This Months Speaker -

      Dr. Theresa Bert:has been a member of the Sarasota Bromeliad Society since 1988 and of the Caloosahatchee Bromeliad Society since 1997 and has held multiple offices in the Sarasota Bromeliad Society. She served on the Florida Council of Bromeliad Societies for 8 years and held all executive offices in the Council. She has served and currently serves on the Bromeliad Society International (BSI) Board of Directors and chairs the Nominations Committee for the Board. She is a BSI internationally accredited judge. Her bromeliad collection consists of approximately 1,200 different types of bromeliads, and she has won top awards in the shows of local clubs and BSI world conferences. She has given presentations on bromeliads to numerous Florida bromeliad societies and other groups.

 

Her Presentation: Aechmea, the catch-all,

                                     most confused genus

          Dr. Bert will be selling plants at our meeting

See You

Tuesday Ferbruary 3^rd 7:30 pm  

Please turn off your cell Phones.

On the Road again

Dennis Cathcart really broadened my idea of adventure tourism. Next time I head south I’m going to keep my eyes open for a new species of my own.

 

Lynne Fieber’s summery of January’s meeting.Our January program brought us the incomparable Dennis Cathcart, who is one of the very finest horticultural speakers on the circuit today. Dennis gave us a comprehensive view of the terrestrial bromeliads, which are those plants with either the requirement or the capability to grow in soil, rather than epiphytically. Dennis considered the bromeliad genera in geographical order and took us on a dizzying trip from Mexico to southern Brazil, from Tillandsia to Pitcarnia, with many fascinating stops in between. For many of the plants Dennis talked about, he was describing the first known sightings of these species in these particular places. As always, the apparent disconnection between what we know from a plant in cultivation and its range of appearances in its native habitat was striking, and I found myself marveling at what a shrewd eye Dennis Cathcart has for recognizing a plant’s true identity under demanding conditions.

 

Nat DeLeon had many beautiful plants on the show and tell table, including several January- blooming Guzmania wittmackii. This plant tends to have a rather colorless inflorescence when it matures in any season except its usual spring blooming time. But Nat had obviously beat that tendency by fortuitous breeding of different parental clones. He also brought in a Guzmania wittmackii x lingulata hybrid that had more “wittmackii” in it than “lingulata” – another way to get around winter wittmackii woes. Finally, Nat showed us a Guzmania “Kapoa Fire” with leaves that had bright red edges when grown bright, a lovely variation for this quite variable plant.

 

Mike Michalski and Patty Gonzalez provided the raffle table on short notice, a generous collection of seldom- seen and old favorite Neoregelias and Achmeas. The door prize, a Neo. pimiento, was offered by Moyna Prince. Thanks to Moyna, Sandy Roth, Shirley Berkmans, Lynne Fieber and Nancy Steinmetz for refreshments

 

                                      Lynne A. Fieber

            

BROMELIAD-TRICOMES

by Penrith Goff, S.E.Michigan Bromeliad Society

http://home.att.net/~Bromeliads/Trichomes.html 

The epidermis of many plants grows attachments consisting of one or more cells and taking many different forms. These attachments are called trichomes (TRIH-combs), a word derived from Greek "hairy" and indeed, the trichomes we are most familiar with are the ones which give plants a downy or furry appearance. The Great Mullein, for example, or artemesia and the many other plants which grow under hot, arid conditions are covered with "hair" which protects against the glare of the sun, shelters against drying out in the wind, and helps perhaps to keep predators at bay. A more aggressive defense is mounted by the stinging nettle. Under the slightest pressure the tips of its stiff trichomes break off, forming virtual hypodermic needles which inject the hapless intruder with its "venom." Trichomes can be utilized to help a plant climb. One of the most interesting and successful adaptations to a nutrition-starved environment is the development of trichomes in the sundews, which exude nectar to attract insects, which are then trapped and digested

 

Bromeliad trichomes are complex cellular structures somewhat similar to an umbrella with a short shaft, the "shaft" being stalk cells, the "screen" being a disc-shaped shield. In Fig. d. above, the tillandsia trichome shields lie fairly flat against the epidermis so that the leaf is smooth, perhaps slightly velvety like Tillandsia xerographica. Not only does each bromeliad have its own unique trichomes, the trichomes on the upper (adaxial) side of the leaf

are different from those on the lower (abaxial) side of the leaf. If the shield edges turn up, the leaf surface will be rough as in Tillandsia ionantha. The disc may be more fully developed on one side, producing a fuzzy surface (T. crocata). The extreme is the hair-like extensions on the trichomes of T. tectorum.

