efe

Corpse Flower


Vocabulary




corpse
   –
  a
  dead
  body



foul
   –
  having
  a
  bad
  smell


putrid

   -­‐
  having
  a
  rotten
  smell

stench
  –
   a
  bad
  smell
















whiff
  –
   a
  smell;
  (v.)
  to
  smell

rotting
  –
   going
  bad;
  decaying

stinky
  –
   having
  a
  bad
  smell

emit
  (v.)
  –
  to
  send
  out

Reading:
  Fill
  in
  the
  blanks
  with
  words
  from
  below.







Recently,
  a
  huge
  crowd
  gathered
  at
  the
  Denver
  Botanic
  Gardens
  in
  Colorado
  to

witness
  the
  blooming
  of
  a
  rare
  flower.


  The
  flower’s
  scientific
  name
  is
  titan

arum,
  but
  its
  nickname
  is
  “corpse
  flower.”

  When
  it
  1.
























  ,
  which

happens
  only
  once
  every
  few
  years,
  it
  emits
  a
  foul,
  putrid
  stench
  like
  the
  smell
  of

garbage.



In
  spite
  of
  the
  unpleasant

  2.
























  ,
  people
  who
  came
  to
  see
  the
  corpse

flower
  were
  full
  of
  enthusiasm
  and
  excitement.

  The
  crowd
  clapped
  and
  cheered

as
  if
  they
  were
  attending
  a
  sporting
  event.





“It’s
  human
  nature
  that
  we
  all
  want
  to
  smell
  something
  bad,

I
  guess,”
  said
  one


3.






  at
  the
  garden.
  “You
  know
  when

someone
  smells
  something
  bad
  and
  they
  stuff
  it
  in
  your

face?
  That’s
  what
  you
  get.”



Visitors
  hoping
  to
  get
  a
  whiff
  of
  the
  stinky
  plant
  got
  what

they
  came
  for.


  The
  flower
  bloomed
  as
  predicted,
  and

stayed
  in
  bloom
  for
  several
  days.

  People
  described
  the

smell
  in
  various
  ways.

  Some
  said
  it
  smelled
  like
  dead
  mice,

while
  others
  compared
  it
  to
  4.






  cabbage.


They
  nicknamed
  the
  plant
  “Stinky.”



At
  over
  10
  feet
  (3.33
  meters)
  tall,
  the
  corpse
  flower
  is
  the
  largest
  flower
  in
  the

world.


  However,
  like
  the
  giant
  panda,
  it
  is
  an
  5.







  species.


Researchers
  hope
  that
  events
  like
  the
  one
  in
  Denver
  will
  raise
  public
  awareness

and
  help
  preserve
  this
  unique
  flower
  for
  future
  generations.





odor

  |


  blooms

  |


  endangered

  |


  scientist


  |


  rotting





www.tefl25.com

1


TEFL25
  Matching
  Activity:
  Idioms
  related
  to
  smell




1. wake
  up
  and
  smell
  the
  coffee


a.
  to
  take
  time
  to
  enjoy
  life

2. smell
  a
  rat








b.
  to
  smell
  really
  bad

3. smell
  fishy








c.
  pay
  attention
  to
  what’s








































































  going
  on

4. stop
  and
  smell
  the
  roses



d.
  seem
  suspicious

5. stink
  to
  high
  heaven




e.
  to
  sense
  that
  someone








































































  has
  done
  something

wrong



Extension:
  Sentence
  Completion



Fill
  in
  the
  blanks
  using
  words
  and
  expressions
  from
  the
  Word
  Bank

below.



1.
  Something











  .

  I
  think
  he’s
  lying.



2.
  Life
  is
  short,
  so
  you
  should















every
  once
  in
  a
  while.



3.
  The
  rotten
  egg
  emitted
  a










  stench.



4.
  The
  undertaker
  buried
  the











.



5.
  Pee-­‐yew!

  You















.

  Why

don’t
  you
  take
  a
  bath?



6.
  Get
  a









  of
  this
  new
  perfume.





Word
  Bank





putrid


smells
  fishy

corpse

stop
  and
  smell
  the
  roses







whiff


stink
  to
  high
  heaven





www.tefl25.com

2


TEFL25
  Discussion

1. In
  your
  opinion,
  which
  smells
  are
  the
  best?

  Which
  are

the
  worst?

2. Would
  you
  like
  to
  see
  the
  corpse
  flower?

  Why
  or
  why

not?

3. Rate
  these
  smells
  in
  order
  of
  your
  preference,
  from

best
  to
  worst:



Best
  =
  1




  Worst
  =
  10



the
  smell
  of
  rain










the
  smell
  of
  gasoline






the
  smell
  of
  bread








the
  smell
  of
  leather







the
  smell
  of
  coffee








the
  smell
  of
  garlic








the
  smell
  of
  babies







the
  smell
  of
  a
  book







the
  smell
  of
  a
  wet
  dog






the
  smell
  of

  a
  new
  car








4. Do
  you
  take
  time
  to
  appreciate
  the
  small
  things
  in
  life?


How
  often
  do
  you
  stop
  and
  smell
  the
  roses?

5. What
  is
  your
  favorite
  flower?

6. What
  is
  your
  favorite
  perfume
  or
  cologne?

7. Do
  you
  have
  a
  good
  sense
  of
  smell?

8. What’s
  the
  best
  way
  to
  get
  rid
  or
  a
  stinky
  smell
  in
  your

house?

9. What
  would
  you
  do
  if
  your
  neighbor
  owned
  a
  corpse

flower?



www.tefl25.com

3


TEFL25
  Resource Brief
National Park Service
U.S. Department of the Interior
Saguaro National Park
Resource Management Division
Queen of the Night
A cryptic cactus with a beautiful secret
Background
The Queen of the Night,
These synchronized blooms
Peniocereus gregii, is a member of
increase the chances of being
the Cactaceae (Cactus) family. It
pollinated. The blooms are diffi-
can be found growing at elevations
cult to predict but usually occur
between 2000 and 5000 feet in
sometime between the end of
both the Sonoran and Chihua-
May and the end of June. Flowers
huan Deserts. Like many plants
successfully pollinated by sphynx
in this harsh region, the Queen of
moths, bees, and beetles turn into
the Night takes on an unassuming
bright red fruits that can measure
form for a majority of the year,
2-3 inches long. These sweet fruits
waiting for the right time to make
are a welcome treat for many ani-
a brief, spectacular, appearance.
mals residing in the Queen of the
This typical cactus consists of long
Night’s domain. The consumed
Photo Park Volunteer
and thin angular stems with a dull
fruits allow for the dispersal of the
seeds that will produce the next generation.
greyish-green to purplish coloration. The “leggy”
stems are usually found growing under other desert
plants such as creosote, palo verde, or mesquites.
Most often, they are difficult to distinguish from
Threats to the Queen
the low branches of the plant they grow amongst.
The Queen of the Night is a magnificent plant that
The Queen of the Night is sometimes referred to by
has drawn quite a following. Unfortunately, the same
its descriptive, yet underwhelming common name,
Night Blooming Cereus. This common name does the attributes making these cacti so incredible have also
lead to their decline. They are threatened by the har-
plant no justice, because Queen of the Nights’ mod-
vest of tubers and fruits as food, and people’s desire
est appearance is just a charade hiding some incred-
to cultivate the plants for use in landscapes and gar-
ible secrets which makes it one of the most beautiful
dens. Habitat destruction and climate change have
and interesting plants in the Desert Southwest.
also contributed to their decline. Like many cacti
in Arizona, it is protected under the Arizona Native
Plant Protection Law. Queen of the Night is a New
Secrets Revealed
Mexico state endangered species, and has some
The Queen of the Night’s inconspicuous above-
international trade protection.
ground appearance hides a tuber, typically weighing
between 5 and 15 pounds; some specimens tip the
Fortunately, there are natural safe havens like
scales at over 25 pounds! The tuber stores all of the
Saguaro National Park and local botanical gardens,
water and precious nutrients used for growth and
where the cactus threatened by development are
production of the Queen’s flowers. Animals such
given sanctuary.
as javelinas, rodents, and jackrabbits can cause
severe damage to these plants by feeding upon
the tubers and stems. Indigenous people prize
the tuber as food and for its medicinal proper-
ties.
The Queen of the Night can produce several large,
fragrant, white flowers a season; each flower
blooming only for a single night, which withers
shortly after sunrise. Interestingly, a large major-
ity of the cacti bloom
simultaneously
throughout an area.
Photo Nic Perkins
EXPERIENCE YOUR
A M E R I C A TM
May 2016Photo Tony Palmer
Refuge under a mesquite.
Photo Tony Palmer
Finding the Queen in Saguaro National Park
The Queen of the Night can be found growing wild in both districts of the park. Look for these cryptic cacti
growing under other plants, along washes, and in the desert flats. If you would like to see some of Saguaro
National Park’s resident queens, your best bets are along the Loma Verde and Mesquite trails in the Rincon
Mountain District (east), and the Desert Winds and Camp Pima trails in the Tucson Mountain District (west).
Photo Park Volunteer
More Information
Tohono Chul Botanical Garden
http://tohonochulpark.org/
Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum
http://www.desertmuseum.org/books/nhsd_peniocereus.php
Desert USA
http:www.desertusa.com/cactus/night-blooming-cereus.html

