FloraPix

9902 - Bromeliads (Garden) - 2012-06-28
(Dimension: 2030 x 1550 pixels - Counter: 17726)
Dyckia dawsonii

Locality: Los Angeles
Photographer: Bryan Chan
Note: I have seen many pictures and many claims of plants being purported to be D. dawsonii. My first thoughts were that many of them are hybrids, but I do not really know. How many known forms of this plant are out there? As a note the plant in the picture was not growing right and I had to repot it. (Sent: brom-l@science.uu.nl)
Identification:

Note: Dutch Vandervort (2012-06-28) - If this is a 5 or 6 inch pot this plant looks very much like D.dawsonii X choristaminea. I made this cross and gave some of the resulting plants to Bill Baker and we both sold them in and around Southern California. It differs from the species in that the leaves are about 1/3 the width and 1/2 the length of the species plant. I got my plant from Paul Hutchinson who got it from Dawson himself. I made the hybrid because after several years of trying to self the Dawsonii without success I decided that it must be self sterile. Or at least self sterile in my growing conditions at the edge of the Pacific ocean. Years ago Ed Hummell observed that some self sterile plants would become self fertile at elevated temperatures of 100Âº F and higher.

I picked D. choristaminea as the pollen donor as its flowers were similar, and the odor almost identical -- plus, it was available.
There is a photo on the FCBS.org photo index pages of D. dawsonii that I find representative of the species. The upper, right hand photo seems to be most representative of the features of D. dawsonii. Key features for me are the "wavy" rubbery spines, the slight, purplish linear variegation along the edges of the leaves, and the fragrance of the flowers. The hybrid I made was very stable and a perfect combination of the prominent features of the two parents. (Sent: brom-l@science.uu.nl)
Note: Joachim Saul (2012-06-28) - In my opinion Bryans plant quite closely resembles the ZÃ¼rich clone:
http://jsaul.de/bilder/060926.Dyckia_dawsonii.jpg
which was originally obtained from Huntington decades ago and carries the original Dawson 15236 number.

Dutch, what do you think about Chanin's plants (2nd row on the FCBS page)? Does that also resemble your D. dawsonii X choristaminea? (Sent: brom-l@science.uu.nl)
Note: Dutch Vandervort (2012-06-28) - I do not want to offend our friends in Thailand, but either their soil, or their weather or something Bromeliads really like. Everything that grows over there looks better than most anything that grows over here. Maybe it is the superior care they lavish upon their plants. The Chanin Thorut pictures look more like the species D.dawsonii but I think they are beneficiaries of their Thai environment. Think of them as the hybrid on steroids! Since the hybrid is kind of a diminutive D. dawsonii, when it is grown well and large it just begins to look more like its D. dawsonii parent. I thought I had registered an name for this hybrid, but I cannot seem to find it. For those who have not seen D. choristaminea -- its leaves are short, fine and almost grass like. If the hybrid is grown hard and with little fertilizer it begins to take on more of the characteristics of D. choristaminea parent. (Sent: brom-l@science.uu.nl)