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Re: plants in Mexico: Zacatecas and San Luis Potosi

At 10:57 AM 9/17/1998 PST, you wrote:
>I just returned from a wonderful vacation--nine days in the north 
>central Mexican altiplano and Sierras.  We first landed in Zacatecas 
>city, capital of the state of Zacatecas. This city was built with the 
>wealth of silver mines in the 17th and 18th century.  The streets and 
>buildings are made of stone.  The oldest cathedrals were built in the 
>late 1500s.  The city is situated on an altiplano at an altitude of 
>over 8000 feet.  The soil is very red and seems to be alluvial.  The 
>land is mostly flat, and since the air is very clear you can see the 
>mountains very far away in every direction.  One sees many Brazilian 
>pepper trees and jacarandas, as well as prickly pear cactuses and 
>ocitillio.  
>
>
>What thrilled me even more were the plants I saw when I went up 
>high in the mountains of the state of San Luis Potosi to the ghost 
>town of Real de Catorce.  There on the hillsides were thousands of 
>salvias and plants in the mallow family.  The salvias came in many 
>different colors and at least 4-5 different species which 
>looked somewhat but not quite like some of the mexican salvias that are 
>cultivated here in the states--like s. coahilensis, s. microphylla, s.
greggii, s. graham , s. 
>sinaloensis. (please forgive my mispellings please I'm at work without my 
>reference books.)  Though I consulted with Betsy Clebtsch's book on 
>salvia, I didn't recognize any of the ones I saw.   
>
>I collected as many seeds as I could, but it was 
>too early in the fall to find many ripe seeds.  I probably only ended 
>up with 20-30 ripe ones. I also collected some of the poor, rocky soil in a 
>little bag.  I know this is illegal.  I was intending to sterilize it 
>in the oven and then analyze it with my soil testing kit.  Did I do a 
>very bad thing?  Can anyone advise me how to best germinate my salvia 
>seeds?  Is there any possibility of ripening or germinating green 
>salvia seeds?   

If the saeeds are picked full but still solidly green, the needed enzymes
haven't been formed yet.  The more the ripening process starts when picking,
the more likely they are to germinate.  If you wind up with seed that looks
identical to ripe ones (seed coat color and appearance), then you will have
good luck.  If they ripen dry and green, odds are they won't germinate.
Those that have a black end or have faded from green to a yellow-tan have a
good chance to fully ripen.  Too bad there isn't an annulus of hairs to hold
seed in like Monarda.  Ripe Salvia seed falls out almost as soon as it is
finished ripening.  S. greggii and relatives' seed should be black and glossy.

Another tip:  the ripe seeds should not be allowed to get wet until they are
planted.  The mucilaginous coat will pick up mold spores, which will attack
the seed if you redry the seed.  This will allow contamination of the other
seeds on attempted germination.
>
>Back in Zacatecas I bought a reference book in Spanish called 
>Catalogo de Nombres Vulgares y Cientificos de Plantas Mexicanas 
>(Catalogue of Common and Scientific Names of Mexican Plants).  This 
>tome by Maximino Martinez cross references the latin, scientific 
>names of Mexican plants with the common names that were bestowed by 
>the many indigenous peoples of mexico. It seems like a wonderful 
>reference, especially for those interested in ethnobotony.  I thought 
>that I could get an idea of the species I had seen from this book.  
>Indeed, Martinez lists many species of Buddleia and Salvia but I have 
>no other reference book with which to get good descriptions of these 
>species.  For example, does anyone know buddleia americana or b. 
>tomentosa?  Can any recommend other books that might list these 
>Mexican plants.  They were so beautiful!
>
If you can find it, A Revision of Salvia subgenus Calosphace by Carl Epling
is the definitive reference to this genus in the New World.  This will
likely be found as a reference book in a botanic library like UCLA or UC
Berkeley.  Betsy and I have manged to get copies for ourselves, since we are
often asked about these plants.  It's probably our most valued reference.

>Finally, it seemed like there were so many plants there that we could 
>be growing in our mediterranean gardens.  Why are so few of them 
>being cultivated? I'm just a lay person and I was beside myself 
>gawking at the many beautiful species.
>
>Rachel Baker
>Berkeley, California 
>
>
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