PLANT ORIGINS
The
story
of
Cosmos
atrosanguineus
C
hocolate cosmos ,
Cosmos atrosanguineus,
has been intriguing botanists
and captivating gardeners since it
arrived in Britain from Mexico in
1861. As long ago as 1915 EA Bowles
enthused about it, saying it was: ‘as
dark a maroon as can exist without
being as black as your boot’.
For many decades seed was
offered every year by one of Britain’s
leading seed houses then interest
faded, the listing left the catalogue
and when enthusiasm was rekindled
it was thought that the plant was
extinct in the wild and that only one
sterile clone, grown at Royal Botanic
Gardens, Kew, was in cultivation.
Now, I am able to confirm that it
was never extinct, it continued to
grow prolifically at a number of sites
in Mexico, and has been grown from
seed in cultivation for decades. With
these discoveries, and the fact that
new cultivars and hybrids are being
introduced, the chocolate-coloured
112
Cosmos Chocamocha is claimed to be
a hybrid between C. atrosanguineus
and another Cosmos species
Often stated to be extinct in the wild,
chocolate cosmos is quite abundant in
Mexico. G raham R ice looks at the
evidence and its diversity in cultivation.
flower with the rich chocolate
fragrance is enjoying a new
popularity. This is its story.
Discovery and naming
Cosmos atrosanguineus is one of 36
Cosmos species, 28 of which are
endemic to Mexico (Sherff &
Alexander 1955). It is one of
eight species belonging to section
Discopoda in subtribe Coreopsidinae.
The other species are C. concolor,
C. jaliscensis, C. modestus, C. montanus,
C. purpureus and C. scabiosoides,
together with two species described
in 2013, C. pseudoperfoliatus and
C. ramirezianus.
Cosmos atrosanguineus was first
collected, as seed and as dried
material, near Zimapan, in the state
of Hidalgo, Mexico, by Benedict
Roezl in 1860 (Anon. 1885). Seed
was received from an unknown
sender in 1861 by William
Thompson, founder of the
Thompson & Morgan seed company
in Ipswich. Seed was also received by
Eduard Ortgies, head gardener at the
Botanical Garden of the University
of Zurich, sent to him under the
name Dahlia zimapani by Roezl.
Ortgies raised more than 200 plants.
Roezl was a prodigious plant
collector who, among his many
collections, sent 10 tons of orchids
to Europe in one shipment.
William Hooker (1861) gave an
account of the plant, before he
received seed from Thompson later
that same year, with his text and
June 2017Plantsman
The
Bidens, as B. atrosanguineus. It was not
until 1894 that Andreas Voss raised
it to species level, back in Cosmos, as
C. atrosanguineus.
In recent years it has been
presumed extinct; its habitat
thought to have been almost totally
destroyed by logging, copper mining,
agriculture and development. Hind
& Fay (2003) noted it as: ‘believed to
be extinct in the wild... This species
has not been refound in the wild
since it was last apparently collected
in the 1860s’.
In the wild Cosmos atrosanguineus grows in mixed oak and pine forest (top and above) in at least three
Mexican states in the company of species of Ageratina, Arbutus, Desmodium, Ipomoea, Oxalis, Salvia and Stevia.
illustration derived from dried
material. In 1878 dried material was
again collected by E Parry and CC
Palmer in San Luis Potosí in Mexico.
Hooker named the plant Cosmos
June 2017
diversifolius var. atrosanguineus,
although without living material of
C. diversifolius with which to
compare it. Ortgies, with the benefit
of comparative material, moved it to
Into the garden
Thompson & Morgan first listed
C. atrosanguineus, as Cosmos
diversifolius atrosanguineus, in their
seed catalogue of 1885 priced at 4d.
By 1902 two forms were listed:
Cosmos diversifolius atrosanguineus,
now priced at 3d and given the
common name black dahlia, and the
cultivar ‘King of the Blacks’,
described simply as an ‘improved
form’, and priced at 6d. By 1942 only
‘King of the Blacks’ was listed, at 3d.
It did not appear in subsequent
editions of the catalogue.
By the time it was dropped its
relatively low price suggests either
that there was no shortage of seed or
that it was priced to clear stocks
during war-time austerity. However,
it soon disappeared from cultivation.
While Thompson & Morgan were
popularizing the plant, Luther
Burbank began breeding work in
North America. ‘Often spoken of as
the black dahlia,’ he wrote (Whitson
et al. 1914), ‘its tubers and foliage
strongly suggest the common dahlia
in miniature. For four or five years I
worked extensively with this so-
called black dahlia, not only by way
of improving the flower itself, but
also in the attempt to hybridize it
with the dahlia proper. I succeeded
by select­ive breeding in enlarging the
flower to about twice its original ➤
113PLANT ORIGINS
114
In 2007 Mexican botanist Aarón
Rodríguez of the Universidad de
Guadalajara, Mexico, began a research
project on Cosmos, whose distribution
is largely confined to Mexico. With his
research students he searched Mexican
herbaria for Cosmos records and found
11 relatively recent records of
C. atrosanguineus (Castro-Castro et al.
2014). The earliest of these was a
collection made in October 1986 by
Mexican botanist Jerzy Rzedowski.
Having pinpointed the locations of
earlier collections he and his team began
field work. They found plants of
C. atrosanguineus in the Mexican states
of Guanajuato, Querétaro and San Luis
Potosí. ‘The populations are quite
numerous,’ Rodríguez reported. ‘Plants
grow in mixed pine and oak forest.’ It
grows from around 1,800m to 2,450m
and in Guanajuato grows with Cosmos
parviflorus as well as species of Ageratina,
Arbutus, Desmodium, Ipomoea, Oxalis,
Salvia and Stevia.
So it turns out that C. atrosanguineus is
not extinct and that there are records
of the plant from 1986 through to the
recent collections of Aarón Rodríguez
and his team.
A reintroduction programme
In 1997 material was transferred to
Kew’s micropropagation unit at
Wakehurst Place to be bulked up for
possible reintroduction to Mexico.
In 1998 seed was received at Kew
from the National Botanic Garden
of Belgium in Meise but it is unclear
whether it germinated; the Kew
record simply states ‘dead’.
Following a request from the
National Autonomous University
EVIDENCE FROM THE WILD
size, in making the petals much
rounder and fuller, in adding extra
petals, and in changing the color
of the petals from the usual dark
purplish crimson to a light crimson
approaching scarlet and in a few cases
to a pale pink approaching white.’
It is unclear exactly what Burbank
did, as with much of his breeding
work, or whether his pollinations led
to interspecific or intergeneric
fertilizations, or which parents
contributed to the ‘approaching
white’ form. However, a modern
cultivar, ‘Mexican Black’, claimed to
be a hybrid between Cosmos and
Dahlia, is a Dahlia (Shaw 2015).
There were no plants of
C. atrosanguineus growing at Kew
when Brian Halliwell, an assistant
curator, arrived there in 1968, but
he reported (Lewendon 2006) that,
‘most likely in the 80s’, he received
a plant of C. atrosanguineus from the
American plantsman Le Roy
Davidson. However, Kew records
note its identification as being
verified in 1978. Halliwell reported
that it grew in the Duchess Border at
Kew, in rich but well-drained soil at
the foot of a sunny wall, and was still
there when he retired in 1989.
Plants of this male-sterile form
were passed to W Ingwersen in 1986
and J Russell in 1989 (presumably
the nurserymen William Ingwersen
and James Russell, but Kew only
recorded their initials).
Top: a herbarium sheet held at the University of Guadalajara of Cosmos atrosanguineus. The specimen
was collected from the wild in Zimapan, Hidalgo, in September 2011.
Above: a flower of Cosmos atrosanguineus photographed in the wild in Mexico.
of Mexico, tissue-cultured plants
from Kew’s male-sterile clone were
sent to Mexico for a reintroduction
programme. Propagation continued
in Mexico but the plan stalled,
although in 2003 research was
under way to preserve the clone
for future reintroduction, using
cryopreservation of germplasm
(Wilkinson et al. 1998, 2003).
At this time a diverse population
of seed-raised plants was already
in existence in New Zealand and
the plant was not, in fact, extinct.
Breeding developments
Russell Poulter, a geneticist at Otago
University, New Zealand, grew a few
plants of the commercial male-sterile
clone whose flowers had no obvious
pollen and set no seed. But in about
1990 he noticed that one plant had
set two seeds which produced two
more plants. In the following years
cross-pollinations by hand produced
a few more plants. However, as he
put it: ‘Among the seedlings there
was quite a bit of variation, most of it
bad. The worst characteristic was a
deep division in the petals giving a
confused looking flower. Other poor
characteristics were a blood-red
petal rather than a brown/blood-red,
small flower size, and lack of scent.
However, one or two plants had
flowers with abundant pollen (very
pretty against the petals). Various of
these ‘pollen’ plants crossed with
June 2017Plantsman
The
Three cultivars of Cosmos atrosanguineus raised by plant breeder Keith Hammett. They are Eclipse
(‘Hamcoec’) (top left), Dark Secret (‘3013/01) (bottom centre) and Spellbound (‘Hamcosp’) (top right).
each other to set abundant seed... So
at this point I had restored fertility
but discovered the genome was full
of mutant characteristics that
needed to be got rid of.’
By 1995 Poulter was sufficiently
satisfied with the quality of his plants
to submit seed, under the name
‘Pinot Noir’, for Plant Variety
Rights protection in New Zealand.
It was granted in 1997. He has been
maintaining this seed-raised cultivar
ever since. Poulter has now spent
more than 20 years creating a
population of C. atrosanguineus that
breeds true from seed and retains
genetic diversity. So, while
conventional wisdom in Europe and
North America was that there was
only one clone in cultivation and it
never set seed, Poulter was raising
large numbers from seed and
supplying gardeners in New Zealand.
After its distribution to the
horticultural trade, the Kew clone
was grown from cuttings. It then
proved easy to propagate by tissue
culture and became widely popular.
Its colour, fragrance, the mystique
of its extinction and its refusal to set
June 2017
seed became part of its popular allure.
In 2006 a hybrid with an
unidentified species was introduced
by Thompson & Morgan. Called
Chocamocha (‘Thomocha’), it was the
first widely grown cultivar since
‘King Of The Blacks’. It soon
became popular for its improved
habit and more consistent flowering,
while retaining the chocolate
fragrance and colour of the species.
It rather neatly revived the seed
company’s connection with the
species first grown by founder
William Thompson in 1861.
Seed-raised plants of ‘Pinot Noir’
were on sale in New Zealand garden
centres around 2000, sometimes as
unnamed plants. But European and
North American gardeners and
nurseries were largely unaware of its
existence. New Zealand gardener
Lesley Cox sent seed to the UK in
about 2010. Possibly as a result of
this an increasing number of
gardeners were finding fertile plants,
discussing them on forums, and
submitting seed to seed lists. By
2016 Cox posted on the Scottish
Rock Garden Club forum: ‘Although
I’ve had masses of seed in recent
years I’ve not had self-sown seedlings
but this year there are hundreds! I’m
pulling them out every day...’
Keith Hammett, better known for
his sweet pea and dahlia breeding in
New Zealand, selected and crossed
individuals from Poulter’s plants in
2008 for commercial propagation by
tissue culture. Three of the resulting
cultivars have recently been
introduced as Dark Secret (‘3013/01’),
Eclipse (‘Hamcoec’) and Spellbound
(‘Hamcosp’).
Anne Wright of Dryad Nursery
in Yorkshire, who had received seed
from Lesley Cox in about 2010, soon
after sold material to Thompson &
Morgan.
Development continues in
England, Germany, New Zealand
and probably elsewhere. For
gardeners the lesson is that recent
cultivars propagated vegetatively,
such as Chocamocha , Dark Secret , Eclipse
and Spellbound , as well as seed-raised
cultivars, should be tried as
alternatives to the older, unnamed
clone that has been circulating.
But it is also clear that there have
been two popular misconceptions.
