This Months Speaker -

      Dennis Cathcart:

Owner of Tropiflora Nursery, who will be talking about “Terrestrials, Earthbound Bromeliads” at the January Meeting.

 

Mr. Cathcart will also be selling, so member sales will be suspended for this meeting.

 

Tropiflora sells many plants that aren’t as commercial as they are interesting to collectors

          Tropiflora is located at

          3530 Tallevast Road, Sarasota Florida 34243

 

          Phone:          941-351-2267

          Fax               941-3516985

          Toll Free        800-613-7520

          and he has a great website at

          www.tropiflora.com

See You

Tuesday January 5^th 7:30 pm  

Please turn off your cell Phones.

Dude, What a Party !

 

This was my first Holiday Party with the BSSF and Clara Kouchalakis was right, the party alone is worth the membership fee. Here is Lynne Fieber’s summery of the event      Our 2003 holiday party was a good opportunity for fellowship and the enjoyment of some terrific food. We were standing room only for this annual event. Our reputation for fun and culinary excellence has leaked out to the Broward and Caloosahatchee Bromeliad Societies, who were represented, and to our "first Tuesday rivals" from the orchid society. The food, from expertly prepared turkey, pork and ham to a multitude of sublime side dishes, was the highlight of the evening. Mike Michalski was always available during the evening to serve us wine and cocktails from his libations bar under the hors d'oeuvre table, which kept those of us waiting their turn at the food in "good spirits".

        Sandy Roth designed a unique and highly personalized thank you gift presented to outgoing Advisory Editor Moyna Prince, a garden bench with a mosaic Neoregelia (possibly a cultivar of Neo. concentrica) beautifully rendered on the seat. The gift plant exchange produced many surprised and delighted recipients, and the traditional society gift plants were a varied assortment that not only supplied holiday centerpieces, but thanks to the generosity of Kris and Karl Green, expanded our collections regarding the less common genera.

        A big Thank You to all who made this another memorable party: Clara Kouchalakis for organizing the event, Elaine Mills, Peter Kouchalakis, Moyna and Ed Prince, and Sandy Roth for helping set everything up, Kris Green and Josefa Leon for preparing the main dishes sponsored by the society, and Kris Green again for acquiring and transporting the society's gift plants.

Special thanks to Karl Green and Mike Michalski for donating to the members plants from their own collections.

 And thanks, too, to all the members who dazzled us with their signature dishes.

 

                  Lynne A. Fieber

 

Carnivorous Bromeliads

I found this article on the University of Florida website by Frank, J.H. 1996. at

http://bromeliadbiota.ifas.ufl.edu/carnbr.htm

Decomposing materials of plant origin (leaves, seeds and twigs) are a familiar sight in the water impounded by tank bromeliads. Decomposition by bacteria and fungi breaks down these materials to simpler ones which can be absorbed by trichomes lining the bromeliad tanks. Among these plant materials are sometimes found dead and drowning non-aquatic insects which have been trapped accidentally but likewise provide nutrients for the bromeliads. That decomposed insects should provide food to tank bromeliads is no more surprising than that decomposed insects form part of the humus of the soil from which other plants absorb nutrients through their roots.

 

Catopsis berteroniana At least two bromeliads seem to have evolved a greater ability to trap insects and to gain a substantial proportion of their diet from this source. The first to be noticed was Catopsis berteroniana. This species typically grows as an epiphyte, and its range is from southern Florida to southern Brazil. Sometimes it grows in partial shade of tree canopies, but sometimes its position is on a branch or twig where it is not shaded. The same bromeliad has been seen growing on telephone lines where, again, it is unshaded. Those plants that are partially shaded may trap falling leaves, twigs and seeds, but those that are completely exposed might seem to have to rely on wind-blown materials from which to extract their nutrients. A glance inside the bromeliad tank often shows the presence of dead non-aquatic insects (3,6). It has been shown experimentally that C. berteroniana traps many times more non-aquatic insects than do other bromeliads of comparable size (4). A waxy powder which coats the leaf bases, and to a lesser extent the leaf blades, of the plant, may provide the means of entrapment (3,6). The powder reflects ultraviolet light and may confuse insects that fly during daylight into perceiving the powder (and thus the plants) as open sky - so that they crash into it instead of avoiding it. The powder is slippery, like talcum powder, and it appears to hinder fallen insects from escaping from the tank of the bromeliad. There is room for experimental confirmation of the assumed method of attraction.

Brocchinia reducta. The second plant to be noticed was Brocchinia reducta. It is terrestrial rather than epiphytic, grows in nutrient-poor soils in southern Venezuela and Guyana, is seldom shaded by other vegetation, and its tanks often contain dead insects, such as ants (5). A sweet odor emanating from the tank may be the means of attracting insects (5). Its leaves, too, produce a waxy powder which, as in Catopsis berteroniana, seems to prevent escape of trapped insects (5). The highly acid water in its tank (5) may help the action of proteases in digesting insect bodies (2). Neither this plant nor C. berteroniana has been shown to produce proteases (unlike more familiar carnivorous plants such as Nepenthes and Sarracenia pitcher plants), but it could be argued that production of proteases by these plants would be an unnecessary expenditure of energy when bacterial and fungal decomposition of materials already functions in the tanks, and a means of absorption (trichomes) is present.

