. pulchra. It is found north of the distribution area of S. tarabucoensis, relatively close to S.

rauschii (Zudåfiez).

Nevertheless, de Vries (24) says that it is not R. pulchra, and named it S. callichroma [Sulcorebutia callichroma de Vries,

spec. nov. Succulenta, 91(2): 60-69, 2012], which means "beautiful colours", but proposed instead a taxon found further

north, the V Z 642- 2 (fig. 32). Like Sulcorebutia pulchra sensu Cárdenas, discovered northeast of Pasopaya, which

corresponds to the original description of Cárdenas, with light green skin and dark magenta filaments, which is not the

case for S. callichroma. We must thank Mr. de Vries for his efforts, his knowledge and his expeditions to find this one and

other beauties lost during the decades.

Because the flower of S. callichroma is really magnificent, I thought that he could give something interesting if I crossed

it with S. tarabucoensis var. aureiflora (fig. 33), which has intense red and yellow flowers, with much smaller heads and

completely insignificant spines. The resultant hybrids have the stems the size of S. callichroma and the flowers with

interesting nuances (fig. 34 and 35).

Returning to the famous R. pulchra,

described by Cárdenas in 1970 as coming

from between Rio Grande and Presto, de

Vries (25) found it in Area Natural de

Manejo Integrado El Palmar, in the

municipality of Presto, in the cantons of

Rodeo and Pasopaya, a protected zone,

because a rare Palm tree grows there, the

pasopaya (Parajubaea torallyi).

Also at El Palmar, de Vries rediscovered R.

inflexiseta L Weingartia inflexiseta

(Cárdenas) Brandt Kakt. Orchid. Rundschau

5(1): 5 (1980)1, taxon with the collection

number V Z 638 (fig. 36). Cárdenas

described it in 1970 (MC 6308) growing in

the neighbourhood of Presto and called it

inflexiseta for the curved spines (Rebutia

inflexiseta Cárdenas, Cact. Succ. J. (Los

Angeles) 42(1): 36-37, 19701. Previously,

there were other collection numbers

candidates to inflexiseta, like LH 1122 (fig.

37), very similar to the S. pasopayana and

close to S. tarabucoensis but which do not

correspond with the description of

Cárdenas nor with the clone preserved in

the Succulentarium of the Prof. Diers

Lothar, but with the V Z 638.

The third found by Vries et al. and also

native of Palmar, is R. caracarensis Weingartia caracarensis (Cárdenas) Brandt, Kakt. Orchid. Rundschau 5(1): 5, 19801,

with the collection numbers de Vries V Z 568, 569, 570 (fig. 38), 639, 640 and 643 described by Cárdenas MC 6309 in

1970 as native from Cerro Cara-Cara (Monte pelado), hence the name of caracarensis t Rebutia caracarensis Cárdenas,

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Cact. Succ. J. (Los Angeles) 42(1): 30-39, 19701. Previously, there were other numbers which correspond more or less with

caracarensis, like the PHA255 (fig. 39), although those which fit better the description of Cárdenas, the original clone and

the plants F1 of the Succulentarium del Prof. Diers Lothar, are those of de Vries.

The small gemstones

At the altitude of Pasopaya, but

approximately 3 km further East, in

the valley of Mojocoya, to

approximately 35 km northeast of

Zudåfiez is the gem [Weingartia

gemmae (Mosti & Rovida) Hentzschel

& Augustin, Gymnocalycium 21 ( 2 ):

778, 2008], named in honour of

Gemma, Gianfranco Rovida's wife

[Sulcorebutia gemmae Mosti &

Rovida, Cactus & Co. 4(4): 172-178,

2000] an authentic gem with short,

pectinate spines and making plentiful

production of bright purple flowers,

although there are also plants with

yellow flowers (fig. 40).

At the north-north-western edge of

the Mojocoya valley, in a hillside of

Cerro Naunaca grows S. elizabethae L

Weingartia gemmae var. Gertel

comb. nov. elizabethae (de Vries). Die

Sulcorebutien des Mojocoya-Beckens

Echinopseen 8(2) 2011 J, similar to the previous, with a bright skin, pectinate spines, mostly white and with yellow flowers

(fig. 41); it gets its name from Elizabeth, the wife of Johan de Vries [Sulcorebutia elizabethae de Vries, Succulenta 83(1): 30

-34, 2004].

Very good news

Finally, I would like to present one of the most beautiful sulcorebutias, recently discovered, at approximately 30 km south

of Zudåfiez, S. heliosoides L Weingartia heliosoides (Lechner & Draxler) Hentzschel & Augustin, Gymnocalycium 21(2): 779,

20081, named for its resemblance with Aylostera heliosa [Sulcorebutia heliosoides Lechner and Draxler, Kakt. and. Sukk.