Cosmos atrosanguineus is not extinct
in the wild, a fact that was known
as long ago as 1986 but which was
never widely appreciated. It is also
clear that while some plants, such as
the one widely propagated by tissue
culture, are male-sterile, many are
male-fertile and seed-raised plants
have been grown since 1990.
The plants
The following accounts are
descriptions of C. atrosanguineus
cultivars, selections and hybrids
that have been, or are currently,
cultivated. I have found mention
of further names such as ‘Chocolate
Ruffle’, ‘Christopher’, ‘Hot
Chocolate’ and ‘Pip’, but without
➤
any descriptions.
115PLANT ORIGINS
Cosmos atrosanguineus ‘Black
Beauty’
Cut flowering stems have been
offered under this name but this may
simply be a marketing name for the
usual tissue-cultured form.
116
Cosmos atrosanguineus
unnamed, seed-raised forms
Seed, not differentiated by cultivar
name, collected on the nursery, was
made available from Plant World
Seeds, Devon, in 2016. The
description stated: ‘Mature plants
vary from tight compact clumps with
short-stemmed blooms, up to large
branching beauties with very long
stemmed flowers which are ideal for
cutting. Flowers range from small to
opulently large, whilst the fragrant
petals vary from notched or feathered
to oval and entire.’ Plants are
typically 30–60cm in height.
Seed is also available from Jonna
Sudenius in Belgium, collected from
plants grown from seed she received
from Russia. Images indicate flowers
with 12 or more rays, varying from
red to almost black. Plants are
typically 60–80cm in height.
A fertile clone (left) and the infertile Kew
clone (right) of Cosmos atrosanguineus
Cosmos atrosanguineus Kew
clone
In this selection grown at Royal
Botanic Gardens, Kew, small,
slender, dahlia-like tubers support
rather weak, dark red stems carrying
a slightly straggly mound of glossy,
dark green leaves. The leaves are
split pinnately once or twice into
narrowly diamond-shaped leaflets,
sometimes with reddish tints. Each
flowering stem, reaching 40–60cm,
carries one, saucer-shaped, chocolate-
scented, flower, 4.5cm in diameter,
comprising eight, obovate ray florets
in rich chocolate maroon and almost
black disc florets. Pollen is not
produced. Plants are late to emerge
in spring and flower from July to
autumn.
Variation in seed-raised plants of Cosmos
atrosanguineus sourced from Plant World Seeds
Cosmos atrosanguineus ‘Black
Magic’
This was the first widely available
seed-raised cultivar. Plants are
variable in habit and height, but
usually about 60cm, and it is
especially notable that the flowers
vary in three ways. At one extreme
the rays are broad, evenly shaped,
rounded and overlapping, and
sometimes lobed at the tip. At the
other extreme the rays are slender,
variable in shape, and with
noticeable gaps between them,
creating a spidery look. The number
of rays varies from eight to 24 and
where there are fewer rays they tend
to be broader. Its flowers vary in
June 2017Plantsman
The
colour from the rich chocolate
brown we associate with this plant
to what is definitely red, sometimes
with bronze tints. The foliage is
paler than that of other selections
and the plants relatively late into
flower.
Its origin is from a single seedhead
from a private garden in New
Zealand received in 2004 by Georg
Uebelhart, general manager of Jelitto
Perennial Seeds. The plant it came
from was said to be unrelated to
‘Pinot Noir’, although this seems
unlikely. The following year he
harvested 48 seeds. In the early
generations the plants were variable,
only a few carrying the required
large, rounded flowers. Crosses were
then made with existing clones and
this improved the flower form and
colour and enhanced the fertility.
Repeated selection reduced the
number of the less attractive forms
and, although the plants of ‘Black
Magic’ are variable, it was considered
sufficiently unique to be named.
Cosmos atrosanguineus ‘Black Magic’
is a variable, seed-raised cultivar
Cosmos atrosanguineus Dark Secret
(‘3013/01’) has broad, overlapping rays
Cosmos atrosanguineus Coco
Chanel (‘3013/01’)
Coco Chanel is the trade designation
used in New Zealand for ‘3013/01’.
It was replaced by Dark Secret in
North America for fear of litigation.
Cosmos atrosanguineus Dark
Secret (‘3013/01’)
The dark brown to deep wine-red
flowers of this cultivar have broad
rays, overlapping to create
significantly more impact than
many other selections, and with
yellow pollen creating a bright
centre. The flowers are held on
relatively long stems, about 50cm
in height, clad in fresh green foliage,
but fragrance is relatively light.
It was selected by Keith Hammett
in 2009, from seedlings derived
from crosses with Poulter’s material,
➤
and introduced in 2015.
June 2017
117PLANT ORIGINS
Cosmos atrosanguineus Mystique
This is the fourth of Hammett’s
selections, currently known just
under its trade designation, and has
not yet been protected or released.
Cosmos atrosanguineus ‘New
Choco’
This was the first selection of
C. atrosanguineus to receive a cultivar
118
A highly uniform cultivar of
Cosmos atrosanguineus entered
into a Fleuroselect trial in 2016
Cosmos atrosanguineus Spellbound
(‘Hamcosp’) is the most fragrant of
the Hammett cultivars
Cosmos atrosanguineus:
Fleuroselect entry 2016
One of the entries in the 2016
Fleuroselect trials was a seed-raised
selection of C. atrosanguineus. In the
trials, in which entries are trialled
anonymously at sites across Europe,
it was compared with ‘Black Magic’
and the familiar tissue-cultured clone.
I saw it at one of the trial sites and
the flowers are rich reddish,
chocolate brown and well-shaped.
The colour is darkest when the
flowers first open and then becomes
slightly redder as the flower natures.
The scent is good, but perhaps a
little less strong than that of the
widely grown clone. It was also
earlier into flower, 45–60cm in
height, more vigorous and more
prolific. The foliage was very dark.
In comparison to ‘Black Magic’ it
was more uniform in every way,
including colour and flower shape,
and with larger flowers. It has not
yet been introduced or named.
Cosmos atrosanguineus Eclipse
(‘Hamcoec’)
The largest flowered of all clones,
the deep burgundy red, 5cm-blooms
are held on unusually long stems
above fresh green foliage and have a
good chocolate fragrance. With its
large flowers, long stems to 80cm,
exceptional vigour and good scent
this is probably the best for cutting.
Selected by Hammett, it has the
same origin as Dark Secret and was
introduced in 2016.
name, having been raised in Japan
in 2003 by Takayoshi Oku from
open-pollinated seedlings (Oku
et al. 2003). It features moderately
fragrant, reddish flowers about
4.5cm across carried prolifically
on plants that are noticeably
much wider than high, reaching
45cm in height.
This cultivar was developed with
the aim of incorporating resistance
to powdery mildew and tolerance of
high temperatures, and is described
as ‘reasonably tolerant’ of powdery
mildew.
Cosmos atrosanguineus ‘Pinot
Noir’
This seed-raised cultivar was raised
by Poulter in order to create a
selection that was as close as possible
to the wild form. Starting with two
seeds in 1990, by 1995 he was
sufficiently satisfied with the quality
and consistency of his strain to
submit it for Plant Variety Rights
protection in New Zealand. The
application was granted in 1997 and
he has been maintaining this cultivar
ever since. With a height of about
60cm, he has worked to eliminate
June 2017Plantsman
The
small flowers, poor scent, poor flower
forms, weak necks and colours
outside the normal parameters.
Cosmos atrosanguineus
Spellbound (‘Hamcosp’)
With elegant, rounded, rich crimson
flowers a little over 4cm across, this
cultivar holds them on long stems
above broadly divided foliage,
reaching 90cm in height. The flowers
are strongly chocolate scented, the
most fragrant of Hammett’s three
available selections. It has the same
origin as Dark Secret and was
introduced in 2015.
Cosmos Chocamocha
(‘Thomocha’) (p112)
This hybrid between C. atrosanguineus
and an undisclosed species has
flowers that are more deep red than
chocolate in colour, and are less
strongly scented than the first species.
However, they open earlier and more
consistently over a long season from
June to September or later. The roots
are less tuberous and more fibrous
than those of C. atrosanguineus and
the bushy foliage is a fresher, brighter,
slightly silvery green, and develops
into a mound with the upward facing
flowers held clearly above it.
Cosmos sterile triploid hybrid
Raised by Geertje Winsemius in
1998 at Thompson & Morgan,
this was an earlier hybrid between
C. atrosanguineus and another species.
It was introduced in 2006 was
recorded as 40cm in height. The
identity of the other species has not
been confirmed, but Charles Valin,
who currently works as a breeder at
Thompson & Morgan, suspects it
may have been C. linearifolius.
REFERENCES
Anon. (1885) Benedict Roezl. Gard.
Chron., ser. 2, v. 24, 24 October 1885
Bowles, EA (1915) My Garden in
Autumn and Winter. TC & EC Jack
Ltd, London
Castro-Castro, A, Vargas-Amado,
G, Harker, M & Rodrígue, A (2014)
Análisis macromorfológico y
citogenético del género Cosmos
(Asteraceae, Coreopsideae), con una clave
para su identificación. Bot. Sci. 92(3):
363–388
Hind, N & Fay, MF (2003) Cosmos
atrosanguineus (Compositae). Curtis’s Bot.
Mag. 20: 40–48
Hooker, WJ (1861) Cosmos
diversifolius var. atrosanguineus. Curtis’s
Bot. Mag. 87: t.5227
Lewendon, S (2006) Self-incompat­
ibility in Cosmos atrosanguineus, a rare
Mexican endemic species of Asteraceae.
Unpublished PhD thesis
Oku, T, Takahashi, H, Yagi, F,
Nakamura, I & Mii, M (2008)
Hybridisation between chocolate
cosmos and yellow cosmos confirmed
by phylogenetic analysis using plastid
subtype identity (PSID) sequences.
J. Hort. Sci. Biotech. 83: 323–327
June 2017
Shaw, JMH (2015) Nomenclatural
notes on horticultural hybrids: Dahlia
‘Mexican Black’, Potentilla and other
Rosaceae, Stylophorum, and Tigridia.
Phytoneuron 2015-53: 1–5
Sherff , EE & Alexander, EJ (1955)
Compositae-Heliantheae-Coreopsidinae.
In: Sherff , EE & Alexander, EJ (eds)
North American Flora. Ser. 2, Pt. 2.
New York Botanical Gardens, New
York
Thompson & Morgan (1885, 1902,
1942) Seed catalogues
Whitson, J, John, R & Williams,
HS (eds) (1914) Luther Burbank, his
Methods and Discoveries and their
Practical Application. Vol. 4. Luther
Burbank Press, New York
Wilkinson, T, Wetten, A & Fay,
MF (1998) Cryopreservation of Cosmos
atrosanguineus shoot tips by a modified
encapsulation/dehydration method.
Cryo-Letters 19: 293–302
Wilkinson, T, Wetten, A, Prychid,
C & Fay, MF (2003) Suitability of
cryopreservation for the long term
storage of rare and endangered plant
species – a case history for Cosmos
atrosanguineus. Ann. Bot. 91: 65–74
Cosmos ‘Strawberry Choco
Sanse 41’
This is probably the only hybrid
between C. atrosanguineus and
C. sulphureus to progress as far as a
plant variety protection application,
but it was never released. The latter
was the pollen parent and the
resultant cultivar, 30–40cm in
height with red flowers, was said
to differ from the seed parent in its
vigorous branching, more numerous
flowers, rapid growth and longer
flowering period.
Conclusion
The, up-to-now, unheralded
diligence of Mexican botanist Aarón
Rodríguez proves beyond doubt that
flourishing populations of Cosmos
atrosanguineus exist in the wild.
And while only one sterile clone
was thought to be in cultivation,
Russell Poulter’s aim in developing
a large seed-raised population was
for his plants to be re-introduced
into the wild. Although we now
appreciate that this is not necessary,
his many years of diligence has led to
some excellent recent introductions.
G raham R ice is Editor-in-Chief
of the RHS Encyclopedia of Perennials.
He also writes the New Plants blog
at www.rhs.org.uk/plants/plants-
blogs/plants
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would especially like to thank
Sarah Lewendon for her impressive
research and enthusiastic help,
and also Russell Poulter, Aarón
Rodríguez, George Uebelhart and
Charles Valin for patiently answering
so many questions. I would also like
to thank Ray Brown, Lesley Cox,
Morten Damsted, Nicholas Hind,
Carlos Magdalena, Anne Wright,
the forum of the Scottish Rock
Garden Club, and the Pacific
Bulb Society Wiki.
119

