Sunday, August 10, 2014

Braunsia, Ruschia and Antimima (3 pics)

I've been reading up on some species in Mesembs of the World (strange name for a book about plants that naturally grow in only one part of the world) and Succulent Flora of Southern Africa. Both books have wonderful illustrations telling more than words but as usual there is next to nothing about care in cultivation. A book on that has yet to be written. Still, using the discription you can try to guess and then handle the plants accordingly. That's when experimentation under carefuly observation begins.

Intrigued by the looks of the Mesembs below I bought them at the recent C&S market in Essen. I've never grown Ruschia, Antimima or Braunsia before and know nothing about them so at first I waited to see how they'll react to the new conditions (they are greenhouse grown). I haven't seen any big changes in the looks except for getting wrinkled in the sun and returning to the old shape when watered. Carefully watered. Because I really don't know what I'm doing here. So let's see what we can interpret into something useful from the articles in the books.

The articles on Braunsia are pretty short (same as others). The specimen I have is Braunsia geminata (SB1397/MG1353.4). Combined with The New Mastering the Art of Growing Mesembs by S. Hammer this is what I learnt that might be useful: It can get up to 30cm tall, grows primarily in winter (in SA or here?), flowers pink or white (there are way too many "or"s in Succulent Flora of Southern Africa, not helpful), dries out quickly (the photo in Mesembs of the World shows a very very wrinkly plant). According to S. Hammer it flowers in winter to spring (which is basically all year long?), in Mesembs of the World they (probably also him) write "flowering from midsummer to early winter (Jan to Jul in SA)". So no idea, will have to find out myself. In fact, every indication of time of the year in the books is unclear because you don't know whether it's southern or northern hemisphere. Can be propagated from cuttings.


Moving on to Ruschia, a significant part of the articles is about how it's been mixed up with Antimima before (irrelevant to me). Mine is Ruschia sp. (MG1852.222). As per S. Hammer, "watered amply, they retain more lower leaves while adding new ones on top; starved, they will favor the new, and abandon the old yellows" which is quite good piece of information meaning that we can regulate the looks depending on what we as growers find more attractive. I guess the former will look better throughout the year while the latter will increase chances for flowers. Daytime flowers seem to be mainly pink and sweet-smelling and can be expected anytime in the year with peaks in spring and fall. No useful info in SFSA.


Antimima seem to be winter-growers (meaning kept dry in summer), flowers pink-red before spring, strongly scented and sometimes growing on "sticks". The whole "1-to-3-type leaves" got me confused. The one I have is Antimima fenestrata (MG1319.42) and the sheaths are wrapped around the new green leaves. Accordning to MotW the "leaves are either of one type only, or of two, rarely three" but nowhere is indicated which species is which. It says, the first leaf pair forms a sheath which tells me that mine must have two. Okay then, it might be Monilaria-like so it should start growing soon. It says in SFSA "attractive genus which deserves more attention". Right. Then why not write something about it? No useful info in SFSA.


That's what I got so far. I wished the articles had less descriptions of plants' looks. The plants are right there on the photos! We can see how they look like. Why repeat it? To fill the pages? Fill them with more photos then :D

In this sense, do you have any tips and tricks for me? :)

17 comments:

  1. Thank you for sharing what information you have, and the nice photos. The "martian" background of Lithops and Aloinopsis always looks cool, especially in the shot of Braunsia. I'm looking forward to watching these grow, and hearing more about your experiences with them. I started my first Antimima fenestrata from seed last month, and it seems vigorous so far compared to some other mesemb seedlings.

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    1. Thank you Craig :) I wasn't thinking about the background at all, thanks for pointing it out and glad you like it!
      I hope I will be able to keep them happy. At the moment they don't grow at all (I have them since 5 weeks) so I can not be sure. I'll continue to watch them closely.
      Good luck with your Antimima kids! Good to know that they can grow vigorously if they want to :D

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  2. I think the award for strangest Mesemb. book name must go to Dumpling and His Wife. I am trying to sort out growing Hammeria at the moment. My Antimima fenestrata grows in the Winter but I have not flowered it.
    Speaking to people who write books on Succulents they are usually fighting to get more photos included but the cost is the problem. A description allows the variation to be explained but I would like more photos.
    I too wish articles would make it clear whether a reference to Winter growing means northern or southern hemisphere.