59(3): 57-63, 2008], with plentiful yellow flowers, with reddish tones (fig. 43) and similar seeds to those of S. hertusii. For

its singular characteristics this Sulcorebutia can give numerous and magnificent hybrids looking like Aylostera heliosa.

Nature does not stop surprising us and we can be sure that other incredible forms will be discovered in this area, causing

great admiration. Gertel (9) recently found a small population beside "normal" S. rauschii of plants with the almost white

spines (for example, G263, VZ50a) which do not really look like S. rauschii.

Nurserymen like Hentzschel (27) or Augustin (28, also surprise us when they present a surprising range of Sulcorebutia and

Weingartia hybrids.

My friend Antonio Gómez offered me a hybrid which came labelled Sulcorebutia rauschii x Weingartia (fig. 44), however I

was not able to verify which one. One of my friends and nurseryman, Luis Bru, obtained a hybrid of Sulcorebutia rauschii x

S. arenacea (fig. 45) which combines the beauty of S. rauschii with the robustness and the vigour of S. arenacea.

And this is only the beginning.

Text & photos: Vicente Bueno

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EARLY DAYS OF CSSA Our librarian Noelene Tomlinson has scoured the society records, primarily the old Society journals and similar for our

history. Once upon a time the journal was A5 size and called ‘The Spine’ or ‘Spine’ and smaller newsletters were called

Spinette (whereas now we only have one). Noelene thought it a good idea to share some historical information and

anecdotes about our early members and the early days.

Brief summary of Mrs Theo Himmerman’s article in ‘The Spine’ of Dec. 1979, Vol. 28, No. 1:

MR RALPH FIELD recalled that, before the Society began, he had a collection of cacti and gave numerous plants of cacti

and euphorbias to Mr Edward Prescott for lectures to his students in 1920. At that time, Charles Hodgson, Ralph Field and

Edward Prescott met occasionally. In 1927 the Society was formed. It went into recess during the war years and reformed

in 1947. By 1953 membership was 40, including new member Dr. Aleck Selzer.

‘The Spine’ August 1987:

Ralph Field (1898 – July 1987) founding member and Patron of CSSA, was born in Kew, attended Auburn State School

and Trinity Grammar, and moved to ‘Whiora’, Tennyson in 1928. Ralph was a pioneer in the importation and growing of

cacti and succulents. His son Robert still lives at Tennyson. Ralph’s wife Molly died on 23rd April 1981.

In ‘The Journal of the Cactus and Succulent Society of South Australia’ Inc. of July 1971, Robert Field wrote:

“A share in the Blossfeld expedition through South America in 1935 promised over 1,000 cactus plants – and so the

collection grew rapidly. The bulk of these arrived here in perfect order despite the slow journey by ship, and many

specimens can still be seen in the collection today at Tennyson”.

CLARRIE BORCH gave a talk on the early days of The CSSA at the June 1979 General Meeting of the Society,

printed in ‘The Spine’ Vol. 27 No. 4, Sep. 1979:

“At our June General Meeting, Mr. Clarrie Borch told us about the early days of The Cactus and Succulent Society of

Australia, and how much life then differed from nowadays. Clarrie joined the Society in about 1938, but the Society had

been in existence since 1927, making it easily the oldest Society for Cacti and Succulents in Australia. Mr. C. Hodgson

was President when Clarrie joined, and the members held their meetings at the Herbarium, as we do today (1979), and had

guest speakers – but of course, very few members had cars at that time. Eventually Clarrie got a 1927 Chev, so was able to

get to the meetings in great style, with many stops and starts and cranking of the engine!

Sadly, the meetings ceased in June 1941 due to the war and did not start up again until 1946, when Mr. Frank Ward was

elected President and Mr. Lex Fuaux, Secretary. Unfortunately the old pre-war records of the Society were lost during the

war, and if any member knows anything about the existence today of any of those old records, we could write a history of

the earliest years. Any information would be greatly appreciated. These days it is most difficult to import plants, due to

stringent quarantine laws – most necessary to keep out plant diseases and pests – how different it was in the early days!

Clarrie recounted how easy it was to import cacti, and at prices that the members could afford. He recounted one occasion

when a friend imported two boxes of cacti, these were packed from bottom to top with perhaps a dozen species of cacti,

just thrown in until the boxes were filled, there were lumps still clinging to the roots! The smaller plants Clarrie bought for

2/- (20 cents) each, and the larger, perhaps 3 inches high, were 2/6 (25 cents) per plant. In these days you just sent your

order and the money, and when the plants arrived you just went down to the docks and picked them up – no quarantine, no

red tape of any kind.