Corpse Flower


Vocabulary




corpse
   –
  a
  dead
  body



foul
   –
  having
  a
  bad
  smell


putrid

   -­‐
  having
  a
  rotten
  smell

stench
  –
   a
  bad
  smell
















whiff
  –
   a
  smell;
  (v.)
  to
  smell

rotting
  –
   going
  bad;
  decaying

stinky
  –
   having
  a
  bad
  smell

emit
  (v.)
  –
  to
  send
  out

Reading:
  Fill
  in
  the
  blanks
  with
  words
  from
  below.







Recently,
  a
  huge
  crowd
  gathered
  at
  the
  Denver
  Botanic
  Gardens
  in
  Colorado
  to

witness
  the
  blooming
  of
  a
  rare
  flower.


  The
  flower’s
  scientific
  name
  is
  titan

arum,
  but
  its
  nickname
  is
  “corpse
  flower.”

  When
  it
  1.
























  ,
  which

happens
  only
  once
  every
  few
  years,
  it
  emits
  a
  foul,
  putrid
  stench
  like
  the
  smell
  of

garbage.



In
  spite
  of
  the
  unpleasant

  2.
























  ,
  people
  who
  came
  to
  see
  the
  corpse

flower
  were
  full
  of
  enthusiasm
  and
  excitement.

  The
  crowd
  clapped
  and
  cheered

as
  if
  they
  were
  attending
  a
  sporting
  event.





“It’s
  human
  nature
  that
  we
  all
  want
  to
  smell
  something
  bad,

I
  guess,”
  said
  one


3.






  at
  the
  garden.
  “You
  know
  when

someone
  smells
  something
  bad
  and
  they
  stuff
  it
  in
  your

face?
  That’s
  what
  you
  get.”



Visitors
  hoping
  to
  get
  a
  whiff
  of
  the
  stinky
  plant
  got
  what

they
  came
  for.


  The
  flower
  bloomed
  as
  predicted,
  and

stayed
  in
  bloom
  for
  several
  days.

  People
  described
  the

smell
  in
  various
  ways.

  Some
  said
  it
  smelled
  like
  dead
  mice,

while
  others
  compared
  it
  to
  4.






  cabbage.


They
  nicknamed
  the
  plant
  “Stinky.”



At
  over
  10
  feet
  (3.33
  meters)
  tall,
  the
  corpse
  flower
  is
  the
  largest
  flower
  in
  the

world.


  However,
  like
  the
  giant
  panda,
  it
  is
  an
  5.







  species.


Researchers
  hope
  that
  events
  like
  the
  one
  in
  Denver
  will
  raise
  public
  awareness

and
  help
  preserve
  this
  unique
  flower
  for
  future
  generations.





odor

  |


  blooms

  |


  endangered

  |


  scientist


  |


  rotting





www.tefl25.com

1


TEFL25
  Matching
  Activity:
  Idioms
  related
  to
  smell




1. wake
  up
  and
  smell
  the
  coffee


a.
  to
  take
  time
  to
  enjoy
  life

2. smell
  a
  rat








b.
  to
  smell
  really
  bad

3. smell
  fishy








c.
  pay
  attention
  to
  what’s








































































  going
  on

4. stop
  and
  smell
  the
  roses



d.
  seem
  suspicious

5. stink
  to
  high
  heaven




e.
  to
  sense
  that
  someone








































































  has
  done
  something

wrong



Extension:
  Sentence
  Completion



Fill
  in
  the
  blanks
  using
  words
  and
  expressions
  from
  the
  Word
  Bank

below.



1.
  Something











  .

  I
  think
  he’s
  lying.



2.
  Life
  is
  short,
  so
  you
  should















every
  once
  in
  a
  while.



3.
  The
  rotten
  egg
  emitted
  a










  stench.



4.
  The
  undertaker
  buried
  the











.



5.
  Pee-­‐yew!

  You















.

  Why

don’t
  you
  take
  a
  bath?



6.
  Get
  a









  of
  this
  new
  perfume.





