Derrick Posted March 27, 2014 Report Share Posted March 27, 2014 http://www.tropicsphere.com/main/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7556&p=63098#p63095 The author Stone Jaguar, is a member herein. I hope we will hear lots more from such a well informed writer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andreas Wistuba Posted March 28, 2014 Report Share Posted March 28, 2014 http://www.tropicsphere.com/main/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7556&p=63098#p63095 The author Stone Jaguar, is a member herein. I hope we will hear lots more from such a well informed writer. A pity, all the pictures are gone. Can Stone Jaguar post an updated version with pictures here? All the best Andreas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aroideana Posted March 29, 2014 Report Share Posted March 29, 2014 Ahhh Jay is an excellent writer with a wicked sense of humour .. Specters Jungle was fun while it lasted . Great that it is still up .. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stone Jaguar Posted April 3, 2014 Report Share Posted April 3, 2014 Greetings: Pleasantly surprised to see this thread. I have been out of the country and in the field for last ~10 days so had not logged onto the site until just now. Derrick; thanks much (I think) for digging this piece out of that vast compost pile of online bile & bloviation that is the contemporary internet. I had not re-read this post in many years, but was vaguely aware from an acquaintance that another gardening site had resurrected it sometime last year. Still have the missing images on hand, but too lazy for now to add, but promise to try and get around to this task in near future. Andreas; I have many interesting images of my US-based collection that I will post here when I catch my breath. Also have several very large specimens of seed-grown myrmecodias that are rare in cultivation growing in a commercial greenhouse in the San Francisco Bay area. Will try and provide some very detailed illustrated guides to cultivation and propagation of ant rubiacs and other myrmecophytes here soon. Am now well into robust F2 generation artificially-propagated Myrmephytum sp. from Merlin Sy, as well as other spp. Miguel; as always, kind words from my long-time buddy in N Q'land. The Jungle was indeed a quirky, fun and interesting place before it imploded. Andreas and Derrick; kudos for developing an exceptionally clean, well-designed and genuinely informative website. Hopefully both of you will always value quality of content and civil exchange + reasonably sane and sober contributors over traffic at this resource. I find internet plant fora hostile and tiresome in the extreme of late and try and stay away from these as much as possible. Inevitably, it seems, they appear to be dominated by passive-aggressive individuals who "don't know what they don't know" and who lead many advanced growers to throw up their hands in exasperation and exit stage left, never to return. In closing, a tease. In both Guatemala and California I am growing a very interesting, globular caudex-forming, epiphytic aster from upper elevations of montane wet forests of the volcanic cordillera of southeastern Chiapas and southwestern Guatemala that is striking similar-looking - even at close range - to many large hydnos. It appears to be an undescribed Neomirandea sp. and I have full accession data for both specimens. Leaves have curious but well-developed domatia on abaxial surfaces leading into primary veins. I am unsure whether these structures are designed to tempt small ants or flower mites, although some anecdotal evidence in favor of ants. Flowers, sadly, not showy. This plant is also in cultivation (from cuttings) at the Huntington BG in Los Angeles. Seems self-sterile at first attempts and apparently will not form its striking caudex from stem cuttings. With a pair of rooted stem cuttings that I provided him last summer, I believe Dylan Hannon now has three separate accessions off exhibit at the HBG tropical house so, given his exceptional horticultural skill, it will no doubt be available from seed over the next several years. Frank O has seen images of one of the plants and can attest to veracity of most of the above. Good hunting, Jay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derrick Posted April 4, 2014 Author Report Share Posted April 4, 2014 A very warm welcome Jay. I consider this is an important breakthrough for the ant-plant community. Furthermore, the Neomirandea sp. sounds fascinating and something completely new to me. I tried Googling for more information but found little on the WWW. Explorer-photographer Andy Siekkinen (on Facebook) is going to look for this when he is next in Chiapas, so he may be able to confirm if it is ant occupied. Any idea what trees it grows in? Incidentally, there is an enormous amount of ant-plant information on the Facebook group. https://www.facebook.com/groups/myrmecophytes/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andreas Wistuba Posted April 4, 2014 Report Share Posted April 4, 2014 Andreas; I have many interesting images of my US-based collection that I will post here when I catch my breath. Also have several very large specimens of seed-grown myrmecodias that are rare in cultivation growing in a commercial greenhouse in the San Francisco Bay area. Will try and provide some very detailed illustrated guides to cultivation and propagation of ant rubiacs and other myrmecophytes here soon. Am now well into robust F2 generation artificially-propagated Myrmephytum sp. from Merlin Sy, as well as other spp. Miguel; as always, kind words from my long-time buddy in N Q'land. The Jungle was indeed a quirky, fun and interesting place before it imploded. Andreas and Derrick; kudos for developing an exceptionally clean, well-designed and genuinely informative website. Hopefully both of you will always value quality of content and civil exchange + reasonably sane and sober contributors over traffic at