Clarrie was President in the years 1950–51. In those days the members started going for weekend trips to the Field’s

beautiful property at Tennyson – however, not by car as we do today, they went on the ordinary daily bus service that left

from Wrights in Flinders Street, all met there at 8 am and spent happy hours travelling up. They stayed at the hotel up

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there, on Sunday morning all went to the Field’s property for the day, then at night returned to the hotel again for dinner,

then a social evening, the Fields came and the members saw slides and talked and had a great time. On Monday they all

came home in the bus. The cost was minute, the bus fare about $1.00 each for the whole trip, the hotel accommodation

and meals about $6.00 each.

Clarrie showed us some of the early issues of Spine, edited by Mr. Lex Fuaux; they contained many fine articles and

photographs and the covers were quite striking and artistic. Mr. Fuaux of Hawthorn was in constant correspondence with

many Australian and overseas professors, botanists and scientists, so the members were kept up to date with all the latest

discoveries and scientific knowledge to help them grow their plants better and enjoy their hobby more.

Thank you Clarrie for giving us such a fascinating glimpse of life in the early days of The CSSA”.

(Editor of ‘The Spine’ in 1979-80 was Dr S. Marzuki.)

‘The Spine’ Vol. 29 No. 2, Mar. 1981 pages 20-21 has a black and white photo of Clarrie, and says:

“Clarrie has lived at his present address in Cheltenham since 1935 when the area was predominately rural and consisted

of market gardens, and flower farms. Clarrie had a poultry farm on 3 acres there, with even a foxes’ den just through the

back fence. Now the area is built up and is an established residential suburb and Clarrie’s residence and cacti collection

are sitting on a double building block. His collection is housed in the main 40 x 20 foot glasshouse, which he skillfully

built himself, some time ago. Many mature cacti and succulents are also growing outside in rockeries, built and planted

in the early days of his interest in cacti.

A few of the plants to be seen are a large clump of Cereus jamacaru, some of which are over 20 feet high, a Euphorbia

trigona, an extra large Opuntia, some agaves, and numerous other mature species of cacti both in the ground and in pots.

Some of the most unexpected plants like the outdoors, Clarrie advises us and gives us an example of the Ochotilla; he

had this plant sitting on the bench in the glasshouse for 8 years, but when it was planted outside in a garden bed it liked

the outdoors so much that a burst of healthy, new growth followed, equal to the combined growth of perhaps the previous

5 years. Espostoa, he says, doesn’t seem to mind the Melbourne winters and can also be grown outside in most instances.

Clarrie’s large glasshouse contains one of the finest collections of mature plants in Melbourne, with well over 1,200

species of mature cacti and succulents, some up to 40 years old, like the Astrophytum ornatums that were planted from

seed whilst the war was on, and now some are 16-18 inches high. Many of Clarrie’s plants have been grown from seed,

but some of the older ones are from the collection of old friends and were original imports. Clarrie says that one of the

satisfactions he obtains from these old plants is the possibility of seeing them bloom. Asked if there was any special

method he used to grow his plants he said “no”, but to see those fine plants in such good condition, it is obvious that he

must be doing something right for all this time.

Amongst Clarrie’s favourite plants are some of the South American genera, such as Copiapoas and Sulcorebutias, but his

favourite are what he calls the obscurities such as Aztekium ritterii, and another old favourite Opuntia (now

Maihueniopsis) subterranea, a rare clumpy little plant about 2 inches high, which each year produces pink flowers. The

swollen roots are like bunches of little Dahlia tubers and most of the plant grows beneath the surface of the ground.

Over the years he has been to many parts of the country pursuing the interests of our hobby, and in doing so he has

viewed many of the major collections and made many friends.

Eight years ago (1973) Clarrie was given Life Membership of CSSA. This was a modest recognition of the participation

and contribution he has made during his long association with the Society.”

(Editor of ‘The Spine’ in 1981 was Mr. T. Prosser)

‘The Spine’ of Sep. 1981 Vol. 29 No. 4 gave a summary of a talk by Mrs Theo Himmerman and Mr Clarrie Borch

at the June 16th meeting about the early days of the Society.

Clarrie recalled the annual visits to Ralph Field’s collection, when some car owners in the Society gave other members a

lift up there. These visits were usually weekend affairs and members would stay at the Hotel in Lockington. In the

evening Mr. Field would come along to the hotel, where they all got together, talked, showed Lantern Slides and the like.

Another favourite visiting place was that of Sid Lug at Geelong, whose place was landscaped with artificial concrete

caves and the like, a very interesting set-up indeed.