Word
  Bank





putrid


smells
  fishy

corpse

stop
  and
  smell
  the
  roses







whiff


stink
  to
  high
  heaven





www.tefl25.com

2


TEFL25
  Discussion

1. In
  your
  opinion,
  which
  smells
  are
  the
  best?

  Which
  are

the
  worst?

2. Would
  you
  like
  to
  see
  the
  corpse
  flower?

  Why
  or
  why

not?

3. Rate
  these
  smells
  in
  order
  of
  your
  preference,
  from

best
  to
  worst:



Best
  =
  1




  Worst
  =
  10



the
  smell
  of
  rain










the
  smell
  of
  gasoline






the
  smell
  of
  bread








the
  smell
  of
  leather







the
  smell
  of
  coffee








the
  smell
  of
  garlic








the
  smell
  of
  babies







the
  smell
  of
  a
  book







the
  smell
  of
  a
  wet
  dog






the
  smell
  of

  a
  new
  car








4. Do
  you
  take
  time
  to
  appreciate
  the
  small
  things
  in
  life?


How
  often
  do
  you
  stop
  and
  smell
  the
  roses?

5. What
  is
  your
  favorite
  flower?

6. What
  is
  your
  favorite
  perfume
  or
  cologne?

7. Do
  you
  have
  a
  good
  sense
  of
  smell?

8. What’s
  the
  best
  way
  to
  get
  rid
  or
  a
  stinky
  smell
  in
  your

house?

9. What
  would
  you
  do
  if
  your
  neighbor
  owned
  a
  corpse

flower?



www.tefl25.com

3


TEFL25
  Resource Brief
National Park Service
U.S. Department of the Interior
Saguaro National Park
Resource Management Division
Queen of the Night
A cryptic cactus with a beautiful secret
Background
The Queen of the Night,
These synchronized blooms
Peniocereus gregii, is a member of
increase the chances of being
the Cactaceae (Cactus) family. It
pollinated. The blooms are diffi-
can be found growing at elevations
cult to predict but usually occur
between 2000 and 5000 feet in
sometime between the end of
both the Sonoran and Chihua-
May and the end of June. Flowers
huan Deserts. Like many plants
successfully pollinated by sphynx
in this harsh region, the Queen of
moths, bees, and beetles turn into
the Night takes on an unassuming
bright red fruits that can measure
form for a majority of the year,
2-3 inches long. These sweet fruits
waiting for the right time to make
are a welcome treat for many ani-
a brief, spectacular, appearance.
mals residing in the Queen of the
This typical cactus consists of long
Night’s domain. The consumed
Photo Park Volunteer
and thin angular stems with a dull
fruits allow for the dispersal of the
seeds that will produce the next generation.
greyish-green to purplish coloration. The “leggy”
stems are usually found growing under other desert
plants such as creosote, palo verde, or mesquites.
Most often, they are difficult to distinguish from
Threats to the Queen
the low branches of the plant they grow amongst.
The Queen of the Night is a magnificent plant that
The Queen of the Night is sometimes referred to by
has drawn quite a following. Unfortunately, the same
its descriptive, yet underwhelming common name,
Night Blooming Cereus. This common name does the attributes making these cacti so incredible have also
lead to their decline. They are threatened by the har-
plant no justice, because Queen of the Nights’ mod-
vest of tubers and fruits as food, and people’s desire
est appearance is just a charade hiding some incred-
to cultivate the plants for use in landscapes and gar-
ible secrets which makes it one of the most beautiful
dens. Habitat destruction and climate change have
and interesting plants in the Desert Southwest.
also contributed to their decline. Like many cacti
in Arizona, it is protected under the Arizona Native
Plant Protection Law. Queen of the Night is a New
Secrets Revealed
Mexico state endangered species, and has some
The Queen of the Night’s inconspicuous above-
international trade protection.
ground appearance hides a tuber, typically weighing
between 5 and 15 pounds; some specimens tip the
Fortunately, there are natural safe havens like
scales at over 25 pounds! The tuber stores all of the
Saguaro National Park and local botanical gardens,
water and precious nutrients used for growth and
where the cactus threatened by development are
production of the Queen’s flowers. Animals such
given sanctuary.
as javelinas, rodents, and jackrabbits can cause
severe damage to these plants by feeding upon
the tubers and stems. Indigenous people prize
the tuber as food and for its medicinal proper-
ties.
The Queen of the Night can produce several large,
fragrant, white flowers a season; each flower
blooming only for a single night, which withers
shortly after sunrise. Interestingly, a large major-
ity of the cacti bloom
simultaneously
throughout an area.
Photo Nic Perkins
EXPERIENCE YOUR
A M E R I C A TM
May 2016Photo Tony Palmer
Refuge under a mesquite.
Photo Tony Palmer
Finding the Queen in Saguaro National Park
The Queen of the Night can be found growing wild in both districts of the park. Look for these cryptic cacti
growing under other plants, along washes, and in the desert flats. If you would like to see some of Saguaro
National Park’s resident queens, your best bets are along the Loma Verde and Mesquite trails in the Rincon
Mountain District (east), and the Desert Winds and Camp Pima trails in the Tucson Mountain District (west).
Photo Park Volunteer
More Information
Tohono Chul Botanical Garden
http://tohonochulpark.org/
Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum
http://www.desertmuseum.org/books/nhsd_peniocereus.php
Desert USA
http:www.desertusa.com/cactus/night-blooming-cereus.html

