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TUCSON CACTUS AND SUCCULENT SOCIETY

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2025 - Monthly Meetings

First Thursdays January through November at 7 PM
A short business meeting followed by an informative presentation, door prizes, and free plants.

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There are two ways to view this presentation:

1. Attend the in-person meeting. Masks are optional.

In-Person meetings are held at 6000 E. 14th St., Tucson AZ 85711
Sky Islands Public High School
School Location Map

2. Join online Zoom meeting.  Zoom Link   Zoom Instructions

See a List of Previous Monthly Meetings including Overviews, Videos,
Free and Raffle Plant Slide Shows
Also, you can view previous presentations on YouTube See Index

Upcoming in 2025 

  • March 6, 2025 - Kipp Lee
    Utah Cactus Book Overview
  • April 3. 2025 - Patrick Shipman
    No program title available yet.
  • May 1, 2025 - Tristan Davis (possible)
  • June 5, 2025 - Michelle Cloud-Hughes
    Same title from the CSSA Convention and should be available very soon.
  • July 3, 2025 - Cliff Fielding (possible)
    Lithops


February 6, 2025 Meeting

February 6, 2025 7:00 pm
Field Guide to Cacti and Other Succulents of Arizona - 4th Edition Overview
Presented by Thomas Staudt and Peter Breslin

Cochemiea grahamii in flower

Cochemiea tetrancistra

Cochemiea thornberi subsp. yaquensis


Field guides are an evolving entity. Since the first edition of the Field Guide to Cacti and Other Succulents of Arizona was published in 2015 there has been more detailed awareness of species distributions, leading to new and improved mapping that has occurred in editions 2 through 4.

Also, since the first edition there has been an effort to reach our initial goal of having all the photos taken in the field in Arizona. Catching a particular cactus species with a limited flowering period proved to be a difficult task and some flower photos were originally from cultivated plants. Over the years in subsequent editions this has been largely rectified.

The second edition had 25 new photos and 14 adjusted maps. The third edition had 19 new photos and 10 map updates. We're trimming this down and have replaced just 6 photos and updated 4 maps in the 4th edition.

The most obvious change in this edition is the new recognition of 6 of the 9 Arizona Mammillaria species now falling into the genus Cochemiea. Peter Breslin will be addressing that issue during this presentation. Other issues that have evolved over the succeeding editions include the reorganization of the Cylindropuntia genus and highlighting the 22 species that are endemic to Arizona, as well as including new species as they were recognized.

I didn't expect to be working with these matters through three additional editions over most of 10 years. But that's where we are today, the fourth edition is freshly off the press and will be available at the Feb. 6 meeting.

All four main authors will be in attendance and be available to autograph your new book.

Thomas and his wife Maria have been members of TCSS since 2007 when they, like many of you, joined because of the rescue program. In other lives Thomas has led bicycle tours including a cross country tour in 1998, worked 8 seasons in Antarctica including a couple of weeks at the South Pole, worked two long seasons aboard ship as a seabird identification specialist and for many years conducted plant and wildlife surveys in Arizona and neighboring states. It was during those surveys that the idea for a field guide for Arizona cacti took its formation. Maria is currently the layout and design professional putting together articles for both Haseltonia and the Cactus and Succulent Journal for the Cactus and Succulent Society of America. 

Peter Breslin is a postdoctoral researcher at the Desert Lab on Tumamoc Hill, at the University of Arizona, currently working with 60 years of repeat saguaro survey data to better understand what the future trajectory of the saguaro cactus might be. He got his PhD in the evolution, biogeography, and population ecology of Sonoran Desert and Baja California cacti, with a focus on the genera Mammillaria and Cochemiea. Part of his doctoral research continued the earlier work of Bonnie Sue Crozier, Charles Butterworth and several others, who repeatedly found that the genus Mammillaria as formerly defined was not a single clade (that is, not descendant from a single most  recent common ancestor, also known as non-monophyletic). He and his co-authors proposed an expanded concept of the genus Cochemiea to resolve its evolutionary confusion. He looks forward to making all of this crystal clear at the February 6th meeting. Breslin is the managing editor for publications for the Cactus and succulent society of America. 

We are always thinking of your safety and if you are not feeling well we ask that you join us on the internet Zoom presentation. If you're doing well and would like to attend you are welcome to come and join us for this special in person presentation (masks will be encouraged but not required). This meeting will also be a Zoom program and will be an important educational and informational event you must see. Also, if using Zoom, be sure to log in to win a $25.00 gift certificate from TCSS or choose a copy of the new 4th edition of the Field Guide to Cacti & Other Succulents of Arizona. Excellent plant give aways will take place at the in-person meeting but that portion of the program, because of the recording, will not appear on Zoom. When leaving the live in-person meeting, please enjoy great refreshments provided by our member volunteers and also, everyone can get a special free plant offered to you by the TCSS.

TCSS Meeting Refreshments

Please share and socialize with your fellow members at our monthly meetings by bringing some type of finger food for the refreshment table.

For February Meeting we are asking members whose last names begin with "H" through "N" to bring something that would serve 10-12 people.