 

Mosquito larvae inhabit the tanks of C. berteroniana (1. 1,3,4) and of B. reducta (5,7) just as they do the pitchers of Nepenthes spp. and Sarracenia purpurea.

REFERENCES

1. Barrera R., R., Medialdea, V. 1996. Development time and resistance to starvation of mosquito larvae. Journal of Natural History 30: 447-458.

2. Benzing, D.H. 1986. Foliar specialization for animal-assisted nutrition in Bromeliaceae. p. 235-256 in Juniper, B., Southwood, R. (eds.). Insects and the plant surface. London; Edward Arnold, viii + 360 p.

3. Fish, D. 1976. Structure and composition of the aquatic invertebrate community inhabiting epiphytic bromeliads in south Florida and the discovery of an insectivorous bromeliad. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Florida, Gainesville, ix + 78 p.

4. Frank, J.H., O'Meara, G.F. 1984. The bromeliad Catopsis berteroniana traps terrestrial arthropods but harbors Wyeomyia larvae (Diptera: Culicidae). Florida Entomologist 67: 418-424.

5. Givnish, T.J., Burkhardt, E.L., Happel, R.E., Weintraub, J.D. 1984. Carnivory in the bromeliad Brocchinia reducta, with a cost/benefit model for the general restriction of carnivorous plants to sunny, moist, nutrient-poor habitats. American Naturalist 124: 479-497.

6. Ward, D.B., Fish, D. 1979. Powdery Catopsis p. 74-75 in Ward, D.B. (ed.) Rare and endangered biota of Florida. Vol. 5, Plants. University Presses of Florida; Gainesville, xxix + 175 p.

7. Zavortink, T.J. 1986. The occurrence of Runchomyia frontosa in carnivorous bromeliads in Venezuela with notes on the biology of its immatures (Diptera, Culicidae, Sabethini). Wasmann Journal of Biology 44: 127-129

 

Catopsis nutans

from Orchid’s and other Air Plants of the Everglades National Park by Frank C. Craighead

I’d like to introduce a new section for the BromeliAdvisory, “Name that plant”. A simple contest that, given a text description and an image, challenges our members simply to – Name that Plant.

 

So here is our first installment.

 

Two months ago – Speaker Ray Lemieux of Tropiflora Nursery brought an example of this beauty. Growing very slowly into a mat or cushion, this month’s entry is frost tolerant. As is befitting a bromeliad originally from Northwestern Argentina and Bolivia (The Alto-Plano), they look and grow like small dyckias but this plant is not in that genera.

 

Now there is a small naming controvery with this plant. The genus Abromeitiella was eliminated some time ago and this plant was a member of that group

Ray used that old name so this month we will accept two names as the correct one. And saying that it has a “Double Name” is a kind of hint as to this plant’s real name

 

So without further ado – Name that Plant!

                           Image:BSIJ 1994

                                               Photo by Bob Monteith        

Check here next month for the answer.

Coming In January:

 

          Dues are Due by February 28 for membership in the Bromeliad Society of South Florida.

 

      Please Mail the completed form and Check to

            Moyna Prince

            11220 S.W. 107^th Court

            Miami Fl 33176-3902.

 

         The Sixteenth World Bromeliad Conference
Of the Bromeliad Society International will be hosted by the BSI & Bromeliad Society of Greater Chicago. And is to be held at the Westin O'Hare Rosemont (Chicago), Illinois August 11 to 15, 2004

         

Name Tags for New Members:

are available from Connie Johnson. Call her at 305-275-8595 to order yours. They are free the first time; there’s a nominal charge for replacements.

 

Folks, please wear your name tags! It simplifies things for everyone.

Sales Tables:

Our guest speaker will be selling plants at this meeting, so member sales will be suspended. Come early to check out Dennis Cathcart’s plants.

 

Show and Tell:

Karl Green, Nat DeLeon and Steve Correale

 

Raffle Table:

Kris and Karl Green

 

Door Prize:

Ed & Moyna Prince

 

Library:

Lynne Fieber will have the library open from 7:00pm to 7:30 pm. Please return any books and publications you’ve checked out.

 

Refreshments:

Sandy Roth will have refreshments available at the break

Note from the Editor:

 

This is my first month creating the BromeliAdvisory and I hope you all find me a worthy successor to Moyna Prince.

 

I joined the Society last year in 2003 and when I first came to a meeting I was impressed by how sociable our members are. Since then I’ve brought a few of my friends to more meetings and some have joined but when I tell anyone how I got into the BSSF I tell them

 

          I came for the nice plants,

but I stayed because the people are even nicer.

 

Happy Holiday’s

Happy New Year

 

 

                               Nicolas Crespo III

 

I’d love to hear your feedback and you may reach me at Bromeliad@timewolf.net via Email or at

10011 S.W. 133^rd Street Miami FL 33176 via Snail Mail.