PLANT ORIGINS
The
story
of
Cosmos
atrosanguineus
C
hocolate cosmos ,
Cosmos atrosanguineus,
has been intriguing botanists
and captivating gardeners since it
arrived in Britain from Mexico in
1861. As long ago as 1915 EA Bowles
enthused about it, saying it was: ‘as
dark a maroon as can exist without
being as black as your boot’.
For many decades seed was
offered every year by one of Britain’s
leading seed houses then interest
faded, the listing left the catalogue
and when enthusiasm was rekindled
it was thought that the plant was
extinct in the wild and that only one
sterile clone, grown at Royal Botanic
Gardens, Kew, was in cultivation.
Now, I am able to confirm that it
was never extinct, it continued to
grow prolifically at a number of sites
in Mexico, and has been grown from
seed in cultivation for decades. With
these discoveries, and the fact that
new cultivars and hybrids are being
introduced, the chocolate-coloured
112
Cosmos Chocamocha is claimed to be
a hybrid between C. atrosanguineus
and another Cosmos species
Often stated to be extinct in the wild,
chocolate cosmos is quite abundant in
Mexico. G raham R ice looks at the
evidence and its diversity in cultivation.
flower with the rich chocolate
fragrance is enjoying a new
popularity. This is its story.
Discovery and naming
Cosmos atrosanguineus is one of 36
Cosmos species, 28 of which are
endemic to Mexico (Sherff &
Alexander 1955). It is one of
eight species belonging to section
Discopoda in subtribe Coreopsidinae.
The other species are C. concolor,
C. jaliscensis, C. modestus, C. montanus,
C. purpureus and C. scabiosoides,
together with two species described
in 2013, C. pseudoperfoliatus and
C. ramirezianus.
Cosmos atrosanguineus was first
collected, as seed and as dried
material, near Zimapan, in the state
of Hidalgo, Mexico, by Benedict
Roezl in 1860 (Anon. 1885). Seed
was received from an unknown
sender in 1861 by William
Thompson, founder of the
Thompson & Morgan seed company
in Ipswich. Seed was also received by
Eduard Ortgies, head gardener at the
Botanical Garden of the University
of Zurich, sent to him under the
name Dahlia zimapani by Roezl.
Ortgies raised more than 200 plants.
Roezl was a prodigious plant
collector who, among his many
collections, sent 10 tons of orchids
to Europe in one shipment.
William Hooker (1861) gave an
account of the plant, before he
received seed from Thompson later
that same year, with his text and
June 2017Plantsman
The
Bidens, as B. atrosanguineus. It was not
until 1894 that Andreas Voss raised
it to species level, back in Cosmos, as
C. atrosanguineus.
In recent years it has been
presumed extinct; its habitat
thought to have been almost totally
destroyed by logging, copper mining,
agriculture and development. Hind
& Fay (2003) noted it as: ‘believed to
be extinct in the wild... This species
has not been refound in the wild
since it was last apparently collected
in the 1860s’.
In the wild Cosmos atrosanguineus grows in mixed oak and pine forest (top and above) in at least three
Mexican states in the company of species of Ageratina, Arbutus, Desmodium, Ipomoea, Oxalis, Salvia and Stevia.
illustration derived from dried
material. In 1878 dried material was
again collected by E Parry and CC
Palmer in San Luis Potosí in Mexico.
Hooker named the plant Cosmos
June 2017
diversifolius var. atrosanguineus,
although without living material of
C. diversifolius with which to
compare it. Ortgies, with the benefit
of comparative material, moved it to
Into the garden
Thompson & Morgan first listed
C. atrosanguineus, as Cosmos
diversifolius atrosanguineus, in their
seed catalogue of 1885 priced at 4d.
By 1902 two forms were listed:
Cosmos diversifolius atrosanguineus,
now priced at 3d and given the
common name black dahlia, and the
cultivar ‘King of the Blacks’,
described simply as an ‘improved
form’, and priced at 6d. By 1942 only
‘King of the Blacks’ was listed, at 3d.
It did not appear in subsequent
editions of the catalogue.
By the time it was dropped its
relatively low price suggests either
that there was no shortage of seed or
that it was priced to clear stocks
during war-time austerity. However,
it soon disappeared from cultivation.
While Thompson & Morgan were
popularizing the plant, Luther
Burbank began breeding work in
North America. ‘Often spoken of as
the black dahlia,’ he wrote (Whitson
et al. 1914), ‘its tubers and foliage
strongly suggest the common dahlia
in miniature. For four or five years I
worked extensively with this so-
called black dahlia, not only by way
of improving the flower itself, but
also in the attempt to hybridize it
with the dahlia proper. I succeeded
by select­ive breeding in enlarging the
flower to about twice its original ➤
113PLANT ORIGINS
114
In 2007 Mexican botanist Aarón
Rodríguez of the Universidad de
Guadalajara, Mexico, began a research
project on Cosmos, whose distribution
is largely confined to Mexico. With his
research students he searched Mexican
herbaria for Cosmos records and found
11 relatively recent records of
C. atrosanguineus (Castro-Castro et al.
2014). The earliest of these was a
collection made in October 1986 by
Mexican botanist Jerzy Rzedowski.
Having pinpointed the locations of
earlier collections he and his team began
field work. They found plants of
C. atrosanguineus in the Mexican states
of Guanajuato, Querétaro and San Luis
Potosí. ‘The populations are quite
numerous,’ Rodríguez reported. ‘Plants
grow in mixed pine and oak forest.’ It
grows from around 1,800m to 2,450m
and in Guanajuato grows with Cosmos
parviflorus as well as species of Ageratina,
Arbutus, Desmodium, Ipomoea, Oxalis,
Salvia and Stevia.
So it turns out that C. atrosanguineus is
not extinct and that there are records
of the plant from 1986 through to the
recent collections of Aarón Rodríguez
and his team.
A reintroduction programme
In 1997 material was transferred to
Kew’s micropropagation unit at
Wakehurst Place to be bulked up for
possible reintroduction to Mexico.
In 1998 seed was received at Kew
from the National Botanic Garden
of Belgium in Meise but it is unclear
whether it germinated; the Kew
record simply states ‘dead’.
Following a request from the
National Autonomous University
EVIDENCE FROM THE WILD
size, in making the petals much
rounder and fuller, in adding extra
petals, and in changing the color
of the petals from the usual dark
purplish crimson to a light crimson
approaching scarlet and in a few cases
to a pale pink approaching white.’
It is unclear exactly what Burbank
did, as with much of his breeding
work, or whether his pollinations led
to interspecific or intergeneric
fertilizations, or which parents
contributed to the ‘approaching
white’ form. However, a modern
cultivar, ‘Mexican Black’, claimed to
be a hybrid between Cosmos and
Dahlia, is a Dahlia (Shaw 2015).
There were no plants of
C. atrosanguineus growing at Kew
when Brian Halliwell, an assistant
curator, arrived there in 1968, but
he reported (Lewendon 2006) that,
‘most likely in the 80s’, he received
a plant of C. atrosanguineus from the
American plantsman Le Roy
Davidson. However, Kew records
note its identification as being
verified in 1978. Halliwell reported
that it grew in the Duchess Border at
Kew, in rich but well-drained soil at
the foot of a sunny wall, and was still
there when he retired in 1989.
Plants of this male-sterile form
were passed to W Ingwersen in 1986
and J Russell in 1989 (presumably
the nurserymen William Ingwersen
and James Russell, but Kew only
recorded their initials).
Top: a herbarium sheet held at the University of Guadalajara of Cosmos atrosanguineus. The specimen
was collected from the wild in Zimapan, Hidalgo, in September 2011.
Above: a flower of Cosmos atrosanguineus photographed in the wild in Mexico.
of Mexico, tissue-cultured plants
from Kew’s male-sterile clone were
sent to Mexico for a reintroduction
programme. Propagation continued
in Mexico but the plan stalled,
although in 2003 research was
under way to preserve the clone
for future reintroduction, using
cryopreservation of germplasm
(Wilkinson et al. 1998, 2003).
At this time a diverse population
of seed-raised plants was already
in existence in New Zealand and
the plant was not, in fact, extinct.
Breeding developments
Russell Poulter, a geneticist at Otago
University, New Zealand, grew a few
plants of the commercial male-sterile
clone whose flowers had no obvious
pollen and set no seed. But in about
1990 he noticed that one plant had
set two seeds which produced two
more plants. In the following years
cross-pollinations by hand produced
a few more plants. However, as he
put it: ‘Among the seedlings there
was quite a bit of variation, most of it
bad. The worst characteristic was a
deep division in the petals giving a
confused looking flower. Other poor
characteristics were a blood-red
petal rather than a brown/blood-red,
small flower size, and lack of scent.
However, one or two plants had
flowers with abundant pollen (very
pretty against the petals). Various of
these ‘pollen’ plants crossed with
June 2017Plantsman
The
Three cultivars of Cosmos atrosanguineus raised by plant breeder Keith Hammett. They are Eclipse
(‘Hamcoec’) (top left), Dark Secret (‘3013/01) (bottom centre) and Spellbound (‘Hamcosp’) (top right).
each other to set abundant seed... So
at this point I had restored fertility
but discovered the genome was full
of mutant characteristics that
needed to be got rid of.’
By 1995 Poulter was sufficiently
satisfied with the quality of his plants
to submit seed, under the name
‘Pinot Noir’, for Plant Variety
Rights protection in New Zealand.
It was granted in 1997. He has been
maintaining this seed-raised cultivar
ever since. Poulter has now spent
more than 20 years creating a
population of C. atrosanguineus that
breeds true from seed and retains
genetic diversity. So, while
conventional wisdom in Europe and
North America was that there was
only one clone in cultivation and it
never set seed, Poulter was raising
large numbers from seed and
supplying gardeners in New Zealand.
After its distribution to the
horticultural trade, the Kew clone
was grown from cuttings. It then
proved easy to propagate by tissue
culture and became widely popular.
Its colour, fragrance, the mystique
of its extinction and its refusal to set
June 2017
seed became part of its popular allure.
In 2006 a hybrid with an
unidentified species was introduced
by Thompson & Morgan. Called
Chocamocha (‘Thomocha’), it was the
first widely grown cultivar since
‘King Of The Blacks’. It soon
became popular for its improved
habit and more consistent flowering,
while retaining the chocolate
fragrance and colour of the species.
It rather neatly revived the seed
company’s connection with the
species first grown by founder
William Thompson in 1861.
Seed-raised plants of ‘Pinot Noir’
were on sale in New Zealand garden
centres around 2000, sometimes as
unnamed plants. But European and
North American gardeners and
nurseries were largely unaware of its
existence. New Zealand gardener
Lesley Cox sent seed to the UK in
about 2010. Possibly as a result of
this an increasing number of
gardeners were finding fertile plants,
discussing them on forums, and
submitting seed to seed lists. By
2016 Cox posted on the Scottish
Rock Garden Club forum: ‘Although
I’ve had masses of seed in recent
years I’ve not had self-sown seedlings
but this year there are hundreds! I’m
pulling them out every day...’
Keith Hammett, better known for
his sweet pea and dahlia breeding in
New Zealand, selected and crossed
individuals from Poulter’s plants in
2008 for commercial propagation by
tissue culture. Three of the resulting
cultivars have recently been
introduced as Dark Secret (‘3013/01’),
Eclipse (‘Hamcoec’) and Spellbound
(‘Hamcosp’).
Anne Wright of Dryad Nursery
in Yorkshire, who had received seed
from Lesley Cox in about 2010, soon
after sold material to Thompson &
Morgan.
Development continues in
England, Germany, New Zealand
and probably elsewhere. For
gardeners the lesson is that recent
cultivars propagated vegetatively,
such as Chocamocha , Dark Secret , Eclipse
and Spellbound , as well as seed-raised
cultivars, should be tried as
alternatives to the older, unnamed
clone that has been circulating.
But it is also clear that there have
been two popular misconceptions.
