The Cactician

Anything relating to Cacti or CactiGuide.com that doesn't fit in another category should be posted under General.
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DaveW
Posts: 7464
Joined: Thu Dec 20, 2012 2:36 pm
Location: Nottingham, England/UK

The Cactician

Post by DaveW »

The Cactician 5 and previous versions available here for download (LQ = Low Quality for web use and quicker download, HQ = High Quality for printing out).

http://www.crassulaceae.ch/index.php?TPL=10398" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
DaveW
Posts: 7464
Joined: Thu Dec 20, 2012 2:36 pm
Location: Nottingham, England/UK

Re: The Cactician

Post by DaveW »

Just received this email from Roy Mottram:-

The following 2 articles are now ready for downloading from ICNet at https://www.dropbox.com/s/kax9hxx913eh6 ... 3%20HQ.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

6: 2014 (Sep 31) Curt Backeberg: A history and evaluation of his work on cacti. p.1-57.
HQ version (168MB):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/m8vpfi1gv6i01g0/Cactician" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; 6 HQ.pdf?dl=0
The life and work of Max Ferdinand Heinrich Curt Backeberg (1894-1966) is presented.
b. Lüneburg, 45 km SE of Hamburg, 2 Aug 1894; d. Volksdorf, Hamburg, c.15km NE of the city centre, 14 Jan 1966.
With the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Curt Backeberg only 15 months away, now is an appropriate time to evaluate his significant contributions with the benefit of hindsight.
In common with many other cactus specialists of his time, his very characteristic style caused him to be regarded with both admiration and revulsion in almost equal measure. Nevertheless, his unique legacy was a body of work that was energetic and informative, and as a student and classifier of cacti he dominated the popular press on the subject for almost forty years until his sudden death in 1966, just when he was about to witness the publication and reap the rewards of what proved to be his most popular work.

7: 2014 (Sep 31) Reinstatement of Cactus kagenekii C.C.Gmel. p.1-19
This contribution outlines a history of the name of a species that used to be common in the environs of Lima and inland up the valley of the Rio Rimac as far as Chosica. Indeed, it was so common that it would have been obvious to any early visitor to Peru's capital city Lima, and the earliest known botanical explorer happens to have been Joseph Dombey in 1777-78. Today the plant is less common, reduced severely in numbers by human settlement and most notably by the expansion of the city of Lima up the valley. The earliest name for this plant was Cactus kagenekii C.C.Gmel., which is reinstated here with a new combination in Haageocereus, and type selections are made wherever appropriate.

Previous titles are shown below:

The Cactician ISSN 2052-952X http://www.crassulaceae.ch/de/publicati ... -cactician" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
A privately published, online only, journal by Roy Mottram (1940- ) on a variety of topics connected with succulent plants. Authorship, image creation, and design are the work of Roy Mottram, who is also the publisher in association with the International Crassulaceae Network.

1: 2013 (Jun 13) Typification and application of the name Aloe perfoliata L. p.1-15, text-figs 1-7 (1 colour photo, 6 graphics (5 coloured)) pdf: 21.7MB
Aloe perfoliata L. was a cornerstone of the treatment of Linnaeus's genus Aloe, including all the medical, spotted, and other stemmed aloes. In spite of this importance and priority, the name has not previously been applied to any known species until 2000.
A full history of the name and its application is given here. Aloe perfoliata L, is confirmed as the type species of the genus Aloe L.and is considered to be the correct name for plants hitherto known as Aloe microstigma Salm-Dyck.
Aloe picta Thunb. is here lectotypified with the same type as A. perfoliata L. (p.11), making it an obligate synonym. Attention is drawn to an early typification by Scopoli in 1783, and the lectotype illustration and its description are reproduced. A rare copy of the lectotype illustration personally hand-coloured by Dillenius (1732) is shown here for the first time.

2: 2013 (Jun 22) Notes on Desmidorchis retrospiciens Ehrenb. With particular reference to the validity of the name. Text-figs 1-11 (9 colour photos, 3 graphics, 1 map). pdf: 12.8MB
Ehrenberg's intended validation compiled in 1828 of Desmidorchis retrospiciens was not effectively published until 1900, by which time it had been predated by Desmidorchis acutangula Decne. (1838). Desmidorchis retrospiciens Ehrenb. was, however, validated in 1831 by a brief but recognisable characterisation, reference to an undistributed plate with analysis, direct reference to a preserved but now missing specimen at Berlin, and a plate of its pollinarium accompanying the protologue.
Some authors have rejected this name as invalid on the grounds that the description was inadequate, but the illustration that was prepared for publication in the botanical part of Symbolae physicae is original material cited in the protologue and sufficient on its own for validation as a plate with analysis. Desmidorchis retrospiciens Ehrenb. is lectotypified here.

3: 2013 (Jul 27) Linnaean cactus legacy. p.1-83, text-figs 1-117 (29 photos, 109 graphics, 1 table). pdf: 106.5MB, low qual. version: 11.4MB. High qual. version available at:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/kax9hxx913eh6 ... 3%20HQ.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
A journey through the life and times of Carl Linnaeus during his most creative period, an examination of the cacti that he encountered and a re-evaluation the 22 species known to him in 1753.
A new name combination is validated for Stenocereus heptagonus, along with proposals for 6 new lectotypifications, 3 neotypifications and 3 epitypifications.

4: 2014 (Mar 26) The generitaxa of the Cactaceae: An annotated index. p.1-357. high qual. pdf: 5.04MB.
A comprehensive reference to the names published for cactus genera and lower ranks. Useful to authors of such names who wish to check if any competing names exist to their proposed new taxa, or if there is a historical usage of a name that may be replaced or recombined.
Reference is made to 63 broadly conceived genera and 51 nothogenera derived from them. 17 new nothogenera are proposed in order to correct for changes to the rules of nomenclature and to make the system proposed here internally consistent.
These are a basis for a conservative system of nomenclature as an antidote to the very liberal and unstable systems that are in present-day usage.

5: 2014 (Jul 14) Allotaxa of the Cactaceae. p.1-29. high qual. pdf: 29.14MB, low qual. version: 2.72MB. High qual. version available at:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/lrqdvla002ktkan/Cactician" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; 7 HQ.pdf
In contradistinction to a Darwinian theory of disallowed - see forum rules which proposes a linear pattern of decent with new species arising through branching divergence from ancestral stock, polyploidy and especially allopolyploidy involves a reticulate pattern of disallowed - see forum rules through plant to plant interactions creating new lineages. This paper is an introduction to a method of recording plant taxa that have been identified as actual or putative botanical or cultivar taxa of allopolyploid origin, with an alphabetic checklist of examples randomly taken from the Cactaceae. Some of these have been suggested before elsewhere, while the others are proposed here for the first time. Allopolyploid events are the reason why all phylogenetic trees are inherently flawed and cannot be read at face value.
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