Clarrie related also how in the early days importing plants was a lot easier to do and one of the best ways of adding new

varieties to your collection. Plants would be ordered usually from the U.S. and one would receive notification in the mail

to come and collect them from the wharf. They were usually transported in wooden packing cases, “apple crate size”,

which would cost around $10.00. We were also told about a certain member who in the early days after quarantine had

been introduced used to beat them by getting his plants sent to someone in Papua New Guinea, who posted them from

Page 10

there to him, at the time there was no quarantine restriction between America and New Guinea, and New Guinea and

Australia.

Mrs Theo Himmerman and her husband John joined the Society in 1952-53, when membership rose to 50, including

some interstate members. The original Constitution was in use then and all Committee members had to be amateurs,

meaning not allowed to sell plants, but the Honorary Secretary was allowed to sell any surplus plants for 2 weeks of the

year. Library books were free until some good books went missing, then it was` decided that a fee of 5 cents would be

charged and 10 cents for the more expensive books. Plants for sale were mainly donated by members of the Committee

to try to improve the bank balance, and auctioned. In the early 1950s the use of the Herbarium was rent free to Societies

but after a new Director was appointed to the RBG, the Herbarium was redecorated and a rental fee was charged, $1.05.

The Committee meeting was also held at the Herbarium, then moved to my home (Himmerman’s) for the next 18

months. It was then decided to rotate, where possible, between the homes of the Committee. Any expensive equipment

to be purchased was discussed at the General Meetings, such as the first Gestetner and Projector.

In 1956, the Melbourne Olympic Year, the 1st Cactus Show was held in November and the Society was lucky in having

the Ambassador or Consul for Mexico, in Melbourne for the Games, consenting to open our Show. He complimented

the Society and said that he had never seen so many cacti before. A fee for entrance was not allowed, but a raffle was

held. Plants were not allowed to be sold at the Show.

Next year the Show was held in the room at the end of the hall and was nearly a fiasco. Members would not table any

plants for a Competition so only a handful of members put up a display. A Show Souvenir was sold in the form of a

booklet with short articles on soil, etc. for 20 cents. A list of names of the few people who sold plants was handed out if

asked for.

For several years the Society entered a Rock Garden, displays of cacti and succulents at the Royal Horticultural Shows

at the Melbourne Town Hall. An Award of Merit was won for the rock garden one year. Still in the 1950s the Society

was approached by ‘Your Garden’ official Mr Lionel Trigg to see if we would be interested in using their stand for

display and to help sell their back copies. This was done for a few years but the space got smaller and smaller so a stand

was hired on behalf of the Society. This was successful for a short time but assistance for the stand fell to 2 or 3

members only and was finally discontinued.

The membership was growing with members from overseas joining up. In the years 1949-1953 a Bulletin of news and a

few articles was printed once a year. In 1954 Max Welten offered to have run off at his school a new edition of ‘The

Spine’ typing and editing. The first copy came out in March and was No. 2, as in 1948 the 1st edition of ‘The Spine’

had been printed.

Then the Society decided to purchase a Gestetner on time payment to have ‘The Spine’ printed at the home of Mr W.

Welten. Prior to this the Committee had used photos of 2 cacti and 2 succulents with information on each plant and the

subscription for the photo supplement meant that the subscription would be $2.10; not all members accepted the

supplement, but the subscription remained at that figure decided on at the General Meeting that year.

As ‘The Spine’ began in March and the yearly subscription began in September, it was finally decided by the

Committee in 1957 that a 6 part edition would be printed to bring it into line with the subscription. That was 1957-58,

Vol. 2 Nos 1-6. September 1958 saw Vol. 7 printed by the Glen Press at Elsternwick and until a few years ago, when

costs arose too high ‘The Spine’ continued to be printed, growing from 16 pages to 24 with pictures of cacti and

succulents.

Visits began in the early to mid 1950s then ceased. In the years 1949 to 1953 approximately, some members travelled

by bus to Lockington to visit Ralph and Molly Field at Tennyson. Lockington had the nearest Hotel for

accommodation. Some local folk took some members out to his property on Labour Day weekend and Charles King

drove up and took some members out in his car.

It would be in the late 1950s or early 1960s before members began selling their own plants at the monthly meetings and

are still doing so.

The attendance at many of the meetings during the winter months in the 1950s was only 15-20 and on at least 2

occasions the Committee had to go home as only 3 or 4 turned up at the Herbarium.

The Society progressed under a succession of Presidents and Committee members with the bank balance being

gradually built up. For a few years I only attended the Christmas meetings whilst John (husband) was ill, resuming

attendance late in 1977. By Mrs Theo Himmerman

Page 11

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