I apologize for putting up something that is not new as I am guessing a lot of people outthere are already familiar with a good number of these images but I thought assembling this in one place might aid in shedding light on some of the other threads presently running elsewhere here.
I'll also apologize in advance for repeating some things said elsewhere but it seems good to have this in one place since it might be new to someone.
In viewing these images I'd like to pose a question:
How much more variation might there be in between what could result from seeds taken from the same mother plant that once produced this plant?
This is a set of photographs of branches on one single huge plant growing in the Huntington.
I thought it was a nice example of how much variation can be seen from tip to tip. Some of this is new versus old growth or sun, some is different times of year and some who knows what is going on. The photos were taken over a period of a few years.
The Huntington's accession data for this plant was lost so "I don't know" will remain the best answer to many questions about it but there are some curious known coincidences surrounding it that are intriguing:
1) Its accession number lies in between the numbers on other plants in the Huntington that Erik Werdermann was responsible for donating and or naming (it would seem likely if not probable that other accessions entered during that time period from elsewhere?)
2) During that time frame Werdermann had an extended stay at the Huntington and during that time he actually named a number of plants in their garden (assorted Cereus and Echinopsis robinsoniorum as examples)
3) Spanning that visit, Werdermann was then the director of the botanical gardens at Berlin where macrogonus was clearly still alive.
4) The origin of the macrogonus at Berlin was unknown by the time anyone described it so it was listed typically as "South America" on the assumption that had to be where it came from. While the Huntington in general included a specific country of origin on their plant tags this one gives South America as its place of origin.
I'm really wanting to see the material from Berlin-Dahlen assuming it even still exists.
While it is clearly pure speculation on my part at this point, I'm wondering if the rather variable material in Germany, as Evil Genius has shared tons of images of, could be this same plant line.
Those are all greenhouse grown or younger plants whereas this has been in a fairly sunny spot, with irrigation, in the ground outdoors for many years. The nice thing is that in the future DNA work might be able to actually give an answer one way or the other.
At some point in the near future I'll post a summary of what I've managed to piece together as to the assorted points of entry into horticulture of the plants now called macrogonus. I've still got lots of questions due to missing chunks of documentation but there are some clear lineages that exist and it might be helpful if it was studied with a mind to that.
Interestingly, also during Werdermann's stay at the Huntington, Curt Backeberg, who was then Werdermann's assistant at Berlin, visited the Huntington on his way back from his 1931 South American expedition and donated assorted plants including some bridgesii seedlings that left a nice patch which is still there.
I apologize for putting up something that is not new as I am guessing a lot of people outthere are already familiar with a good number of these images but I thought assembling this in one place might aid in shedding light on some of the other threads presently running elsewhere here.
I'll also apologize in advance for repeating some things said elsewhere but it seems good to have this in one place since it might be new to someone.
In viewing these images I'd like to pose a question:
How much more variation might there be in between what could result from seeds taken from the same mother plant that once produced this plant?
This is a set of photographs of branches on one single huge plant growing in the Huntington.
I thought it was a nice example of how much variation can be seen from tip to tip. Some of this is new versus old growth or sun, some is different times of year and some who knows what is going on. The photos were taken over a period of a few years.
The Huntington's accession data for this plant was lost so "I don't know" will remain the best answer to many questions about it but there are some curious known coincidences surrounding it that are intriguing:
1) Its accession number lies in between the numbers on other plants in the Huntington that Erik Werdermann was responsible for donating and or naming (it would seem likely if not probable that other accessions entered during that time period from elsewhere?)
2) During that time frame Werdermann had an extended stay at the Huntington and during that time he actually named a number of plants in their garden (assorted Cereus and Echinopsis robinsoniorum as examples)
3) Spanning that visit, Werdermann was then the director of the botanical gardens at Berlin where macrogonus was clearly still alive.
4) The origin of the macrogonus at Berlin was unknown by the time anyone described it so it was listed typically as "South America" on the assumption that had to be where it came from. While the Huntington in general included a specific country of origin on their plant tags this one gives South America as its place of origin.
I'm really wanting to see the material from Berlin-Dahlen assuming it even still exists.
While it is clearly pure speculation on my part at this point, I'm wondering if the rather variable material in Germany, as Evil Genius has shared tons of images of, could be this same plant line.
Those are all greenhouse grown or younger plants whereas this has been in a fairly sunny spot, with irrigation, in the ground outdoors for many years. The nice thing is that in the future DNA work might be able to actually give an answer one way or the other.
At some point in the near future I'll post a summary of what I've managed to piece together as to the assorted points of entry into horticulture of the plants now called macrogonus. I've still got lots of questions due to missing chunks of documentation but there are some clear lineages that exist and it might be helpful if it was studied with a mind to that.
Interestingly, also during Werdermann's stay at the Huntington, Curt Backeberg, who was then Werdermann's assistant at Berlin, visited the Huntington on his way back from his 1931 South American expedition and donated assorted plants including some bridgesii seedlings that left a nice patch which is still there.
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