BCSS - Forum

ChrisR wrote:

Lindsey wrote:......but Adros.....all look wrinkled and brown in habitat

Lindsey.....I'm shocked.....shocked!
Are my habitat pictures above of wrinkled & brown Adros?

No indeed! Those were somebody else's photos, one I think was a MSG talk on Conophytums... the other was a talk at my local BCSS Branch, from a trip to an extremely arid area of Namibia.

I enjoy your and Derek's habitat photos, whether those you are kind enough to post on this Forum, or those on Derek's website http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/adrodisp/ HIGHLY recommended - try his quiz! ,
or in the Adro grower's bible, "Adromischus" by Pilbeam, Rodgerson, Tribble - search on http://www.keithscactusbooks.co.uk/
(NB! This is available NEW from Keith Larkin, special offer, reduced price till the end of this month!)

Splendid to see A.marianiae "kubusensis" in habitat with seed pods It knows it isn't in the UK

A brown and wrinkled plant in captivity

A few more images to show how Adromischus often seek out shade in habitat.

This is A.subviridis to the south of Loeriesfontein....deep in undergrowth of shrubby mesembs, a stick Euphorbia and whatever else makes up this tangle.
Here's a closer look.
Here's A.marianiae inside a bush near Clanwilliam. Good camouflage. I usually look for the old flower stems sticking up from the bushes - they are usually ginger in colour in the wild as can be seen in the A.subviridis picture above.
This is A.marianiae 'hallii' in Bushmanland. The roots keep cool deep inside the fissured quartzite rock and the top growth only gets partial sun.
But this is what happens when the "nurse" bush dies.....a once protected Adromischus marianiae 'herrei' enjoying it's shady spot is now fully exposed.
Not all Adros like deep shade and shelter..... as illustrated by this A.hemisphaericus. But even then it's growing on the south side of a mountain (the north side being the sunny side in the southern hemisphere).

More great photos Chris!

One day I'll get around to updating the Adromischus Displayed web site and I'll have to add a link back here! Would be nice to produce another book eventually, but in checking all the herbarium specimens, I've found quite a few taxonomic problems that need sorting out first e.g. missing types, locating type localities of old names, etc. So it'll take a few years yet ...

Best wishes,
DT

We may yet have to do another Adro-specific trip Derek......or two!

Another one with old flower stalks that are reluctant to come away from the stems Slightly wrinkled with no label - perhaps Adromischus schuldtianus

Those flower stems rarely come away from the plant easily. I just trim them back.

The bottom picture is A.subviridis......more than likely either CR.1179 or DT.5582.....the same collection in Bloukrans Pass, South of Calvinia.

My small contribution. I found a leaf and put it on top of the soil. This is what I got.

A couple to add before the end of the month.
First is wrinkled but not brown (I promise to water it sometime soon). Next is sphenophyllusRather pretty flowers, if you get close enough, with nectar drops at the flower bases. The wildlife hiding behind the 2nd lowest flower has been removed (permanently).