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. 

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

The Beautiful Hoya

Hoya bella, the Beautiful Hoya

This beautiful plant is still the most cultivated 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.

Lemon Curio

My Curio just flowered. The flower is 12mm (½ inch) across and 22 mm (⅞ inch) tall. They don't flower very often but are widely-grown for their decorative succulent leaves and trailing habit.

The yellow pollen is produced first, by the purple anthers. A day later the stigmas, the white ramshorn-shaped structures with pink tips, burst out of the column of anthers and become ready to receive pollen. If you right-click the photo and select "open image in new tab" (or the equivalent in your application) the photo should be detailed enough to see that.

Frerea

The first flower on my Frerea indica (or Boucerosia frerei) was badly placed for taking a photo. This was the best I could get. The flower is 2.5cm (an inch) across.

I am writing a long article on the plant so, hopefully, by the time that is finished there will be better photos from flowers that aren't on the underside of a horizontal stem with other stems in the way.

The Glorious 25th of May

Never forget.

Mayflowers and some flowers, in May, Part 1

Hawthorn or Mayflower

Yesterday, I went for my first recreational stroll since being locked down. I took one hour and a little under 20 minutes. Hopefully I will not be prosecuted for this infraction. In my mitigation, this was my only journey that was not shopping or going to work for the last six weeks. I put the photos of horse chestnut flowers in a post yesterday. Some of the others I am including here and the rest in another post that I will hopefully complete in a few days.

Horse chestnut flowers

I went for a short walk today on a mission to get photos of horse chestnut flowers. I thought they would complement the article that I composed last September which touched on the history, seeds, uses, disease and chemistry of the plant. I managed to get a few nice flower photos.

Bloody Bean Trees - Part 3: The Americas

THESE THREE ARTICLES ARE UNFINISHED

I have been distracted by a large project that I put aside in 2014 and am working on that for the next few months. Hopefully I will return to the Dragon's Blood series, tidy these three up and complete the ones about the famous Dragon's Blood trees.

American Faboideae

Dalbergia

Gliricidia

Machaerium

Pterocarpus

American and African Detarioideae

American and African Dialioideae

American Caesalpinioideae

Caesalpinia

Haematoxylum

The other Brazilwood, Paubrasilia

Bloody Bean Trees - Part 2: Africa

THESE THREE ARTICLES ARE UNFINISHED

I have been distracted by a large project that I put aside in 2014 and am working on that for the next few months. Hopefully I will return to the Dragon's Blood series, tidy these three up and complete the ones about the famous Dragon's Blood trees.

Baphia nitida seedpod or legume.

Ogooué-Maritime Province, Gabon

© David J Harris African Plants, A Photo Guide

Free use for non-commercial scientific or educational purposes.

Bloody Bean Trees - Part 1: Asia

Adenanthera pavonina pods, open and showing the glossy scarlet seeds.

Photo: © G P Lewis from Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Creative Commons Attribution CC BY?

THESE THREE ARTICLES ARE UNFINISHED

I have been distracted by a large project that I put aside in 2014 and am working on that for the next few months. Hopefully, I will return to the Dragon's Blood series, tidy these three up and complete the ones about the famous Dragon's Blood trees.

This is the next article in my series on dragon's blood and other bloodwoods. The first article was a hotchpotch of the more obscure varieties from various unusual plant families. Because there was less information it was easier to finish than the last ones will be. There will be three articles on the bloody bean trees, on those from Asia, Africa and the Americas.

Future articles will cover the dragon's blood from Croton, Daemonorops and Dracaena. The article on Croton is going to be a list of the various plants with a few details on each, not exhaustive monographs on each plant. The articles on Daemonorops and Dracaena will be more in-depth, as there is a lot of information on those rattans and trees.

Art Nouveau

I decided a few weeks ago that I should make a little decoration for a book that I am compiling on the ethnobotany of the asclepiads. The book will just be a listing of all known human uses for the Asclepiadoideae that I can find before I get bored of it. It will only exist in the virtual realm and be available for free, it will not get printed.

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