Xerophilia 2015

Xerophilia could not have been around without the kind support of all who sent us articles, photos, drawings, or helped us with translations and advice for the four regular issues and the two special issues released in 2014: Ada Damiani, Italy; Alessandro Natodi, Italy; Alexandru Tar, Romania; Aldo Delladdio, Italy; Antonio Ibarra Pecina, Mexico; Attila & Michele Kapitany, Australia; Basarab Popa, Romania; Benjamín Catarino Morales, Mexico; Camilla Cattabriga, Italy; Carlos Gerardo Velazco Macías, Mexico; Charles Puche, Spain; Claudia López Martínez, Mexico; Cristian Perez Badillo, Mexico; Cyrill Hunkeler, Switzerland; Daniel Guillot Ortiz, Spain; Davide Donati, Italy; David Rubbo, Italy; Derrick J. Rowe, New Zealand; Emilio Laguna Lumbreras, Spain; Erik Holm, Denmark; Federico Centenari, Italy; Francisco Moreno, Mexico; Gabriel Millán Garduño, México; Håkan Sönnermo, Sweden; Inmaculada Ferrando, Spain; Ján Baran, Slovakia; Jacqueline del Rocío Cadena Martinez, Mexico; Jennifer Pannell, New Zealand; John Exarhou, Greece; John J. Lavranos, Portugal; Jovana Jaime Hernández, Mexico; Judd Kirkel Welwitch, South Africa; Karla González Piña, Mexico; Leccinum Jesús García-Morales, Mexico; Leo Rodríguez, Mexico; Linda Cecilia Muñoz, Mexico; Malcolm A. Grant, New Zealand; Miklós Ficzere, Hungary; Milan Zachar, Slovakia; Oliver Gluch, Germany; P. Pablo Ferrer-Gallego, Spain; Paolo Panarotto, Italy; Pavel Golubovskiy, Ukraine; Piet van der Meer, Spain; Ricardo Daniel Raya Sanchez, Mexico; Roberto Garay Segura, Mexico; Sandy Karina Neri Cardona, Mexico; Silvan Freudiger, Switzerland; Stefan Nitzschke, Germany; Thomas Linzen, Germany; Víctor Abraham Vargas-Vázquez, Mexico, Vlad Zimer, New Zealand.

Founders: Eduart Zimer, Dag Panco & Valentin Posea

Editorial Team: Eduart Zimer, Dag Panco, Andrea Cattabriga & Pedro Nájera Quezada, Miguel Ángel González-Botello, Valentin Posea & Ionuț Mihai Floca

Xerophilia is produced in Romania, edited in New Zealand, field researched in Mexico, designed in Italy and written by authors from all over the world!

Xerophilia - the passion for cacti and other succulents

Xerophilia 2015

Then we progressed by locating another adjacent but hidden subpopulation, displaying signs of being healthy and in good condition, in order to replant in that place the recovered specimens. The rescued specimens were planted in an area of 1000 m2, where already Ariocarpus kotschoubeyanus and Pelecyphora aselliformis were well settled. They were planted in soils with cyanobacterial crusts having the same biological characteristics like in their original location. Pedro Nájera Quezada et al - Rescue translocation of “in situ" Cactaceae: the Ariocarpus kotschoubeyanus case. Xerophilia 9 – June 2014.

JANUARY

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Xerophilia 2015

I found H. kajewskii high in the canopy of mangrove/littoral strand forests accompanied by two other almost equally unusual Hydnophytum taxa and many examples of Myrmecodia tuberosa "salomonensis". I photographed more specimens of H. kajewskii at elevations around 1000 m (3281 ft.) on the Crown Prince Range overlooking Arawa. These were mostly perched under a much lower rainforest canopy; therefore, they were sometimes within arm’s reach and there was even a windfall specimen that provided excellent photographic opportunities. One particularly large and presumably ancient plant grew on a small tree on a steep mountainside extremely exposed to the elements. Derrick J. Rowe - Epiphytic myrmecophytes of southern Asia and the southwest Pacific. Xerophilia Special 3 – January 2014.

FEBRUARY

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Xerophilia 2015

The phenology of this new taxon occurs irregularly during the winter months, from December to February, as it happens with the rest of the close related subspecies of the Turbinicarpus schmiedickeanus complex, while the fruiting occurs in March and April; the flowers of T. schmiedickeanus subsp. sanchezi-mejoradae remain open for more than 3 days, an ecological strategy for assuring the cross pollination during the short flower season, also probably because the slow flower production and low population density of this taxon. Leccinum Jesús García-Morales, Miguel Ángel González-Botello et Víctor Abraham Vargas-Vázquez - Turbinicarpus schmiedickeanus (Böedeker) Buxb. & Backeb. subsp. sanchezi-mejoradae , a new subspecies from Tamaulipas, México . Xerophilia Special 4 – March 2014.

MARCH

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Xerophilia 2015

We were amazed by the show provided by the so abundant flowering and, more, by the so uncommon sight of the flowers ”emerging directly from the soil”. But another being immediately caught my attention and although the beautiful plant remained the protagonist, however, the aiming of my camera’s lens at the scene was hijacked by a specimen of Megetra cancellata, a beetle of the Meloidae family, which I saw year last in exactly the same place, but this time feeding from an Ariocarpus flower. Miguel Ángel González-Botello - Anthophagy. Xerophilia 11 – December 2014.

