Oct 31, 2009

Dyckia reitzii

Dyckia reitzii - Santa Catarina native to
Undeniably outstanding. Here about blooming


Dyckia platyphylla

Dyckia platyphylla
This is a robust and substantial plant.
What we usually see are hybrids even though people insist
on calling them Dyckia platyphylla.
Outside Brazil this plant was so hybridized people lost track
of the true Dyckia platyphylla long, long ago.
Most Dyckia platyphylla keepers have in fact no idea what a Dyckia platyphylla
looks like.





Dyckia dusenii

Dyckia dusenii
Extremely rare in Santa Catarina but it can be found in Campo Alegre region.
It can be sole green, olive or reddish with more or less silver pigmentation.

the silver pigmentation is much more intense in the center of the crown.
There this silver coting is protected from the heavy rain.
If you protect the whole plant it gets a magnificent all over silver coating.
this Species in spite of being an old known one species it is
extremely rare outside Brazil.
Somehow Santa Catarina Northeast was neglected by the usual bushmen.
they centered their attention to the Central Brazil species.




Dyckia gloriosa
That´s the way... the way I like it!

I wish most of the days would be a day just like today.
What a Spring day!
Supercalifragilistic one as Mary would say, Mary Poppins.
( A 1964 movie staring Julie Andrews.)
28 degrees Centigrade!
Balmy breeze plus a blue sunny sky with white cotton like scattered clouds.
Birds singing.
If I had to wish a day to friend I would have wished a day
just like today and the music: Vivaldi, no doubt.



Dyckia brevifolia indaialensis

Dyckia brevifolia indalialensis

Native to Itajaí-açi River at Indaial in Santa Catarina.
Observe the wine colored flower stalk bractea and the deep rich
green foliage.




Dyckia brevifolia subidensis

Dyckia brevifolia subidensis
A new just discoverd beauty from Itajaí-açu River
Subida, Santa Catarina.


Once it was thought Dyckia brevifolia as a much close
species with no variety no matter the origin.
Science was blind once more.
Look at this spectacular plant.
Notice its flower stalk how yellowish it is and there is no
hint of any red or wine colors flowers stalk bractea.
Dyckia brevifolia as many other Dyckia species
present some varieties too.






See you later Wally Gator.

If Wally was a gardener he would keep Dyckias
for both enjoy the warm of the Sun.

Dyckias do not like snow boarding.
They rather have the hammock tied to palm trees,
a balmy breeze and a life to live.....

Dyckia hebdingii

Dyckia hebdingii
Arroio dos Ratos - Rio Grande do Sul

Most probably Dyckia hebdingii will be taken as a group of
Dyckias with some very beautiful varieties.

This Dyckia is securely one of the most beautiful
plants on the whole entire Planet.
It does not fails to allure any plant lover.
It has all the qualities one may wait:
- shape and form extremely attractive.
- Color and size
...and best of all: it is not a Brazilian Cerrado Dyckia that takes
two and a half ice ages to feel fine in any garden. It comes from South in Brazil and
it is used to some moderate frozes. But do not go on thinking it can take
days under ice or snow. This is insanity. A plant like this must be kept
as the rarity and the beauty it is. Do not keep a survivor but a healthy happy plant.
This is a Brazilian tropical...yes, indeed!
We here have very cold winter nights but do not imagine us... snow boarding...
It just does not fit to Brazil.
Here in Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul we may have some light snow.
When it does snow thousand of Brazilian come down here to tremble their chins
and gather the rare snow to make a sad and dwarf snow man.
These Brazilian snow raiders must be very agile otherwise they only see
water and mud. They may be as fast as Flash Gordon they won´t never see ice pendents
hanging from our roofs and wires. Brrrr...thanks Almighty!
I use to say here that snow is very beautiful, once you saw one snowy field you saw all of them and do not want to see any anymore. Snow is absolutely charming: on TV!
Those who are blessed to see it, touch it, roll on it, sit on it, lay down on it even swallow it, fine very fine indeed specially when we can go back
to Ipanema...now those forced to live with it and live on it when not under it....
No thanks. I wanna go back to my plow... so goodbye Yellow Brick Road...
A Dyckia kept under many starry frozen nights if could it would go back to its Brazilian plow, no doubt. Remember Wallie, the Wally Gator held in New York Winter and dreaming, day dreaming of the warm and sunny Everglades. Wally used to imagine himself on a hammock between two palm trees wearing sunglasses and having a Pina colada on a balmy sunny Florida.
Let your Dyckia savour a Pina Colada or better yet
our Cachaça. Keep it warm and provide some sun even an artificial one will do better than none!