1. The trichomes have two important functions: to protect the plant from too much sun and to acquire and conserve moisture. Tillandsias (and other bromeliads) which grow in a shady, humid environment have fewer trichomes than those exposed to full sun, and are green. Depending on the amount of sun exposure to which they have adapted, the density and extensions of the trichomes cause the leaves to appear gray, silver, or white The cells of the extensions are hollow, so that they reflect light (up to 45%) and form good insulating barrier. When the leaf is wet, the cells fill with water and reflect very little light; the leaf appears green. The trichomes channel water very quickly through the stalk cells into the leaf interior but prevent water (water vapor) from escaping. With good air circulation the trichomes quickly dry out again and the plant regains its normal gray to silver luster.

         

Last months game taught me more than a little about bromeliad names. First let me thank B. Dean Fairchild for his feedback about the game. Dean guess, Abromeitiella lorentziana, was not one of the answers I was accepting but...

 

Dean pointed out that lorentziana and the plant we are looking for both share the same shape and environment and without a scale on my image they can’t be distinguished. Lorentziana’s individual parts are a couple of inches in size while our subject is only a couple of centimeters.

 

Furthermore the genus abromeitiella can’t just be erased without proper peer review. Abromeitiella refers to those tough little plants that form domes by growing as a colony upon the previouse generation. Dennis Cathcart showed us some incredible images of these colonies in his presentation about terrestrial bromeliads. Some of these colonies were bigger than a house and they just grow on bald rocks and cliffs.

 

The genus dueterochonia now is supposed to include both the members abromeitiella that form domes and those of deuterochonia that don’t. Dean and I haven’t consented to this change in genera so this week we will accept four names as the answers.

 

Abromeitiella lorentziana (Dean’s choice)

Abromeitiella chlorantha (Ray Lemieux’‘s name)

Deuterocohnia brevifolia (The “right” name)

Abromeitiella brevifolia (My name )

 

And just to show you how close these two plants look here are three examples:

 

 

 

 

A) lorentziana 

 

 

 

 

 

 B) brevifolia

 

 

 

 

 

 

C) brevifolia                                                           

This months plant is the only hectia native to the political boundery’s of the United States of America. I grows in Texas. It is the most northern of the hectia’s and like last months entry it has recently had it’s name changed to reflect its geographic distribution.

 

Name that Plant!

      

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Check here next month for the answer.

Profile of a Bromeliad Artist

 

Margaret Ursula Mee (née Brown) (1909- 1988) was born near Chesham, Buckinghamshire, England on 22 May 1909. Her early education was influenced by a maternal aunt, who was an illustrator of children's books. Shortly after World War II, she began to study art in a serious way. She attended classes at St. Martin's School of Art in London, where she also met her second husband, Greville Mee. The portfolio that she assembled at St. Martin's gained her admission to the Camberwell School of Art, also in London. At the latter school, she was influenced by Victor Pasmore, who was then one of Britain's best known painters.

1. One of her sisters had moved to Brazil after World War II, and when the sister fell ill, Margaret flew to Sã o Paulo to visit. Margaret's husband joined her shortly thereafter and while she taught art at St. Paul's, the British School in Sã o Paulo, he became established as a commercial artist. Slowly, what had begun as a visit of a few years duration turned into a life-long residence.

In 1956, Margaret made the first of fifteen journeys into the Amazon forest, during which she recorded her observations through her paintings and diaries. Over the course of the next three decades she observed what had been initially for her an absolute wilderness suffer from the impact of colonization and commercial exploitation. Consequently, she became through her art and public appearances not only a strong advocate for capturing images of Amazonian plants and habitats but preserving the forest as well.