January 2, 2025 7:00 pm
Agaves of Oaxaca
Presented by Greg Starr

Agave calciphila

Agave oteoi

In this newly developed presentation, Greg explores the newly described Agave species in Oaxaca, Mexico and those once considered species, lumped into synonymy with other species, and then elevated back to species status. He discusses the merits of describing these new species or of elevating them back to valid species status. Many Agave species in Oaxaca occur in isolated areas or their distribution is restricted to a very specific soil type. One of the difficult sections (grouping) of species to work with is the Heteracanthae (Gentry called this his group Marginatae). Several species in this section have flowers that are similar in size but are very different vegetatively. This requires that the botanist look beyond the traditional use of reproductive structures (flowers and fruits) when defining species boundaries and consider the more non-traditional methods to decipher when a particular group or groups of plants of plants are on their own evolutionary pathway. Greg delves into this morass, rolls around in it, and gets himself dirty.

The starting point for most any contemporary agavephile is generally regarded as Gentry’s Agaves of Continental North America, but Greg looks further back in time and utilizes the works of Agave botanists such as William Trelease and Alwin Berger. He also follows the research and work of more recent botanists such as Abisaí Josué García-Mendoza, Bernd Ullrich, and Joachim Thiede. It is this new understanding of and interpretation of just what constitutes a species that is driving current species definitions. You will notice that genetics has been left out of the equation for the time being as there are simply to many holes and unanswered questions for Greg to feel comfortable relying on the various interpretations of results.

If you have ever wondered where research grant money goes, are curious about Agaves and/or Oaxaca, or just like to get some snacks and a free plant at the end of the meeting, come and join Greg as he takes you on a whirlwind tour to look at Agaves in Oaxaca and muddies the waters of traditional taxonomy.

Greg was born and raised in Tucson, Arizona, and has grown to love the desert and its flora and fauna. He graduated from the University of Arizona in 1979 with a Bachelor of Science in Horticulture, and after working in the landscape industry he went back to the University to study Botany and further his education in horticulture. Greg worked for Warren Jones (co-author of Plants for Dry Climates and Landscape Plants for Dry Regions) and Dr. Charles Mason at the University of Arizona herbarium. Greg made his first foray into the world of collecting in 1979 when he traveled with Warren and Bill Kinneson to Texas where he saw firsthand, in habitat, the many plants he had only experienced in the nursery or landscapes. He graduated from the University in 1985 with a Master of Science in Horticulture with a special emphasis on botany.

 
Agave salomonii

Agave yucuanensis

He opened Starr Nursery in the summer of 1985 and has specialized in low water use plants for landscaping in southern Arizona. Greg has traveled extensively in Mexico and the southwestern United States to study the plants for their potential landscape use in desert regions of the world. He has also traveled to South Africa, Madagascar, Peru, Ecuador, Chile, and Argentina all in his quest for knowledge about the world and its flora and fauna. 

Greg cut his teeth writing articles for various journals including the Cactus and Succulent Journal published by the Cactus and Succulent Society of America, Haseltonia, and Desert Plants. Greg has continued writing and his first book, Cool Plants for Hot Gardens, was released at the end of April 2009. That sold out and Greg revamped the book, went the self-publishing route, and had the revised edition printed locally in December 2021. His second book, titled AgavesLiving Sculptures for Landscapes and Containers, was released in early May of 2012 and is currently out-of-print. He is a co-author for the Field Guide to the Cacti and Other Succulents of Arizona. He is hard at work on Cool Cacti and Succulents for Hot Gardens, hoping to finish that before summer 2024. He is passionate about Ferocactus and always learning more, and this is a great opportunity to further his understanding of the genus and help educate others who are also interested in learning more.

Greg has described seven new species of Agave, three new species of Hesperaloe, and was a part of the team that described Thelocactus tepelmemensis. He now spends much of his time in botanical pursuits, tapping at the computer hoping another book will take shape, preparing PowerPoint presentations, and tending to Starr Nursery, specializing in Agaves and North American cacti.


We are always thinking of your safety and if you are not feeling well we ask that you join us on the internet Zoom presentation. If you're doing well and would like to attend you are perfectly welcome to come and join us for this really special in person presentation (masks will be encouraged but not required). This meeting will also be a Zoom program and will be an important educational and informational event you must see. Also, if using Zoom, be sure to log in to win a $25.00 gift certificate from TCSS or choose a copy of the new 3rd edition of the Field Guide to Cacti & Other Succulents of Arizona. Excellent plant give aways will take place at the in-person meeting but that portion of the program, because of the recording, will not appear on Zoom. When leaving the live in-person meeting, please enjoy great refreshments provided by our member volunteers and also, everyone can get a special free plant offered to you by the TCSS.

TCSS Meeting Refreshments

Please share and socialize with your fellow members at our monthly meetings by bringing some type of finger food for the refreshment table.

For the January Meeting we are asking members whose last names begin with "A" through "G" to bring something that would serve 10-12 people.




Tucson Cactus and Succulent Society (TCSS)

PO Box 64759  -  Tucson, AZ 85728-4759   -   Phone: (520) 256-2447  -  Email: TCSS@TucsonCactus.org

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