Gagaimo

 

I only have one individual of this plant, now 2 years and 4 months old. Last year it produced just one fruit, despite the fruit coming in pairs. This year it has had eleven fruit already and is still flowering.

 

Common Milkweed fruit

 

I had a bumper crop of Asclepias syriaca fruit last year. Compared to the one fruit I have had in the previous eight years, any crop is surprising. I now wish I had spent some time photographing the insects on the flowers last year, as I have done before. I have no idea what insect did the pollinating.

Stephanotis updates

I have added some updates to my original article on Stephanotis floribunda (warning: Too Much Information, now over 19,000 words). The pictures are from the first re-flowering of my Stephanotis since I got it.

Most of the updates come from this Open Access article that expands the genus Stephanotis. Previously Stephanotis was only found on the island of  Madagascar. Some of the new species now included in Stephanotis are found across Africa and Asia. Some of the authors are recognised internationally as the experts on the family Apocynaceae.

Liede-Schumann, S, Reuss, SJ, Meve, U, Gâteblé, G, Livshultz, T, Forster, PI, Wanntorp, L & Rodda, M (2022), "Phylogeny of Marsdenieae (Apocynaceae, Asclepiadoideae) based on chloroplast and nuclear loci, with a conspectus of the genera" Taxon (2022) 71(4): 833-875     https://doi.org/10.1002/tax.12713    Accessed 6/10/2022

Apteranthes (Caralluma) tuberculata type specimen

 

Apteranthes (Caralluma) tuberculata

Herbarium sheet from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew¹ 

UPDATE: 16/9/2024

David Goyder of Kew Gardens (specialist in Angola, Madagascar and the Apocynaceae) has kindly looked into this for me. It seems the Kew Herbarium specimen is a combination of the specimens from Fleming and Stocks. The top row seem to be from Stocks. As the flowering specimen and "SEE SPIRIT COLLECTION" envelope are clearly from Stocks, the type specimen is Stocks 596. The catalogue should now reflect that Fleming's specimens are also on this sheet. I haven't altered the article below yet.

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The herbarium sheet above is the holotype specimen that was used to define the species Caralluma tuberculata when that species was first described by the Kew Gardens botanist Nicholas Edward Brown in 1892.² The plant was renamed Apteranthes tuberculata in 2002 but this herbarium specimen still decides what plants are included in that species. If a plant is too different from this herbarium specimen it must be a different species.

When I saw this specimen I realised I had seen the handwriting before and it did not look like the handwriting or style of label used by the plant collector it was supposed to be. The collection was credited to Dr John Ellerton Stocks and given the collection number 596.¹ 

I believe it should be credited to Dr Andrew Fleming, a less well-known collector who also worked for the English East India Company in what is now Pakistan. He collected far fewer plant samples than Stocks but his main job at the time he collected this plant was a geological survey.

When referenced in botanical articles, a herbarium sheet is called by the name of the collector and the collection number. NE Brown referred to the Kew Herbarium specimen as Stocks 596, so it must have been misfiled at some time before 1892. This one should be called Fleming 78. I believe I have some convincing proof.

Ceropegia bulbosa

I first read about Ceropegia bulbosa over 30 years ago and have finally got to eat the tuber. Of course, I could have visited India and found it there but I am too fussy for travelling long distances. The tuber becomes bitter soon after harvest and, as far as I know, it is not generally exported as a vegetable. So, I grew it from seed. 

Hoodia hybrid

I have been growing this plant since I received it in October 2020 under the name Trichocaulon flavum. That is an old name, that plant is now usually called Hoodia flava. It flowered last week and I now know that it is definitely not Hoodia flava. It appears to be a hybrid between two species of Hoodia.

Huernia hystrix

 

The photo above was taken last Saturday, the first of January 2022. I am immensely pleased that it flowered so soon.

A Citation

 

Ceropegia bulbosa, with edible leaves and tubers

much sought after in India. My photo from September.

I was looking up some descriptions of new species of Ceropegia on Friday night. I found one on Researchgate from 2015 for a species called Ceropegia terebriformis. The specific name terebriformis means "drill shaped" and refers to the tightly spiralled top of the corolla looking like a modern drill bit. It was only found once. The living plants they had collected grew very well for a while but all died. No uses were recorded.

The origin of the name Caralluma

Stapelia adscendens, from Plants of the Coast of Coromandel ¹ 

Picture file from the BHL Pro Flickr albums.

What is the origin of the name of the genus Caralluma? In short, we don't know. That will not stop me writing about it.

First, I will quote from Wikipedia. I wrote this part of the entry, so I think that it is allowable.