Mee's preferred medium was gouache and she insisted on painting from life. During her expeditions, which could last for months, she would make on-site drawings and then take living collections home, sometimes to wait months until a flower would bloom, but always to insure a proper identification of her subject matter. This led to correspondence and contact with many of the world's botanical specialists.

The first major publication reproducing her paintings of Amazonian plants is the remarkable folio entitled Flowers of the Brazilian Forest, Collected and Painted by Margaret Mee (1968). Her friend Roberto Burle Marx, an internationally famous Brazilian landscape architect, wrote the forward. The scientific text associated with each plate was contributed by noted plant taxonomists, including Richard S. Cowan (b. 1921), Lyman B. Smith (b. 1904), and John J. Wurdack (b. 1921), all of the Smithsonian Institution. Mee provided notes about each plant, as well, which she extracted from her diaries.

Paintings of Bromeliaceae that Mee originally had prepared for the Flora Brasilica were published with text prepared by Lyman B. Smith in a volume entitled The Bromeliads (1969). Subsequently, Mee contributed watercolors, many of them floral details, to Orchidaceae Brasiliensis (1975). The next major publication that she illustrated was a sumptuous folio entitled Flores do Amazonas/Flowers of the Amazon (1980). It featured her paintings, diary entries, and botanical text by Guido Pabst. Portions of her diaries, arranged chronologically by expedition, were published with the title Margaret Mee, In Search of Flowers of the Amazon Forests (1988). The book is richly illustrated with her paintings, sketches, and photographs taken on her expeditions.

Tragically, Mee died in an automobile accident in Leicester, England on 30 November 1988.

 

 

President’s Message

 

 

 

          I would like to take this opportunity to wish our members and their loved ones a happy and healthy new year. The year has come full circle and as always annual events keep recurring. Our next annual event is our show and sale. I have volunteered to be chairman again. I am hoping that you, our members will also be kind enough to participate in any way possible to assure that our 2004 show will be more successful that any other. I am already looking for committee chairpersons and am asking for volunteers. This year, I would very much like to see some new faces and will try to pair up those who are new with members who are familiar with the task to be performed to ease any anxieties and see that the “torch” is passed smoothly. Won’t you please come forward and help.

 

 

 

 

 

     Karl

 

Coming In February:

 

Dues are Due by February 29

Please send membership dues to

              Moyna Prince

              11220 SW 107 Ct.,

              Miami, FL 33176

as soon as possible. Remember, if your dues are not received by Feb. 29, you will be dropped from the roster. If you've mislaid your renewal form, you can just send the check marked "BSSF membership dues." Dues are $20.00 single, $30.00 dual. Checks should be payable to BSSF. You can of course pay at the February meeting.

 

The 2004 Miami Orchid Festival

Friday January 30^th thru Sunday February 1^st.

Dade County Fair and Expo Center

10901 Coral Way (SW 24^th St.) Miami FL

Further Information call 305-247-4398 or

email vandas@mindspring.com

 

The 2004 Strawberry Folk Festival

Saturday February 21^st and Sunday February 22^nd.

Enjoy traditional music, story telling and strawberries presented by the Friends of Seminole Theater Admission $10.00

 

Fruit and Spice Park

24801 S.W. 187^th Ave.

Homestead Florida 33301

fsp@miamidade.gov

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.

 

Membership News:

Life member Bob Work is recovering from surgery. We send him good wishes and hope he'll be able to come home soon.

 

Welcome to new member Brian Sidoti, who joined at the January meeting. He lives at 2028 SW 5th St., Miami, FL 33135. Telephone 305-643-3444.

 

Sales Tables:

Our guest speaker will be selling plants at this meeting, so member sales will be suspended.

 

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

 

Notes from the Editor:

 

            On a recurring basis the BSSF uses digital projectors that convert a computer signal into images projected on a wall for our speakers and for our meetings. Dennis Cathcart used such a projector and Lynne Fieber also used one last year for her review of our bromeliad show.

            If anyone has such a device that can be lent to or donated to the society, we need one.

 

 

         Let it be known – there is a motion to give the editor of the Bromeliadvisory voting rights as an office of the BSSF.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You may reach me at Bromeliad@timewolf.net via Email or at10011 S.W. 133^rd Street Miami FL 33176 via Snail Mail.