Dyckia species - Chapada Diamantina
South in Bahia
An extremely similar to Dyckia hebdingii affinis
from Arroio dos Ratos- Rio Grande do Sul





Dyckia hatschbachii

Dyckia hatschbachii
Rare endangered species native to Paraná and Santa Catarina.
The best short description here would be: as a huge Dyckia brevifolia.





Oct 30, 2009

Dyckia fosteriana Marialva-PR

This is one of the most outstanding Dyckia of all fosteriana
Complex. The leaves are deep white and a bit broader and also shorter.
It comes from close to Marialva in Paraná.
We refer to it as Dyckia fosterina Marialva.


Some Dyckias show to be beautiful since babies.
Imagine this seedling a year ahead from now.
Spines will get bigger, color and silver coating intensify...

Dyckia sp Pedreira-RS

This beautiful Dyckia grows North and East Porto Alegre.

Dyckia sp Pedra Branca - Tabaí -RS

This unnamed species is one of the most perfect Dyckia rosettes of all.



Dyckia sp - Rio Grande do Sul
A possible related to Dyckia sp Vila Cristina Species.
Dyckia species from Vila Cristina - Caxias do Sul - RS
Unnamed species


Dyckia retroflexa

This beautiful Dyckia species got its name for some of its basal spines
are curved backwards.

Dyckia nigrospinulata
Very compact and beautiful, rare and unknow named species from
Rio grande do Sul.









Dyckia delicata var. cyanophylla

Dyckia delicata var. cyanophylla



Dyckia delicata - Barros Cassal-RS

Dyckia delicata
They are getting color and some spination.

The best plant ever will come from a box like this and
not from any mountain. Here we accelerate Nature thousand times.
We make possible the dream the absolutely beautiful one
Nature would take ages to reveal.







Dyckia elisabethae

Dyckia elisabethae from Arroio dos Ratos in Rio Grande do Sul
is a member of the Gaucho Dyckia Complex.

Dyckia elisabethae is part of the Critically Endangered Species list
of the Brazilian Flora.
Here you can see it emitting flower stalks.







Dyckia fosteriana the big large white one

Dyckia fosteriana
Dyck fosteriana is more than just a species. It is a Dyckia complex.
Within it we may find several varieties and forms.
They come from really big to tiny.
Red, white or green and a mix of these three colors in every shade
can be also found amid the fosteriana complex.

This large white fosteriana is a late bloomer
this indicates it comes from a higher region or a more Souther one
This is one of the whitest plants I saw and may get even whiter.
Its seeds and flowers are bigger than the others fosteriana blooms.






Oct 29, 2009

Dyckia goehringii

Dyckia goehringii





This is a beautiful small Amazonian Dyckia

The amazonian South limit area up North Mato Grosso
is the home of some small and extremely beautiful Dyckias.
Unnamed and unknown.

Unnamed Dyckia species from Rio Grande do Sul.

Dyckias seem to dance in the Sun and produce
the glare and shadow effect.







..and it came! A whole month travel.

It came!
At last! My heart flies and my soul sings.
From The Big Island, Land of Nelson and Shakespeare, Beatles,
Tatcher and Mark.
Thank you.
Dyckia Britania
Today I will have myself a five o´clock tea! Come, sit by my side.
Let us talk....




Oct 28, 2009

Dyckia goehringii

Three whole years after getting to my garden this upper plant
finally decides to cooperate and show some happiness.
This is the most difficult Cerrado Dyckia to get acquainted to my plow.
Dyckia goehring seem to suffer from banzo.
Banzo is the name of a sickness the slaves suffered when
in America. It is just an intense homesickness as desperately
people died from sadness.

These plants seem to easely suffer from Banzo too and no matter what you do, they will feel homesick for two or more years
You may even dance the belly dance ot take a strip dancer to try to lift them up or those feathered Carioca mulatas to dance the samba to them.
They do no wake up...
But once they awake and sense here is much better than their own home....

Dyckia goehringii

If you are tempted to remove these offshoots you see here I strongly recommend not to.
These sprouts take ages to set their own roots no matter what you do or use to
stimulate the root growth on them.
A seed may develop into an adult plant faster than such sprouts.
After trying 12 times I decided no to separate them from their mother.
The removed sprouts are all alive but just this, alive.