APRIL

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Xerophilia 2015

Despite their fierce spines, Mexican cacti remain under a constant threat. They are in a race that they seem to lose, but eventually only the main destroyers, us, will make the difference between going extinct or survive. Meanwhile, governmental, social, collectors and researchers organizations formulate strategies to raise awareness about the importance of preserving the wealth and diversity of the cactus family in our country, a group of plants immersed in our culture since pre-Hispanic times. Gabriel Millán Garduño - Despite their spines: Mexican cacti under threat. Xerophilia 8 – March 2014.

MAY

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Xerophilia 2015

In March 2012, I released a new Australian hybrid succulent plant of distinction; bred under a harsh summer sun, it is a plant truly symbolic of Australia, in green and golden colours, which I have named xDisphyllum ‘Sunburn’. A luxuriant green, relatively compact, groundcover succulent which flowers readily and heavily throughout most of the year, xDisphyllum ‘Sunburn’ has beautiful golden, yellow/orange flowers, of more than 50 mm in diameter. Attila Kapitany - A new Australian intergeneric hybrid: xDisphyllum ‘Sunburn’. Xerophilia 8 – March 2014.

JUNE

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Xerophilia 2015

Agave potatorum is famous and widely used in some neighbouring regions to produce “mezcal”, a popular alcoholic drink that burns but also brings joy to the mouth, this is the reason this species is called “maguey mezcalero”, also locally known as papalometl, papalomé and tobalá. Its blue colour, compact form and the shape of the short leaves make it an interesting Agave species, which grows easily from seed and is hardy and highly ornamental. Francisco Moreno - Agave potatorum and other xerophytes in Tepanco de López, Puebla, Mexico. Xerophilia 10 – October 2014.

JULY

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AUGUST

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2431

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Xerophilia 2015

Some 30 km from the above mentioned habitat of M. zeilmanniana and M. polythele ssp. durispina, is a very large population of Stenocactus zacatecasensis; the interesting thing about this population is that it is the only one where you can see sizable specimens, of about 18 cm approx. diameter, their distribution is actually limited, because grazing on this land has forced this plant to withdraw in small pockets of the hundreds of hectares of plains of the south-western Guanajuato. Leo Rodríguez – Mammillaria polythele, M. zeilmanniana and other cacti from Guanajuato. Xerophilia 11 – December 2014.

SEPTEMBER

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Xerophilia 2015

Sierra del Pinacate is a dormant volcano, a special place of high interest and value, being essentially constituted by lava flows, extremely resistant to erosion, which have not been altered. Therefore, the archaeological record of the site has not been disturbed and has orogenic features of high interest for its abrupt conformation resulting from frequent volcanic eruptions, lava accumulated in compact rocks, sand and volcanic ashes, igneous rocks in which weathering has produced particularly beautiful colorations and patterns, and beautiful craters like El Elegante, Cerro Colorado, MacDougal and Sykes. Karla González Piña – The Biosphere Reserve of El Pinacate y Gran Desierto de Altar. Xerophilia 9 – June 2014.

OCTOBER

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Xerophilia 2015

When thinking about carnivorous plants, one usually takes as a basic assumption that they come from wet areas, with large numbers of insects; however, they also managed to establish in arid regions of Mexico and grow along with species that would appear as the most unlikely associates (…) which suggests that in the past climates in the highlands were milder, with a more suitable humidity and temperature range, and with less vegetation to outcompete cacti, succulents and the Lentibulariaceae and thus covering a much larger area. Pedro Nájera Quezada - Carnivorous xeric flora in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. Xerophilia 10 – October 2014.

NOVEMBER

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Xerophilia 2015

Unfortunately and compared with the rocky mountainous ranges where other Turbinicarpus species grow, T. pseudopectinatus prefers mostly the lower intermountain valleys along the Sierra Madre Oriental with deep dark soils, that are also very sought of for being cultivated as crops and for cattle grazing. As a result several populations are heavy impacted by those activities in the region; some also have disappeared in the last 15 years as those inhabited areas became extended. A good thing about this species is that it grows quickly from seed banks in soil and can recover in several years into adult plants if the place remains vacant and safe from cattle. Leccinum J. García Morales - On the Turbinicarpus of Tamaulipas, Part 2. Xerophilia 8 – March 2014.

DECEMBER

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Xerophilia 2015

Later on we arrived in Barranca where a swim in the Pacific felt wonderfully pleasant after the desert heat. Pativilca, a small town not far from Barranca, sits on the border to Departamento de Áncash. The road to Cajatambo, the little village in the Andes that I visited the last time I was in Peru, starts here. We didn’t have much time so Cajatambo had to wait. Instead we went north and hiked in the mountains near Pativilca. We were hoping to see some Haageocereus lanugispinus, which has never been observed since Ritter discovered the species in 1957. Håkan Sönnermo - Peru: a land of deserts, ice, oxygen deprivation and cacti. Xerophilia 9 – June 2014.

Xerophilia 2015