Cosmos atrosanguineus is not extinct
in the wild, a fact that was known
as long ago as 1986 but which was
never widely appreciated. It is also
clear that while some plants, such as
the one widely propagated by tissue
culture, are male-sterile, many are
male-fertile and seed-raised plants
have been grown since 1990.
The plants
The following accounts are
descriptions of C. atrosanguineus
cultivars, selections and hybrids
that have been, or are currently,
cultivated. I have found mention
of further names such as ‘Chocolate
Ruffle’, ‘Christopher’, ‘Hot
Chocolate’ and ‘Pip’, but without
➤
any descriptions.
115PLANT ORIGINS
Cosmos atrosanguineus ‘Black
Beauty’
Cut flowering stems have been
offered under this name but this may
simply be a marketing name for the
usual tissue-cultured form.
116
Cosmos atrosanguineus
unnamed, seed-raised forms
Seed, not differentiated by cultivar
name, collected on the nursery, was
made available from Plant World
Seeds, Devon, in 2016. The
description stated: ‘Mature plants
vary from tight compact clumps with
short-stemmed blooms, up to large
branching beauties with very long
stemmed flowers which are ideal for
cutting. Flowers range from small to
opulently large, whilst the fragrant
petals vary from notched or feathered
to oval and entire.’ Plants are
typically 30–60cm in height.
Seed is also available from Jonna
Sudenius in Belgium, collected from
plants grown from seed she received
from Russia. Images indicate flowers
with 12 or more rays, varying from
red to almost black. Plants are
typically 60–80cm in height.
A fertile clone (left) and the infertile Kew
clone (right) of Cosmos atrosanguineus
Cosmos atrosanguineus Kew
clone
In this selection grown at Royal
Botanic Gardens, Kew, small,
slender, dahlia-like tubers support
rather weak, dark red stems carrying
a slightly straggly mound of glossy,
dark green leaves. The leaves are
split pinnately once or twice into
narrowly diamond-shaped leaflets,
sometimes with reddish tints. Each
flowering stem, reaching 40–60cm,
carries one, saucer-shaped, chocolate-
scented, flower, 4.5cm in diameter,
comprising eight, obovate ray florets
in rich chocolate maroon and almost
black disc florets. Pollen is not
produced. Plants are late to emerge
in spring and flower from July to
autumn.
Variation in seed-raised plants of Cosmos
atrosanguineus sourced from Plant World Seeds
Cosmos atrosanguineus ‘Black
Magic’
This was the first widely available
seed-raised cultivar. Plants are
variable in habit and height, but
usually about 60cm, and it is
especially notable that the flowers
vary in three ways. At one extreme
the rays are broad, evenly shaped,
rounded and overlapping, and
sometimes lobed at the tip. At the
other extreme the rays are slender,
variable in shape, and with
noticeable gaps between them,
creating a spidery look. The number
of rays varies from eight to 24 and
where there are fewer rays they tend
to be broader. Its flowers vary in
June 2017Plantsman
The
colour from the rich chocolate
brown we associate with this plant
to what is definitely red, sometimes
with bronze tints. The foliage is
paler than that of other selections
and the plants relatively late into
flower.
Its origin is from a single seedhead
from a private garden in New
Zealand received in 2004 by Georg
Uebelhart, general manager of Jelitto
Perennial Seeds. The plant it came
from was said to be unrelated to
‘Pinot Noir’, although this seems
unlikely. The following year he
harvested 48 seeds. In the early
generations the plants were variable,
only a few carrying the required
large, rounded flowers. Crosses were
then made with existing clones and
this improved the flower form and
colour and enhanced the fertility.
Repeated selection reduced the
number of the less attractive forms
and, although the plants of ‘Black
Magic’ are variable, it was considered
sufficiently unique to be named.
Cosmos atrosanguineus ‘Black Magic’
is a variable, seed-raised cultivar
Cosmos atrosanguineus Dark Secret
(‘3013/01’) has broad, overlapping rays
Cosmos atrosanguineus Coco
Chanel (‘3013/01’)
Coco Chanel is the trade designation
used in New Zealand for ‘3013/01’.
It was replaced by Dark Secret in
North America for fear of litigation.
Cosmos atrosanguineus Dark
Secret (‘3013/01’)
The dark brown to deep wine-red
flowers of this cultivar have broad
rays, overlapping to create
significantly more impact than
many other selections, and with
yellow pollen creating a bright
centre. The flowers are held on
relatively long stems, about 50cm
in height, clad in fresh green foliage,
but fragrance is relatively light.
It was selected by Keith Hammett
in 2009, from seedlings derived
from crosses with Poulter’s material,
➤
and introduced in 2015.
June 2017
117PLANT ORIGINS
Cosmos atrosanguineus Mystique
This is the fourth of Hammett’s
selections, currently known just
under its trade designation, and has
not yet been protected or released.
Cosmos atrosanguineus ‘New
Choco’
This was the first selection of
C. atrosanguineus to receive a cultivar
118
A highly uniform cultivar of
Cosmos atrosanguineus entered
into a Fleuroselect trial in 2016
Cosmos atrosanguineus Spellbound
(‘Hamcosp’) is the most fragrant of
the Hammett cultivars
Cosmos atrosanguineus:
Fleuroselect entry 2016
One of the entries in the 2016
Fleuroselect trials was a seed-raised
selection of C. atrosanguineus. In the
trials, in which entries are trialled
anonymously at sites across Europe,
it was compared with ‘Black Magic’
and the familiar tissue-cultured clone.
I saw it at one of the trial sites and
the flowers are rich reddish,
chocolate brown and well-shaped.
The colour is darkest when the
flowers first open and then becomes
slightly redder as the flower natures.
The scent is good, but perhaps a
little less strong than that of the
widely grown clone. It was also
earlier into flower, 45–60cm in
height, more vigorous and more
prolific. The foliage was very dark.
In comparison to ‘Black Magic’ it
was more uniform in every way,
including colour and flower shape,
and with larger flowers. It has not
yet been introduced or named.
Cosmos atrosanguineus Eclipse
(‘Hamcoec’)
The largest flowered of all clones,
the deep burgundy red, 5cm-blooms
are held on unusually long stems
above fresh green foliage and have a
good chocolate fragrance. With its
large flowers, long stems to 80cm,
exceptional vigour and good scent
this is probably the best for cutting.
Selected by Hammett, it has the
same origin as Dark Secret and was
introduced in 2016.
name, having been raised in Japan
in 2003 by Takayoshi Oku from
open-pollinated seedlings (Oku
et al. 2003). It features moderately
fragrant, reddish flowers about
4.5cm across carried prolifically
on plants that are noticeably
much wider than high, reaching
45cm in height.
This cultivar was developed with
the aim of incorporating resistance
to powdery mildew and tolerance of
high temperatures, and is described
as ‘reasonably tolerant’ of powdery
mildew.
Cosmos atrosanguineus ‘Pinot
Noir’
This seed-raised cultivar was raised
by Poulter in order to create a
selection that was as close as possible
to the wild form. Starting with two
seeds in 1990, by 1995 he was
sufficiently satisfied with the quality
and consistency of his strain to
submit it for Plant Variety Rights
protection in New Zealand. The
application was granted in 1997 and
he has been maintaining this cultivar
ever since. With a height of about
60cm, he has worked to eliminate
June 2017Plantsman
The
small flowers, poor scent, poor flower
forms, weak necks and colours
outside the normal parameters.
Cosmos atrosanguineus
Spellbound (‘Hamcosp’)
With elegant, rounded, rich crimson
flowers a little over 4cm across, this
cultivar holds them on long stems
above broadly divided foliage,
reaching 90cm in height. The flowers
are strongly chocolate scented, the
most fragrant of Hammett’s three
available selections. It has the same
origin as Dark Secret and was
introduced in 2015.
Cosmos Chocamocha
(‘Thomocha’) (p112)
This hybrid between C. atrosanguineus
and an undisclosed species has
flowers that are more deep red than
chocolate in colour, and are less
strongly scented than the first species.
However, they open earlier and more
consistently over a long season from
June to September or later. The roots
are less tuberous and more fibrous
than those of C. atrosanguineus and
the bushy foliage is a fresher, brighter,
slightly silvery green, and develops
into a mound with the upward facing
flowers held clearly above it.
Cosmos sterile triploid hybrid
Raised by Geertje Winsemius in
1998 at Thompson & Morgan,
this was an earlier hybrid between
C. atrosanguineus and another species.
It was introduced in 2006 was
recorded as 40cm in height. The
identity of the other species has not
been confirmed, but Charles Valin,
who currently works as a breeder at
Thompson & Morgan, suspects it
may have been C. linearifolius.
REFERENCES
Anon. (1885) Benedict Roezl. Gard.
Chron., ser. 2, v. 24, 24 October 1885
Bowles, EA (1915) My Garden in
Autumn and Winter. TC & EC Jack
Ltd, London
Castro-Castro, A, Vargas-Amado,
G, Harker, M & Rodrígue, A (2014)
Análisis macromorfológico y
citogenético del género Cosmos
(Asteraceae, Coreopsideae), con una clave
para su identificación. Bot. Sci. 92(3):
363–388
Hind, N & Fay, MF (2003) Cosmos
atrosanguineus (Compositae). Curtis’s Bot.
Mag. 20: 40–48
Hooker, WJ (1861) Cosmos
diversifolius var. atrosanguineus. Curtis’s
Bot. Mag. 87: t.5227
Lewendon, S (2006) Self-incompat­
ibility in Cosmos atrosanguineus, a rare
Mexican endemic species of Asteraceae.
Unpublished PhD thesis
Oku, T, Takahashi, H, Yagi, F,
Nakamura, I & Mii, M (2008)
Hybridisation between chocolate
cosmos and yellow cosmos confirmed
by phylogenetic analysis using plastid
subtype identity (PSID) sequences.
J. Hort. Sci. Biotech. 83: 323–327
June 2017
Shaw, JMH (2015) Nomenclatural
notes on horticultural hybrids: Dahlia
‘Mexican Black’, Potentilla and other
Rosaceae, Stylophorum, and Tigridia.
Phytoneuron 2015-53: 1–5
Sherff , EE & Alexander, EJ (1955)
Compositae-Heliantheae-Coreopsidinae.
In: Sherff , EE & Alexander, EJ (eds)
North American Flora. Ser. 2, Pt. 2.
New York Botanical Gardens, New
York
Thompson & Morgan (1885, 1902,
1942) Seed catalogues
Whitson, J, John, R & Williams,
HS (eds) (1914) Luther Burbank, his
Methods and Discoveries and their
Practical Application. Vol. 4. Luther
Burbank Press, New York
Wilkinson, T, Wetten, A & Fay,
MF (1998) Cryopreservation of Cosmos
atrosanguineus shoot tips by a modified
encapsulation/dehydration method.
Cryo-Letters 19: 293–302
Wilkinson, T, Wetten, A, Prychid,
C & Fay, MF (2003) Suitability of
cryopreservation for the long term
storage of rare and endangered plant
species – a case history for Cosmos
atrosanguineus. Ann. Bot. 91: 65–74
Cosmos ‘Strawberry Choco
Sanse 41’
This is probably the only hybrid
between C. atrosanguineus and
C. sulphureus to progress as far as a
plant variety protection application,
but it was never released. The latter
was the pollen parent and the
resultant cultivar, 30–40cm in
height with red flowers, was said
to differ from the seed parent in its
vigorous branching, more numerous
flowers, rapid growth and longer
flowering period.
Conclusion
The, up-to-now, unheralded
diligence of Mexican botanist Aarón
Rodríguez proves beyond doubt that
flourishing populations of Cosmos
atrosanguineus exist in the wild.
And while only one sterile clone
was thought to be in cultivation,
Russell Poulter’s aim in developing
a large seed-raised population was
for his plants to be re-introduced
into the wild. Although we now
appreciate that this is not necessary,
his many years of diligence has led to
some excellent recent introductions.
G raham R ice is Editor-in-Chief
of the RHS Encyclopedia of Perennials.
He also writes the New Plants blog
at www.rhs.org.uk/plants/plants-
blogs/plants
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would especially like to thank
Sarah Lewendon for her impressive
research and enthusiastic help,
and also Russell Poulter, Aarón
Rodríguez, George Uebelhart and
Charles Valin for patiently answering
so many questions. I would also like
to thank Ray Brown, Lesley Cox,
Morten Damsted, Nicholas Hind,
Carlos Magdalena, Anne Wright,
the forum of the Scottish Rock
Garden Club, and the Pacific
Bulb Society Wiki.
119