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    1. Yes, probably that's the one XD It need a re-release....
      Does your Antimima have two types of leaves or one? How many leaves does it get per growing season? When do you expect it to start growing this year? Are you trying to wake it up or does it do it all alone by itself?
      So many questions :)

      You're right, the photos seem to be a luxury for publishers. I think the new Little Sphaeroid Press book series is doing everything right - lots and lots of pictures, concise descriptions and chapters with good advise on care in cultivation of every species. Unfortunatelly it might take years until the whole series will be released with only The Titanopsis Group existing at the moment. They promised one book every 18 months but to my information the next one should come out only in 2015 (which I consider early for such a tremendous work!). It's okay as long as it's as good as the first book :)
      Chapter sample http://www.littlesphaeroid.com/titanopsis_content_preview.html

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  3. I took some photos of the Antimima fenestrata last Winter. I will find them. It has not started to grow yet.
    I really enjoyed the Titanopsis book.

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    1. I have just seen your Antimima pictures. Thank you! Your plant looks great! :)

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  4. Этот Ваш пост мне очень интересный. У меня литопсная коллекция но в подарок от магазина при одной покупке я получила забавный мезик cheiridopsis cigarettifera rosa villa.Как я понимаю он какой то родственник упомянутых Вами. Такое малюсенькое деревце с зелеными "клешнями" на кончиках веточек. Вот оно у меня уже четвертый год и вроде не гибнет (и на том спасибо), но и не растет в размерах, новые ушки вырастит, старые засушит и все. Так вот вопрос по этому поводу может Вы сможете поделится опытом ка ним правильно себя вести а то он у меня как литопсы, пол года поливаю, когда морщится. Надеюсь на Ваш ответ;)

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    1. Очень рада :)

      У меня есть Cheiridopsis denticulata (фото справа если кликнуть по cheiridopsis). Они собственно зимнерастущие, т.е. их зимой поливают, а летом нет. Но я свои поливаю весь год по мере сморщивания и они как раз зимой росли медленно (я и меньше проливала, так как без сильного солнца не просили), а вот весной и летом понарастили по 2 пары новых листьев и боковые побеги. Может ритм в моих условиях сменился в сторону летнерастущих, не знаю. Как видите, тоже сама пытаюсь понять, что им надо :) И ращу тоже, думаю, как Вы, скорее как литопсы. Если Ваш уже 4 года выжил и нормально сменяет листья, то это уже прогресс и у Вас опыта больше чем у меня. Мои у меня всего год.

      Они сейчас так выглядят

      https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BuvVr7lCMAAmHiA.jpg

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    2. Ооо! Большое спасибо, я прочла Ваши посты про cheiridopsis. Теперь буду поливать его и зимой когда попросит пить, думаю ему это понравится. Спасибо!

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  5. I have found the Antimima fenestrata photos and will post them.I sprayed the plant today. My Braunsia is a winter grower. I got a Drosanthemum in May. On the label it says requires salt which I have been including in its water but am not sure what the outcome will be.

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    1. Thank you!

      Okay, so I probably shouldn't water them, or water very little. The weather forecast says the fall is comming so I'll see how they'll react.

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  6. I will water plants outside their growing period often by spraying but it probably depends on the growing conditions. I grow my plants in a loam based compost in a very sunny greenhouse [ if we get sun ] but it opens at both ends so airflow is good.

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    1. You're so lucky to have a greenhouse! :)
      I grow in pure pumice so watering most of the mesembs outside growing period rarely has bad consequences as long as it's sunny and the pumice dries quickly.

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  7. There is little information for some plants, I agree. Just can tell about Ruschia deltoides. We had a plant long ago, got it as a gift from a family living high in the mountains. There it flowered in late spring in ful sun in a way you wouldn't see any leaf, and the plant was a big mat. Near sea level it just grew. Hardly one or two flowers. So - give plenty of cold near 2ºC in winter (BTW 'winter' means 'short-day-season' whereever you are !) and lots of neglect.
    Art

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    1. Thank you for sharing you experience!
      The whole winter-summer thing with mesembs from southern Africa is confusing. They should call winter "short-day-season" in all the books for better understanding :D

      Unfortunatelly I can not give them 2°C on the windowsill. All my plants grow at as low as room temperature gets. Under these conditions I'm not expecting any flowers but can just hope it will feel fine enough not to die on me...

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  8. It grows in winter in both SA (theirs' winter) and here (our winter), because it tracks day length. I.e. it grows when days are shorter, not when they are longer no matter where it grows.

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    1. Thank you Ivan! This is much more understandable to me :)
      I have watered them unknowingly but they haven't reacted so I will not water until the days are shorter. Shouldn't have done it in the first place...

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