BCSS - Forum

Hi John, if you can correct the wrong names, I would be very grateful. I did struggle to find names that I thought were right.

Hello Liz,

admittedly I had noticed this fine travelogue already early this spring. It brought back fine memories to me - especially, as one of my trips to Gran Canaria had started just one day before You originally posted Your wonderful pictures!
However, when preparing my talk on the Canaries for the BCSS Zoom series it slipped off my mind ... Hope there's still interest in some suggestions for name corrections:

• In Your first post the 4th pic is showing young plants of Sedum rubens instead of Monanthes polyphylla. Haven't seen the latter species on GC, so I enclose a picture of it from Tenerife for comparision.

• In Your next post it's again picture No. 4 that I identify differently: The plant shown is also Kleinia neriifolia (or Senecio kleinia) like the previous photo.
  The plant of the given name, Euphorbia regis-jubae, can be seen on the next photograph. In fact, most of the 'native shrubs' on this picture are of that species, especially the yellowish ones. I always find it very surprisng how a plant whose flowers don't look too impressive from close distance is capable of shining so bright from the distance!

• The last picture of the 5:58 post is entitled 'More Aeonium canariense ssp virgineum, along with Opuntia'. However, as the Aeonium shown here all have stems, they have to be a different species. Most probably they are Aeonium undulatum.

• The 2nd photograph of 6:14 presents an unnamed Mesemb. This is the native Aizoon canariense. It's a really wide-spread species, both on the Canaries and in Africa. I add a photo of a younger specimen showing both the (quite primitive) flower and fruits.

Wolfgang

Regarding finding plant names for Canarian succulents: The best book from my point of view is 'Succulent Plants of the Canary Islands' by Joël Lodé. It seems to be almost impossible to order it from here (be it EU or UK), but You may find it quite easily in book stores of the National Parks, museum shops or the like on the Canaries. Alternatively You can purchase a personalised PDF via Joël's homepage (http://cactus-aventures.com/Succulent_P ... S_ENG.html; price is 13,50 €).

Joël's taxonomic view definitely is a splitter's view (which is not mine). However, as a result You have even more pictures to get an impression of the variabilities. And of course, after having found the plant You're looking for, You're free to apply a name that You find more appropriate, e.g. a subspecies instead of a species.

Wolfgang