La d y ’s S l ip p e r Orc h id P ro p a g a t io n
C y p r ip e d ium r e g in a e
Le s lie Ha ns on
In t ro d u c t io n
T he or chid is a r ar e flowe r that make s up the s e cond
bigge s t family among the flowe r ing plants . Amazingly, it
cons is ts of 725 ge ne r a and a whopping 10,000 to 15,000
s pe cie s . In this pape r , the focus will be on the ge nus
Cy pripe dium and mor e s pe cifically the s pe cie s re ginae .
Cy pripe dium re ginae is be s t known as the
Pink and White Lady’s Slippe r or the Showy
Lady’s Slippe r . In 1893, this or chid was de clar e d the Minne s ota
State Flowe r and is one of the s tate ’s r ar e s t wildflowe r s .
T o actually s e e one in the wild, one would have to vis it flour is hing
s wamps , bogs , or damp woods . In addition, the wild Cy p. re ginae
als o gr ows e x tr e me ly s low, taking 4 to 16 ye ar s to pr oduce the ir
fir s t flowe r . Some time s the y will live for 50 ye ar s and gr ow to be four fe e t tall.
Howe ve r , the s e e x tr aor dinar y and s tunning flowe r s do not r e quir e a
long hike in the woods to be e njoye d. T he y can be gr own outdoor s
in backyar ds of nor the r n climate s . T he y r e quir e ve r nalization s o
s outhe r n climate s ar e not s uitable . One note though is that
patie nce is a vir tue with r e gar d to or chids be caus e as s tate d above ,
gr owth is s low.
Cy p rip e d iu m P ro p a g a t io n
Cypr ipe dium s pe cie s ar e pr opagate d us ing the me thods of plant tis s ue cultur e
with one e x ce ption: ins te ad of us ing e x plants , the plants ar e or iginate d fr om
s e e d. T his pr oce s s allows gr owe r s to avoid the le ngthy pr oce s s of s e gme nting
the plant tis s ue into s mall pie ce s .Be caus e or chid s e e d in the wild has little or no ability to
abs or b r e quir e d nutr ie nts and car bohydr ate s on its own,
the s e e d for ms a s ymbiotic r e lations hip with a fungus .
T he fungal filame nts invade the ce lls of the s e e d and the
s e e d the n abs or bs and dige s ts nutr ie nts and
car bohydr ate s pr ovide d by the fungus . Howe ve r , in in
v itro cultur e , the fungus can be r e move d fr om the
pr oce s s . T he e s s e ntial r e quir e me nts ar e adde d dir e ctly
to the agar me dium:
1. Macr o and micr o nutr ie nts
2. Sugar , mainly in the for m of glucos e
3. Plant gr owth r e gulator s s uch as aux ins or
cytokinins for s timulation of ge r mination and
de ve lopme nt.
T his pr oce s s r e quir e s the utmos t s te r ile conditions as in mos t in v itro cultur e .
T he me dium, s e e d s ur face and ins tr ume nts mus t be s te r ilize d. In addition, all
pr oce dur e s mus t be pe r for me d unde r as e ptic conditions othe r wis e contamination
will quickly infiltr ate the cultur e s .
Ge tting Cypr ipe dium s e e ds to ge r minate can be made difficult by the ir innate
s e e d dor mancy. T he s e or chids ar e a te mpe r ate zone s pe cie s and r e quir e long
pe r iods e x pos e d to cold te mpe r atur e s or s tr atification to br e ak s e e d dor mancy.
Once ge r mination has occur r e d on the gr owth me dia the r e come s a time in its
young gr owth that the plants ne e d to be tr ans fe r r e d to ne w gr owth me dia or
ne e d to be “r e flas ke d”. T he r e as ons for the tr ans fe r var y but ar e outline d
be low:
1. T he plantle ts may r e quir e diffe r e nt amounts of nutr ie nts , s ugar s or gr owth
r e gulator s than the y did at the ge r mination s tage .
2. Nutr ie nts in the ge r mination me dia may be e x haus te d or was te mate r ials
may have accumulate d.
3. T he plantle ts may be cr owde d and r e quir e mor e s pace to gr ow.
Once again, the tr ans fe r of the plantle ts to ne w me dia r e quir e s comple te ly
s te r ile me dia, ins tr ume nts , and conditions .T he plantle ts will continue to gr ow in the ne w me dia to a point whe r e the r oot
tips will e x hibit a br own color (the tips will us ually be br ight ye llow dur ing
active gr owth). Whe n this s tage be gins to occur ,
it me ans that active gr owth is no longe r taking
place . T he plantle t is dor mant, pr e par ing for cold
te mpe r atur e s , and r e quir e s s tr atification. If the
plantle ts ar e not r e move d fr om the me dia at this
time , the y will like ly die . T o ve r nalize the s e
s e e dlings , r e move the plants fr om the flas ks ,
r ins e until no me dia r e mains on the plant or r oots
and place in plas tic fr e e ze r bags with a s mall
amount of wate r to pr e ve nt the s e e dling fr om
dr ying out. T he bags s hould the n be place d in the
r e fr ige r ator . Monitor ing the r e fr ige r ator is
impor tant to e ns ur e that the s e e dlings ar e not
e x pos e d to fr e e zing te mpe r atur e s . T he s e e dlings
s hould r e main r e fr ige r ate d until s pr ing.
T o impr ove the ir chance s of s ur vival, it is r e comme nde d that you gr ow your
s e e dlings indoor s for one or two s e as ons be for e planting the m outs ide . T he
plants s hould be tr ans fe r r e d to lar ge r pots as r e quir e d by gr owth.
B a s ic d ire c t io n s f o r g ro w in g y o u r p o t t e d s e e d l in g
in d o o rs
Se t into a tr ay or s mall individual plas tic pots s o the ir
r oots have s ufficie nt r oom for gr owth. Spr e ad r oots
hor izontally and point r oots s lightly downwar d. Us e
a humus type s oil that contains pe r lite , dr ains we ll
and r e tains mois tur e .
Pr ovide a ne utr al pH.
Mix e s that contain s ome
fe r tilize r s wor k we ll.
Pr ovide par t s hade in the
windows ill – no dir e cts unlight. Fluor e s ce nt bulbs als o will wor k. RH s hould be 50%.
A r oom te mpe r atur e be twe e n 22- 26C is ide al.
Wate r with only dis tille d or r ain wate r . Soil ne e ds to be mois t at all time s but not
s atur ate d. Plants will be ne fit fr om a dilute d balance d fe r tilize r once or twice
be twe e n s pr ing and e ar ly s umme r . City wate r is acce ptable afte r plants ar e
place d in the gar de n.
Be twe e n s umme r and ne x t ye ar ’s dor mant bud, the s e e dlings will gr ow about
thr e e to five le ave s . As the plants e nte r the ir dor mant s tage the ir le ave s will
tur n ye llow, the n br own, and the n die . T he dor mant bud will r e tain its gr e e n
color .
Whe n plants ar e dor mant, r e move any r e maining s e as onal gr owth by cutting it to
about 1 cm above the s oil s ur face . Place plants in fr e e ze r bags . T he y r e quir e
r e fr ige r ator ve r nalization until s pr ing for at le as t a 3 to 4
month pe r iod. Soil mus t be ke pt s lightly mois t at all time s but
not s atur ate d. Afte r the ve r nalization pe r iod plants ar e tr e ate d
as e x plaine d above for one mor e gr owing s e as on be for e the y
s hould be move d outdoor s .
(Note s : Your s e e dlings s hould be har de ne d off pr ior to
outdoor planting and a s oil that contains pe at mos s s hould be
us e d whe n plants ar e move d to the gar de n.)
Re f e re n c e s
Cultur al Infor mation on Cypr ipe dium Se e dlings . www.infone t.ca
Minne s ota State Flowe r . www.s hgr e s our ce s .com
Wild Be autie s for the Back Yar d. www.wnr mag.com
Pr opagation Me thods . www.us link.ne t/~ s cl/lab.html
Who Can Gr ow Cypr ipe dium Se e dlings ? www.us link.ne t/~ s cl/who&how.html