In 1795 William Roxburgh published the name Stapelia adscendens for a plant found in India. He commented that the name for the plant in the Telugu language was Car-allum and that the succulent branches are edible raw, though bitter and salty.¹ The name Caralluma was coined by Robert Brown for a new genus in an article published in 1811. At the time he only described one species in the genus, the plant that he renamed Caralluma adscendens.²

In 1996 Helmut Genaust published the suggestion that it was sensible to conclude that the generic name is derived from the Arabic phrase qahr al-luhum, meaning "wound in the flesh" or "abscess," referring to the floral odour. Genaust was unaware that the genus Caralluma existed east of Palestine. He specifically ruled out its existence in India, where it was first described and named. Genaust presumed that the name would have first been applied to Caralluma europaea in North Africa.³

So, it is clear that the name is from the Telugu language from southern India, but what does it mean? Neither Roxburgh nor Brown seem to have recorded that and did not give the spelling in Telugu script.

The origin of the name Ceropegia

Linnaeus named⁹ the genus Ceropegia in 1737 in his Genera plantarum.  Linnaeus referred to the description and picture of a plant in the Horti Malabarici as the plant for which the genus was created. In 1753 he named this as Ceropegia candelabrum.

Downloaded¹³ from the Biodiversity Heritage Library.

Open in a new tab to enlarge.

Above we have the iconotype of the Indian plant that Linnaeus named as Ceropegia candelabrum in 1753, as depicted¹³ in the Horti Malabarici of Henricum Rhede (or Reede) tot Drakestein published in 1689. The candelabrum bit gives it away when you see the way the flowers are arranged. Of course, some of you born after the invention of electric light may not have seen any candelabra or chandeliers.

There have been two possible explanations of the origin of the word Ceropegia. Linnaeus never explained it, as far as I know. 

Little fluffy flowers

I received this Hoya carnosa from Italy last September as a stunted succulent with a little bundle of roots that fitted with plenty of room to spare in a 7.5 cm (3 inch) pot. A bargain for €3. It has obviously appreciated being watered and fed a lot more with high humidity and a constant temperature of 23-26°C. It now has one metre of vine with several branches. These first flowers opened yesterday.

Shindal Makudi - an odd stapeliad

Shindal Makudi is the local Marathi name of an unusual little succulent found wild only in the state of Maharashtra in western India. It is one of the stapeliad group of flowering plants. Stapeliads are a part of a larger group called asclepiads.

The stapeliads are mainly stem-succulents with leaves that are reduced to tiny scales, completely absent or converted into thorns. They have adapted to hot, dry areas and would lose too much water through large leaves. As you can see from these pictures, Shindal Makudi is unique among the stapeliads in having full, large succulent leaves, though only during the very wet monsoon season.

This article is mainly about the social history of the plant. The stories of the locals, plant hunters and growers fascinate me. There will be some of the science as well, of course. However, if you want to dive more deeply into the ecology⁹⁹ ¹⁰⁰, botanical description,⁴⁰ Crassulacean Acid Metabolism⁴⁶ and taxonomy,⁵⁶ I would recommend looking at the articles linked in the References section. 

Obviously, this has been a bad year for finding people in their offices and I haven't been able to pop down to my local University library. So, a few things remain as mysteries for now.

Chapter headings

Part One

Names in Maharashtra

Botanical names

Uses

Vulnerability

Adaptations

Camouflage

Other stapeliads and their leaves

Cultivation requirements

First recorded European encounter in India

Hewra, Shivneri Hill Fort and Junnar

1863, last week of August: almost certainly Shivneri Hill Fort

Dalzell after Frerea

Later Botanical collections (1890-2020)

Part Two

(on a separate page)

Cultivation in India

Cultivation in Europe

L. Maurice Mason

Speculation on the origin of the European plants

Hybrids

Flower structure

Variability

References

Shindal Makudi - Part Two

Continued from Part One 

Cultivation in India

One of my two plants, again. Growing in Manchester.

We don't know whether Shindal Makudi was cultivated deliberately in the region where it now occurs. It is possible that the plant was deliberately introduced to some of the hill forts. It is odd that more than half of the locations where it grows have been associated with old military forts or ancient Buddhist monasteries. A plant that provided both medicine for wounds and an edible vegetable would seem to be useful to have around in a military fort.

Though it is true that many of the high hills in Maharashtra have old hill forts on them. 

The Beautiful Hoya

Hoya bella, the Beautiful Hoya

This beautiful plant may still be the most cultivated species of Hoya, 174 years after it was first collected by a European. Since the naming of the genus Hoya more than a hundred Hoya species have been made available for the amateur grower, out of 520 species now known. Other species of Hoya may be more spectacular but this one is beautiful, delightfully fragrant, compact and relatively easy to grow. 

