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Solanum pyracantha, Chile, etc


Matt: Delighted the wee runt of S. pyracantha (?) arrived in France in
one piece, despite the attentions of climate and post offices. I hope
it prospers and look forward to your further thoughts/final verdict
'in due course.'

Hans: I'm afraid the plant I sent to Matt was my last spare specimen
at the moment. If my main plants survive the winter, I'll try taking
(leaf) cuttings in the spring. If I succeed, one is booked for you. 
Otherwise, again supposing winter survival, an earlier flowering next
year and suitable obliging insects, I'll save some seed for you from
that flowering. Final possibility: my seed originally came (as S.
pyrENacantha) from Doug Rowlands, a cactus and succulent seed
specialist in the UK. I don't know if he still has seed left but you
could give him a try. I don't have an e-mail address for him but his
snail-mail address is: 200 Spring Road, Kempston, Bedford, England
MK42 8ND. His telephone and fax number is 01234-358970. 

Moira: delighted to know New Zealanders aren't daft enough to use such
vicious spikies as tree plants! Not that this one would cause much
damage since, far from proving to be a tree, it doesn't seem to have
the oomph to make more than 2 or 3 feet! I'm surprised, though, that
you say only three solanums are grown in NZ and only one is reliably
hardy. And even more surprised that the reliably hardy one is S.
jasminoides. In the U.K. I think S. crispum (particularly in the
'Glasnevin' form) is generally thought of as hardier. Certainly both
will take well into double figures of frost. Another good climber, not
SO hardy but able to take a certain amount of frost, is S.
rantonettii. It's not as big as the other two, only making about 10ft
x 10ft, so can quite easily be grown under glass (it takes being
trimmed to size very happily) and the profuse flowers are big, showy,
flat, rich purple, with paler bands running from the centre to the
outer edge. Sadly, it doesn't set seed with me so I can't offer you
some to try. It's absolutely easy from cuttings. Which is no use at
all, in the present situation! Doesn't anybody offer this sp in NZ? If
they do, it's well worth giving a try (taking cuttings for insurance
if you're going to try it in the ground).

Many thanks to everyone for the help on this mystery of S. pyracantha.
It just shows what an open-minded bunch Medit-Plants members are,
since this is hardly most people's idea of a typical Mediterranean
plant!

Re Dave Encisco's request back at the beginning of Dec. about info. on
Chilean gardens. (Which no one seems to have taken up. Does this mean
there are some subjects Medit-Planters can't help with? I'm amazed and
incredulous...) I can't help to answer Dave's question directly but it
reminded me of what might be of interest to some Medit-Planters: that
the latest (Dec.) issue of the RHS publication THE NEW PLANTSMAN
devotes its whole space (60 pages or so) to Chilean plants and
plant-hunters. (It also points 'interested parties' to a special S.
American issue of the Bulletin of the UK Alpine Garden Society, that
for Sept. 1994.)  

This NEW PLANTSMAN issue includes a piece by Martin Gardner who's a
member of the current RBG Edinburgh project on Chiloe Island and his
name suggests a method by which perhaps after all this MIGHT provide
an answer to Dave's question. Dave: if you've got time - and supposing
Martin is at the moment in Edinburgh rather than on Chiloe -, it might
be worth your while, if all else fails, getting in touch with M.G.
through the RBGE. (Or with M.G.'s wife, Sabina Knees, the editor of
THE NEW PLANTSMAN, who also divides her time between Edinburgh and
Chiloe.) Martin certainly knows the country, presumably knows the
gardens, is friendly and approachable and (whenever he can be)
helpful. Worth a try?  Martin Gardner's e-mail is
mgardner@rbge.org.uk. Sabine Knees' address is sknees@rbge.org.uk.

M.G.'s NEW PLANTSMAN piece, by the way, mentions three Chileans (one
tree, two shrubs) that were new to me and which don't seem to be
commercially available in the U.K. Does anyone else have any
experience of them? They are: Caldcluvia paniculata (the tree), Ugni
candollei and Myrceugenia lanceolata. All, I guess, would thrive in
areas with little frost, acid soils - and (sorry about this)
reasonable rainfalls. The pictures of the Caldcluvia are
mouth-watering...

Finally, a footnote on another book about S. American plant-hunting
which I've only just discovered (though, since it deals with
expeditions sponsored by the U. of Cal. Botanical Garden, it may well
be old news to many members of Medit-Plants). It's T. Harper
Goodspeed's PLANT HUNTERS IN THE ANDES. The (borrowed) copy I'm using
was published in London in 1961 by Neville Spearman. It was PRINTED in
the U.S., which suggests there will have been a slightly earlier U.S.
edition, but, if so, my edition doesn't give any details.  The six or
so expeditions Goodspeed describes (he was then Prof. of Botany at
U.Cal) took place between the 30s and the 50s. (It might be worth
adding the warning that apparently a MUCH earlier, and smaller,
version of the book, published in the 40s, only dealt with the first
two or three of these.) As sweeteners, there are plenty of good 'human
interest' stories and a nice line in old-fashioned academic humour. As
a substantial (but easily swallowed) pill, there are many lively,
detailed descriptions of plants and plant-habitats. I don't suppose
this book will be easy to track down (if anyone comes across a copy on
offer which they don't want for themselves, please let me know!) but
it's certainly worth finding.


Tim Longville
Solway Coast, Cumbria, UK
wet and windy but largely frost-free
Celia Eddy
celia@eddy.u-net.com
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