Cacti and Succulents talk

Weather: Sunny, a high of 89oF

Today Tim was away. First thing I went into the rose house before it got to hot. Tidied up the Hibiscus and watered. George (a volunteer) did some weeding in the roses. Another volunteer tidied up and watered the fern passage, and another volunteer watered outside and in 14 (the house where stock ferns are kept). So I was don't with all my tasks by 9.30! I talked to Joyce and she gave me the task of removing some of the older fronds off a Dypsis palm in the palm house. Dypsis are native to Madagascar. Apparently they ere thought extinct, until redesovered in the 70s. Very cool palm, and  easily identifiable due to always having three fronds coming from the trunk in a Y (if you were looking down on it). That took me through to lunch.

After lunch I went to a learning session on Cacti & Succulents given by Kat, who looks after the silver garden and the Mediterranean garden. It was an interesting talk on a group of plants that I really like. Some notes:
-Cacti and succulents are plants that are adapted to dry conditions. They have adaptations to store water, such as succulent stems, leaves or roots, and other adaptations such as hairs to provide shade and slow air movement and reduce transpiration.
-While all cacti are succulents, not all cacti are succulents. Cacti is a family of plants.
-All cacti, and agave's are from the Americas.
-one identifying feature of cacti (apart from flowers) is that they have 'Areoles'. Areoles are growing points from which the spines and hair that are characteristic of cacti arise from. They are essentially modified branches, and the spines are modified leafs.
-The ribs on cacti stems are an adaptation, that reduce the amount of sun hitting the plant at one angle.
-Pereskia is a genus of cacti that is only semi succulent, and quite different to the rest of the family. It has leaves and grows as a shrub or small tree. Interestingly it can be used as a rootstock, and Zygocactus (name change?) grafted onto it. Cactus standard?
-The silver garden is a designed garden, not a collection.
-A misconception is that succulents don't like water at all. This is wrong, all plants need water, succulents just don't get very much. Kat says that if they are in active growth (summer), the soil is draining, she will water once a week. They can be watered less, probably not at all, but they simply wont grow. And she does fertilize every now and again.
-Caudex, the swollen water storing vessell at the base of a stem.

Some of the plants i like best in the silver garden:
-Dasylirion longissimum (very cool long grass like leaves, landscaping plant?)
-''             ''  wheeleri
-Calibanus hookeri
-Yucca rostrata

-Cemaireocereus beneckei (landscaping?)
-Psuedopilocereus glaucesscens
-Mammillaria elegans
-espostoa melanostele
-Enchinocafus ingen

-Senecio serpens
-Senecio scaposus

-Pachypodium geayi
-Haworthias
-Kalenchoe beharensis
-Encephalatos
-Acaia pendula