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 

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. 

Alpinia formosana

 

This plant was sold to me as Alpinia formosana and I have no reason to doubt that. The usual common name is "pinstripe ginger" because it has very smart thin pale stripes on the leaves. It is a member of the same plant family as ginger, the Zingiberaceae. It is in the same genus as the galangal, another spicy root used in a lot of east Asian cooking. This species does not appear to be used in cooking, though it does have slightly smelly tubers that, like ginger and galangal, run parallel to the surface of the soil. The leaves smell very nice if crushed, a woody, resiny fragrance that is not quite like any others I have smelt.

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.