Australian Succulents

Female Succulent Experts

Some female succulent experts worth highlighting! Jan. 2019

At the last Australasian Cactus and Succulent Convention held in Perth in late September and early October 2018, there were about 110 attendees. Of the 15 larger presentations given, 12 were by male speakers, 3 were by female speakers. I want to focus this article mainly on these women.

· Noelene Tomlinson from Melbourne (at top left)

· Marquita Ellias from the USA (second from left)

· Jenny Rowland from Canberra (at far right)

The first of these was Noelene Tomlinson with the topic Crassulas Cultivated in Australia. A detailed coverage of all crassulas known to be in cultivation here. Her facts about each plant were primarily about correct nomenclature and any historical record of who described each plant and where it originated. I thought at the time, ‘My word she has gone to so much trouble researching all of this!’

Following on was Marquita Ellias from California, USA and her topic was Botanical Names Decoded, in which she made a strong and clear point about the lack of women recorded in botanical literature. This seemed a conundrum that intrigued me enough to consider it in more detail since then, and is part of the reason for this article. Marquita’s presentation was a very informative and complex one, referencing scientific facts and historical people, most notably Carl Linnaeus.

On the last formal convention day of speakers, Jenny Rowland from Canberra took the stage and gave a presentation about Alexander von Humboldt and some notably botanical connections to cacti and other succulents. Well, this turned out to be one of the biggest highlights of the whole convention. I am not very fond of history, especially historical people’s names and dates. So, when I perused all the speakers and their talk topics at the start of the convention, I found topics listed that appealed greatly to me, but also topics that interested me little, if at all. I then told my wife Michele which topics were a must for me and which could be skipped. It turned that we sat through all 15 of the talks and that my favourite topic talks weren’t all as good as I had hoped, yet in surprising contrast some of my least preferred topics turned out more memorable and interesting.

My wife Michele and I had to drive for three straight days to  return home after the convention finished so we had plenty of talk time in the car. We talked so much about succulents we saw, friends and people we met, things we learnt and highlights of our time in Perth. We both agreed that Jenny Rowland and her presentation about Alexander von Humboldt was our favourite. Was her success the result of the content of her presentation or the manner in which she conveyed it? I pondered this carefully and came to the conclusion that Jenny had not only put in a huge amount of research in to a topic close to her heart, but must have also practised her presentation tirelessly to get it to flow so well in an interesting and informative way.

A quick comparison of all the Convention speakers and their topics revealed that all the female presenters delivered very difficult topics, heavily based around historical records, facts and correct botanical names (citing references where necessary). So, a definite spike in high standards coming from the female speakers.

Late in the Convention I had an opportunity to have a turn on stage presenting the topic Desert Bromeliads. As a direct result of Marquita’s point in her presentation about women in our hobby, I felt a strong desire to add something relevant regarding this point to the audience.  A few days before arriving in Perth, Michele and I visited the Darwin Botanic Garden where we came upon a huge newly developed garden area devoted to cacti and succulents. While strolling amongst numerous mature Adansonia, Adenium, Delonix, Moringa and Pachypodium species, we soon came upon some desert bromeliads and a massive boulder with a plaque dedicated to a woman and her love of succulents.

My wife Michele and I frequently visit the Darwin Botanic Gardens, especially to admire and sit in the shade of massive succulents, in this case Adansonia digitata. Shortly after this image was taken we came across a huge boulder on which was a plaque dedication.

So I felt inspired to share this with the audience with pictures of the plants and the plaque. Coincidentally in the audience were numerous women from all walks of life including one rather modest lady by the name of Harvey, about whom I felt the need to boast about.  I then zoomed in on the Plaque which read, ’In recognition of Dr Harvey Cooper-Preston’s major contribution to the ….Darwin Botanic Garden….. She is respected for her extensive botanical knowledge, in particular her love for cacti, succulents and other arid climate plants.’ I made sure every body at the convention was made aware of Harvey and her achievements. She certainly wasn’t going around boasting about it, and few people at the convention knew her. Later that day I caught up with Harvey and asked her about the great plaque and honour. She laughed and said that such plaques are usually given for deceased people posthumously. I wonder if she is Australia’s highest awarded female for promoting succulents, in the public domain?

Harvey at her former home in Darwin where she grew a vast range of rare and unusual succulents; among her favourites were dyckias and other desert bromeliads.Harvey grew and developed some interesting Dyckia cultivars including this striking unnamed example. Much of Harvey's collection has since been donated to the Botanic Gardens.

Back in Melbourne at our Victorian society meeting in November 2018, Noelene Tomlinson gave the evening’s main presentation about echeveria identification. At the very start she pointed out that it was by far the hardest talk she’d ever had to give. (I understood clearly that the amount of complex issues at sorting out the correct information about echeveria names was always going to be difficult, as I had attempted a similar project years ago.)

Her presentation of Echeveria species was very informative and exceptionally well-researched. As was her practice, she cited official descriptions, plant origins, people who first described the species and all the other technicalities associated with better understanding each species. Often the biggest problem was genetic variation within a species where she showed how different the same species looked when found in a different Mexican state, hence several or more colour forms of a plant exist under a different name, when they’re really the same plant species.

Whereas many people grow and sell echeverias around the world, sadly there are far too many names being used loosely or incorrectly with little care to sorting the ever-increasing mess that results. Noelene and her tireless pursuit of correctness is backed up with science and fact. Most notably the ICN (International Crassulaceae Network) an international project to have plants correctly identified and named.

What Noelene has been successfully doing with a range of succulent genera over the last 15 years has benefited our hobby immeasurably. Australia has no one else, male or female, who has done so much at improving or raising the standards within our hobby. She has worked with, and has been helped immensely by, the ICN in Europe, which is run by Margrit Bischofberger.

So it appears after having a good look around, that there are more than a few, strong visionary women among us, and leading the way in some areas, and with a lot less noise and fanfare than some of us males!

Note: The above article was published in the Journal of The Cactus and Succulent Society of Australia, March 2019.

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