Edgar Lamb and Mr Ghoghari of Ahmedabad

[Pattock]

I am writing an article on Frerea indica/Boucerosia frerei and I wondered if anyone can help with these two questions.

Do you know anything of any Indian succulent plants supplied by Mr Ghoghari (or Mr Gogari) of Ahmedabad to Edgar Lamb, preferably with dates when they were given or any other information at all?

Do you know of any Boucerosia frerei plants still being cultivated that are descendants or clones of those that were supplied by Mr Goghari to Edgar Lamb?

I should give some context.

I have not been able to find anything beyond two references. I can't even find out Mr Goghari's first name.

In the first days of October 1976, Jagdash Singh Sarkaria visited a private succulent collector, Mr Ghoghari of Ahmedabad.

"From Rajkot we went to Ahmedabad where we saw Mr. Ghoghari's collection. Mr. Ghoghari's collection has some very good Adenium obesum plants. ...
... Mr. Ghoghari had told us that he had collected Frerea indica from Parvati Hill in Poona and at Mahab[a]leshwar, several years ago, when Poona had not become the big industrial city that it is today."

A few days later Sarkaria collected some Caralluma fimbriata from Parvati Hill. He looked for Frerea while he was there but did not find any.

The other reference comes from an article published in Asklepios in 1994 by Brian Fearn. Fearn had visited Maharashtra in 1982. He wrote that:

"Mr Gogari of Ahmadabad also collected plants from a site near Pune, which were sent to Edgar Lamb, who also sent some to Maurice Mason. This clone has subsequently been widely distributed. It is now believed to be extinct in the area round Pune itself, from where it was originally collected by Mr. Gogari, a chemical factory having been built on the site."

Maurice Mason had received Frerea plants sent from St Xavier's College in Bombay/Mumbai that originated on Purandar Hill Fort. He seems to have given too many away and lost them. I believe there are plenty of those in cultivation.

There are no chemical factories on Parvati Hill, that may be a case of amplification by time and retelling.

If those plants from an extinct population on Parvati Hill are still in cultivation they may be important for the genetic diversity of this still endangered plant.

Thank you for your kind attention and here are photos of my plant, once it started recovering from the spider mite that came as free gifts when I bought it:

[Herts Mike]

Mine came from Kew. I'll see if I can find the records.

[Terry S.]

I think that the clone that I grew for years until I got completely fed-up with it, was traceable back to L. Maurice Mason. He was always very generous towards knowledgeable growers who visited his estate at Fincham in Norfolk (with ethanol as well as plants) and as President of the National Cactus & Succulent Society it is likely that material from his stocks would have got to Society members. He wrote very little about his collection or his travels and I am not aware of Mason's records being filed anywhere. I think that his collection was bequeathed to an East Anglian college after his death in 1993, but they were not interested because of cost implications.There is a biography of him in the March 2011 Plantsman

[Pattock]

Thanks Terry.

I have done a bit of digging into Maurice Mason. He also provided Kew Gardens with their first living specimens in 1959. I think a lot of Central and Eastern European plants are from his stock, as well, via Marnier-Lapostolle's private botanical garden and German universities. His lack of record-keeping has been a problem for several botanists trying to work with plants he collected. David Goyder from Kew kindly replied to my enquiry but there were no details on their record except that it came from L. Maurice Mason. I am almost definitely sure that is the one from Purandar Hill Fort, cultivated at St Xavier's College since 1950. I just have to eliminate Mr Ghoghari from my enquiries.

The RHS were kind enough to provide me with a scan of the article from the Plantsman. Very useful.

Was the plant too floppy for you, too untidy, too thirsty, too easily sunburnt, a pest magnet or too smelly? Or all of the above?

[Terry S.]

Frerea didn't like the greenhouse so it was on the window sill in my junk room (aka office). The stems got very long, even with occasional pruning and leaves and dead flowers fell everywhere. No problem with pests or sunburn in that situation. But there was the problem of me thinking I needed a shower, when the plant was flowering next to the PC. The flowers do have a sweaty smell rather than rotting carrion. I propagated and distributed quite few over the years by pretending it was an African violet and rooting the shoots in water.

I have this distant memory of reading something somewhere about hunting for this species in India - you seem to have been through Asklepios so perhaps not there. Also I did attend a talk by Dr. Sarkaria at Kingston branch about Indian succulents a LONG time ago, but remember nothing of it.

My plant did self on one occasion and the seeds were viable, so that could be a route to more than one clone in cultivation.

[Herts Mike]

Mine was collected at Poona. Not sure that is any help to you.

[Pattock]

At Poona, not near Poona? It could be from Parvati Hill. Of course, there were many cultivated by the Western Circle of the Botanical Survey of India that was based in Pune/Poona, collected from various other places across Maharashtra over more than a century.

So that raises the uncertainty, thank you. Though if it was via Kew it must be from after 1959.

Have you got a photo of the flower? Is it the same pattern as mine above?

[Herts Mike]

[Herts Mike]

The Kew notes say :-

Collected in Poona, India. Scarce plant came from type locality. Area now severely threatened by logging. Occurs naturally on limestone waterfalls.

The Kew accession number is 1996 764.

[ralphrmartin]

Crikey, Mike. I'd better put some chicken grit on mine and chuck a bucket of water over it - Limestone waterfalls!