Winter activities...

[FlorentG]

Hello!

I'm coming back home for a few days... The plants are well and my mother has just built up 8 more shelves, so that my 3000 plants could fit in the veranda.

Many south-africans are waking up... lets see...


Tylecodon bodleyae. I didn't even know what the flowers would look like, and the "wolly" petals seem to be a rather unique feature in the genus !!




The plant is only 4 cm high.




Conophytum minutum is putting new sheats. From seeds collected at Steven Hammer's.


Pseudolithos eylensis, an ever growing rock. Flowered last month, grafted on a Ceropegia bulbosa.


Vessels inside a baby Dorstenia hildebranthii.


Conophytum angelicae, a quite old plant!


Tylecodon kritsingeri, Rosyntjiesberge, very fast growing plant !!


Bulbine sp... I lost track of her precise identification.


The old flower of Conophytum pellucidum pulls up the old sheat!


Impatiens tuberosa, best blossom ever.

Florent

[Josse]

If I can see well enough, there are a delicate filaments on the petals of that T.bodleyae.
Very unusual. Beautiful little plant though.

Thanks for the pictures Florent.

[Morgans Beauty]

Tylecodon bodleyae... a very incredible plant beautiful! THX for sharing these great pix

[Julie]

Beautiful bulbine - I love those fat little leaves!

C. pellucidum always flowers for me, but it's never caught the old skin like that.

Beatiful pics, like the hairy flowers too.

[Ray_M]

Great to see the tylecodons and the bulbine,both of much interest to me Florent.Thanks for sharing the smashing pics as usual.The mesem and pel seeds you sent me are all growing well.Good luck in your travels, please keep us informed.Cheers,Ray.

[Apicra]

Hi Florent,

That Bulbine looks like one of the southern B. mesembryanthemoides (or however it is spelt!).

I love the T. kritzingeri seedling - wonder how much growth it can make in a season?

Your T. bodleyae is not 'typical' with a narrow stem and a reddish streak on the flower. At the only locality, it does intergrade with T. similis down the mountainside, as Peter Bruyns told me. Very interesting ... the T. bodleyae plants at the top could be interpreted as ancient hybrids between T.similis and T. torulosus (not very far away to the N at Karrachabpoort, with the long tubular flowers clustered in a compact inflorescence), then back-crossed to T. simils to give the intermediates. Evolution in action creating a new species???

T. torulosus interacts (a little) with T. buchholtzianus as well in the Karrachabpoort, the only other population I know with intermediates between two species. Other field hyrids observed have just been single specimens. Have you noticed any?

Best wishes,
Derek Tribble

[FlorentG]

Hi Derrek!

We found many Tylecodon kritsingeri (always on west-facing slopes) on Rosyntjiesberge. I may actually be much more widespread than we thought !! It's just well hidden. It can sometimes grow 15cm a year in nature (from what we've seen).


Rosyntjiesberge, 5km W of Oemsberg

Very interesting story about the hybrids.

I don't know any other case of interbreeding except the well known T. paniculata X T. wallichi/cacalioides found S. of Ladismith in great numbers with many different intermediates.

Best wishes,

Florent

[Apicra]

HI Florent,

That has to challenge T. ventricosus for the title of most-ugly Tylecodon! I thought they could grow 30 cm or more in a year, to judge by one at Kirstenbosch.

Of course! The natural hybrid T. cacaloides X paniculatus was christened C. fergusoniae, but I have never noticed any in the veld. It is present in cultivation - I was shown one recently from ELK. Got any more info/piccies?

Best wishes,
Derek Tribble

[FlorentG]

Hi Derrek,

This is abondant a few km W of the Muiria locality, on the hills, south-facing.


Tylecodon fergusoniae! Found in 2008. There was all the intermediates between both species.

Best wishes,

Florent

[Apicra]

I would love to see the flowers on that to see how they combine characters! It does not look that much different from wallichii/cacaloides (which are difficult to tell apart of course without flowers). I suppose it is the lack of phylllopodia (leaf base stalks) on the stem and the brown peeling bark which indicates that it is a T. paniculatus hybrid.

Thanks - I must look harder in future!

Best wishes,
Derek