Anomalous sites of spine growth were noticed in one specimen of Gymnocalycium vatteri. The specimen was grown from seed, received from Kakteen-Haage (Germany) in August 1986, and germinated in December 1986 (Kiev, Ukraine, neon light indoor greenhouse). From May 1988 to August 2003, the plant was grown on a windowsill. In August 2003, it was brought to Mexico City, and until January 2006 was again grown on a windowsill. From January 2006 until the present, it is in an open-air greenhouse (state of Morelos, Mexico).
This year, an anomalous emergence of small secondary spines was noticed outside areoles. Figure 1 shows the specimen. Namely, these spines appear ca. 2–3 mm below one-year-old areoles, without having any visible connection with the latter. Figure 2 shows different development stages of these secondary spines. First, the site where a spine will appear can be found as a small spot on epidermis (Figure 2a). The youngest spines detectable are conical, and shorter than 1 mm (Figure 2b, c). After reaching 1 mm in length, the young spine starts to bend (figure 2d). In most cases, the bending is outward from the plant apex (figures 2f–i). More rarely, the hook-shaped spines bend toward the apex (figure 2e). ‘Normally’ oriented, more mature spines can be tilde-shaped (figure 2f, g) or just curved (figure 2h, i). The longest/oldest secondary spines found reach 5 mm in length.
1
General view of the specimen of Gymnocalycium vatteri: the secondary spines (marked with red circles) appear below one-year-old areoles, but are absent at younger ones. Photo: V. A. Basiuk.
2a–i
Images illustrating different development stages of the secondary spines: a the spot where a spine will appear; b, c young spines, conical shaped and shorter than 1 mm; d a young spine of ca. 1 mm, starting to bend; e a spine bent to the direction opposite to normal one; f, g tilde-shaped spines, about 3 mm long; h, i the oldest secondary spines found, ca. 4 and 5 mm long, respectively. Photos: V. A. Basiuk.
The origin of this phenomenon is, so far, unclear.
LITTLE BITS OF PEOPLE HISTORY by Chuck Staples, CSSA Historian
Nathaniel Lord Britton (1859–1934) was the US geologist and botanist on the Geological Survey of New Jersey 1978–84. He founded the Botanical Society of America in 1893 and its president 1898 & 1920. Britton was a founding member of the New York Botanical Garden 1896–29. He was appointed research associate of the gardens from 1912 while working as senior partner with Joseph Nelson Rose (1862–1928) on The Cactaceae book project. Britton was Honorary President of CSSA from when it was founded in 1929 and was its first Life Member. The NY Botanical Garden periodical Brittonia was named in his honor in 1931 and its herbarium in 1935. Of a few books written by Britton and Rose their greatest accomplishment was The Cactaceae in four volumes from 1919 to 1923, the cactus bible of the day. Of the many cactus plant genera they described over half are still good names today. Together they described many species.
Johann Jakob Dillenius [Dillen] (1684–1747) was a German physician, botanist, botanical artist and philosopher. He went to England to assist amateur botanist William Sherard (1659–1728) in his herbarium and garden at Eltham, England 1721–28. Dillenius met Carolus Linnaeus (1707–1778) in 1736. Dillenius was one of the founders of the Botanical Society of London and first president in 1721—and was awarded a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1724. Linnaeus thought Dillenius' 1732 two-volume book Hortus Elthamensis seu Plantarum Rariorum was the most complete botanical work the world had ever seen—a catalogue of plants in the private botanical garden of brother James Sherard (1666–1738) at Eltham. Dillenius drew and etched drawings in this publication that included succulent plants, mostly Mesembs. What we now know as Opuntia he called Tuna in this book.
Albrecht Vojtěch Fric (1882–1944) was a Czech Republic cactologist and commercial grower. He made seven exploratory trips to South America, Mexico and Texas from 1899 to 1929 to collect cactus plants. Fric had a tendency to ignore the Code of Nomenclature in setting up his own classification of cacti which upset many of the leading botanists of the time, e.g., segregating genera north and south of the equator. He described genera Cylindrorebutia (Rebutia), Neowerdermannia and Obregonia along with a few cactus plant species. A Stenocereus species was named in his honor.