Orbea variegata

This Orbea variegata flowered today and is a spectacular, peculiar and interesting flower. That does not stop it being an intense disappointment to me. I was sold it as a Huernia hystrix. Orbea variegata is the commonest and easiest to grow of the group of plants to which they both belong. I could have bought it from many shops that sell ornamental houseplants. 

Huernia hystrix is far harder to find and is a much sought-after and endangered herbal medicine in South Africa. 

I only spent £5 on it and a part of the postage costs. The other plants that came with it were the correct species. So it goes.

Edited to add: I have mentioned a little about the history of Orbea variegata in a new article on Huernia hystrix.

Belataky - Stephanotis

Stephanotis floribunda flowering in habitat in southeastern Madagascar.

Photo: © Nivo Rakotonirina from Tropicos

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0)

The Madagascar Jasmine is to retain its most well-known botanical name, but has changed its author. Stephanotis floribunda Jacques is the new combination accepted by Kew on their World Checklist of Selected Plant Families and on their Plants of the World Online.

The decision not to change the name to Marsdenia floribunda (C.Morren) Schltr. has come from the latest genetic studies. These studies (and 2022) have shown that Marsdenia and Stephanotis are distinct enough to deserve separate names. Both of these genera are in the tribe Marsdenieae of the Apocynaceae. There has been much discussion among botanists over the last two centuries regarding the exact divisions between the various genera of the Marsdenieae.

The change in author has occurred because I emailed Rafaël Govaerts at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew to point out that there was a publication earlier than the one that previously had been accepted as the earliest publication of the name with a proper description. The new combination has not yet been accepted by the International Plant Names Index, but they take their time over decisions.

UPDATE 14/03/2023: I was checking IPNI for something else and they have accepted the earlier description that I found. I am rather happy about this. They have an entry for Stephanotis floribunda Jacques, Ann. Soc. Hort. Paris 15(Livr. 83): 28 (1834) as well as two other origin dates (1835, 1837). The other two are given as isonyms, meaning they are the same name but not the original. The clincher is that they have used the 1834 version of the name as the basionym for the one they have as the current accepted name: Marsdenia floribunda (Jacques) Schltr., Symb. Antill. (Urban). 1(2): 275 (1899). I am sure they will also accept the resurrection of Stephanotis as a genus very soon, as the authors of the articles on restoring it are the leading authorities on that family of plants.

It might be a little thing for professional botanists who change plant names every day - but it has rather tickled me that I have left a tiny, insignificant alteration in the history of botany. So I decided to write an in-depth history of Stephanotis floribunda. I could not find any article online that did more than give growing tips and mention a few obvious facts about the plant.

There will not be many gardening tips in this piece. I would recommend following the growing advice from the Royal Horticultural Society if you are caring for a Stephanotis. I would also recommend that you don't buy a Stephanotis in mid-winter unless you can guarantee it won't get chilled on the way home or in the post. As I have learnt from my own experience this year.

This is one of my longer articles, this sentence bringing it to over 19,000 words. Chapter headings, linked for your convenience;
Malagasy Common Names
including Latakana ombelahy (first French encounter 1650ish)
Another French encounter (1770)
Third French encounter (1817)
Introduction to Europe
First Pictures
Neumann and Greenhouses
Louisa Lawrence
Edmund Butcher
Rapid popularity in Victorian Britain
Stephanotis floribunda Elvaston variety
Stephanotis floribunda "Polyanthum"?
Stephanotis floribunda "Variegata"
Other Colours and Species
New Species added to Stephanotis in 2022 
Flower structure
21st Century
Fragrance
Stephanotic acid
English Common Names
Origin of the botanical name
The Confusion of Marsdenia floribunda 
Alternative botanical names
References for names

Stapeliad flower

Here are a couple of photos of Duvalia polita N.E. Br of the Asclepiadoideae subfamily of the Apocynaceae, which used to be its own family of Asclepiadaceae. I grew it under fluorescent lights from 2013 to 2014 and it flowered abundantly for quite a long time. It started getting a fungal disease in some parts of the plant and I decided I could use the space better as it had started to sprawl all over the place, The flowers are very variable in colour and some are spotty. All of mine were this dark chocolate-purple, these being the only photos that more-or-less got it. Other variations can be seen under the entry at the SI Database at Stapeliads.net.

The seed came from the seed list of the marvellous International Asclepiad Society. Worth being a member for that alone, let alone the glossy magazine.