this resource. I find internet plant fora hostile and tiresome in the extreme of late and try and stay away from these as much as possible. Inevitably, it seems, they appear to be dominated by passive-aggressive individuals who "don't know what they don't know" and who lead many advanced growers to throw up their hands in exasperation and exit stage left, never to return. In closing, a tease. In both Guatemala and California I am growing a very interesting, globular caudex-forming, epiphytic aster from upper elevations of montane wet forests of the volcanic cordillera of southeastern Chiapas and southwestern Guatemala that is striking similar-looking - even at close range - to many large hydnos. It appears to be an undescribed Neomirandea sp. and I have full accession data for both specimens. Leaves have curious but well-developed domatia on abaxial surfaces leading into primary veins. I am unsure whether these structures are designed to tempt small ants or flower mites, although some anecdotal evidence in favor of ants. Flowers, sadly, not showy. This plant is also in cultivation (from cuttings) at the Huntington BG in Los Angeles. Seems self-sterile at first attempts and apparently will not form its striking caudex from stem cuttings. With a pair of rooted stem cuttings that I provided him last summer, I believe Dylan Hannon now has three separate accessions off exhibit at the HBG tropical house so, given his exceptional horticultural skill, it will no doubt be available from seed over the next several years. Frank O has seen images of one of the plants and can attest to veracity of most of the above. Good hunting, Jay Hello Jay, also welcome from my side I'm looking forward learning more about the Neomirandea and also about all the plants you grow. I am also very glad to read your positive feedback about the forum. This reflects exactly my view of what this place should be - THANK YOU! All the best Andreas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stone Jaguar Posted April 4, 2014 Report Share Posted April 4, 2014 Derrick: In SE México, I would expect this plant to be found as an understory and mid-level epiphyte at upper elevations (>2,000 m.a.s.l) in montane wet forest at the Triunfo Biosphere Reserve and on Volcán Tacaná on the Guat-Chiapan border. I suspect that this aster represents an undescribed taxon that has been misidentified in mixed collections of the impossibly variable Neomirandea araliifolia (Less.) R. M. King & H. Rob. (=Eupatorium araliifolium Less.). As currently conceived, N. araliifolia can either be an epiphytic shrub, a hemiepiphytic shrub, a hemiepiphytic liana or a riparian tree to ~12 m tall with white, lilac or violet flowers on branched inflorescence occurring from near sea level to >2,800 m.a.s.l. I am not familiar with any herbarium specimen showing evidence in accession notes of having a caudex or lignotuber. To say that this character is conspicuous in this taxon is quite an understatement. You get my point. The arborescent flora of middle and upper elevation cloud forests of northern Mesoamerica are largely dominated by Quercus L. spp., emergent Lauraceae Juss., especially Ocotea Aubl. spp., and Clethraceae Klotzch. IMO, Andreas has correctly identified extreme reluctance that many people have in participating on FB as a make-or-break factor here. I suspect the administrators will be successful in luring many people to this site that otherwise would not participate on the FB ant plant forum. While I understand that it is a valuable global marketing and a go-go outreach tool for many, my personal view is that FB is the despicable spawn of Satan ;^) Cheers, J Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derrick Posted April 4, 2014 Author Report Share Posted April 4, 2014 Thank you Jay for this information that I have passed it to Andy who hopes to be down that way in the near future. I will keep everyone posted on any developments. Facebook has its pros and cons. Its largest fault is provided by the many 'leaders' that set up ill conceived groups and who have insufficient knowledge to entertain their members and do not insist on adequate standards of input from their 9% (assuming that their 1% of the 90/9/1 Internet participation rule know their chosen subject). Yet Facebook with its enormous outreach (2.5 billion members) has certainly helped us get to where we are now. Incidentally, in the early Facebook days, I joined a small ant-plant group with from memory about twenty members, most of whom were waiting for someone else to entertain them, so inputs were virtually zero. I soon left the group but I told them why I was doing so; my intention being purely didactic but it seems not to have helped them because as far as I am aware it no longer exists. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derrick Posted January 19, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 19, 2015 Neomirandea araliifolia (Less.) R.M. King & H. Rob. http://www.tropicos.org/Name/2711436 Com nov. Phytologia p307. http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/13020777#page/321/mode/1up Basionym Eupatorium araliifolium Less. (Annotation: as "araliaefolia") http://www.tropicos.org/Name/2705651 Type description, Linnaea: Ein Journal für die Botanik in ihrem ganzen Umfange. http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/97396#page/406/mode/1up Images. http://www.tropicos.org/Image/100254064 http://www.tropicos.org/Image/100229532 http://www.tropicos.org/Image/100139547 This PDF file probably has useful data but my Spanish is near Zero. http://cuid.unicach.mx/revistas/index.php/lacandonia/article/view/130 Las epífitas vasculares del cerro Mozotal, Motozintla-Siltepec, Chiapas, México.Oscar Farrera Sarmiento, Juan Manuel Jonapá Solís, Francisco Hernández Najarro, Carlos R. Beutelspacher. However, note that Jay thinks the myrmecophyte species may not belong here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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