Johan Pot

Welcome

July 16, 2008

I had often been in contact with Johan Pot but never I had met him personally.

Johan is a cordial and enthusiast man and he likes to talk about his favourite plants. After several trips in Bolivia he always got an anecdote to tell about a plant or another !

The biggest part of the collection is in a large greenhouse. There are several much smaller greenhouses around the garden, some kind of glass cabinets. They contain younger plants (seedlings and cuttings) and some Rebutia, Aylostera, Lobivia… The full collection is made up of about 2200 plants.

Here are some views of the large greenhouse.

(I decided to take photos of groups of plants. So I can introduce more of them. They are named from left to right on the photo.)

View of the garden with one large greenhouse and some smaller ones. Johan busy with his plants.

JK 206 S. vasqueziana v. losenickyana
HS 140 S. sp. (Torotoro)
HS 147 verticillacantha v. taratensis
JK 486 S. sp. (aff. HS 140 - Torotoro)

HS 213 S. sp. nov.? (Torotoro - San Pedro de Buena Vista - 3100m)
JK 319 sp. nov.? (San Pedro de Buena Vista - 3200m)
JK 315 sp. nov.? (Acasio - 3150m)

JK 321 S. vasqueziana v. losenickyana (sp. de Sacani)
JK 453 S. verticillacantha v. taratensis
HS 105 idem
JK 452 idem

HS 100 S. albissima
HS 100 a idem
WR 194 S. mizquensis
HS 57 S. markusii v. tintiniensis

HS 106 S. albissima
JD 247 et 248 idem
HS 119 idem
HS 100 et 100a idem

VZ 56 et 56b S. tarabucoensis v. callecallensis
EM 351 idem
JK 66 S. tarabucoensis v. tarabucoensis (sp. de Huano Loma)

LH sp. de Durazniyoj

JK 206 S. vasqueziana v. losenickyana
HS 140 S. sp. (Torotoro)
HS 147 verticillacantha v. taratensis
JK 486 S. sp. (aff. HS 140 - Torotoro)

HJ 243 et JK 66 S. tarabucoensis v. tarabucoensis
LH S. tarabucoensis v. patriciae
G155 et 155a, HS121, WR 289 S. rauschii

G254 S. gemmae

G257 et VZ 205 S. naunacaensis

G259 S. elizabethae

HJ 986 S. sp (Zudanez)
JD 218 S. albissima
HS 106 idem

JK 453 et 452 S. verticillacantha v. taratensis

JD 212 S. steinbachii v. steinbachii

JK 182 et 53 S. canigueralii
EH 6253 idem

Nice group of S. mentosa v. swobodae

JK 512 S. sp. nov. ? (San Pedro)

JK 159/1 S. tiraquensis v. tiraquensis (yellow spines)

General view of the greenhouse.

HS 125a S. tarabucoensis v. hertusii
Mn 57 Weingartia neumanniana
HJ 478 et 843 S. camargoensis
HS 74 S. vasqueziana v. alba

JD 337 S. gemmae

JK 176 S. vasqueziana v. vasqueziana (sp. de Barranca)

PR8 S. krugerii v. hoffmannii
JD 214 S. steinbachii v. steinbachii
G 134a S. sp. (Alalay)
On the right with a dark body : PR9 S. polymorpha

I had noticed in one of the glass cabinets in the garden a Sulcorebutia with a very odd spination. It was tagged WR 731 which should be S. purpurea v.unguispina but this one was rather different. Johan told me that those plants were grown from his own seedlings but obviously they were hybridised. "One of the parents may be the seedling I got from Franz Kühhas, which is different from the others" Johan told me. Nevertheless this hybridization gave very nice plants !

(Afterward, I have discovered that that form of WR 731 is in fact already known : so Johan’s plants are not hybridized plants).

S. purpurea v. unguispina WR 731 (two forms quite different)

Johan Pot has produced the CD’s SulcoMania et DigitoMania. And also a CD about his trips in Bolivia.

At the moment he is working on another project : it’s a software based on a database. At the present time, there are 1300 clones of Sulcorebutia in the database and for each of them, Johan takes notice of 49 criteria’s.

“I’m not trying to prove anything but (possibly) this work will allow you to find out, on the basis of those 49 criteria’s, what are the closest species biologically speaking. The main thought is : we expect strongly related individuals will be more similar than individuals less related. With so many characters I take a chance to turn things round : if plants are similar, we may expect stronger relationship."

We will see in the future if DNA analyses will confirm or refute the resuts of this work.

Decor for a photo

Johan has shown me how he takes the photos of his plants. He has made a wooden mask. This is just a small board in which he has cut out a hole slightly more narrow than the pot. So the plant is higher than the mask on which he sets out some gravel. Look at the result here below !