Some of you grow other kinds of plants. Here is a talk on plants many people grow as succulent bonsai. Most of them do well as outdoor plants in summer, brought inside for the winter when they are leafless and dormant. I know many people in the Midwest of the US who have been keeping these in 4" / 10cm pots for many years. Those of you in tropical or semi-tropical climates can grow many of these in the landscape.
The Cactus and Succulent Society of America (CSSA) presents live Zoom talks every other Saturday. The talks are open to all viewers.
The next speaker will be past CSSA President Dan Mahr, PhD. His talk will be Succulent Trees - Beyond the Ordinary. The program description is now on the CSSA home page, and I have reprinted the text below.
The talk will be Saturday, July 24th at 10:00 am Pacific Daylight Saving Time (Los Angeles in your computer clock.)
To register click here. After each talk, a recording is posted to the CSSA Facebook page for the remainder of the weekend, before being taken down sometime the following Monday morning PDT.
Program: There are somewhere between 500 and 1000 species of succulents that can be categorized botanically as trees. They are a diverse group, coming from some 25-30 plant families and nearly 100 genera. Some groups are easily recognized and commonly cultivated – cacti, aloes, euphorbias, and pachypodiums for example. Some of these trees are charismatic as young plants and are propagated by giant wholesale nurseries and sold by the tens of thousands in chain stores – many customers never realizing that their new cute little plant in the 2” pot has the potential to grow to be a 30 ft tree. However, there is a substantial portion of succulent tree species that are interesting, even beautiful, but are rarely cultivated and infrequently (if ever) available even from specialized cactus and succulent nurseries.
The presentation will begin with a characterization of succulent trees, then go into a quick overview of important families, many of which will be illustrated with habitat photographs. After a brief discussion of general growing practices, the talk will conclude with a showing of less-ordinary species that have substantial, but mostly unrecognized, horticultural potential.
Dan Mahr grew up in southern California, where he developed an interest in the natural world at an early age. He had an outdoor cactus garden by the age of 11 and has been growing cacti and other succulents continuously since – over 60 years. He and his wife Susan are both entomologists and lived in Wisconsin for 40 years, on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin – Madison. They have now returned to southern California. Dan has been a member of the Cactus and Succulent Society of America for 45 years and was on the Board of Directors for 15 years, serving as CSSA president in 2005-2006. Dan founded the CSSA Fields Trips Program in 1998 and served as its director for 20 years, organizing field trips for CSSA members to cactus and succulent habitats throughout the world. He has personally seen succulents growing in their native habitats in 25 countries in Europe, Africa, Latin America, Australia, and various island countries. His personal interest in succulents has varied through the years; currently he has a mixed assortment of cacti and other succulent plant families, but specializes in succulent trees and hybrid adeniums.
CSSA Presents: Dan Mahr speaking on Succulent Trees
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