Kelly Griffin, manager of Succulent Plant Development for Altman Plants in northern San Diego County (the largest producer of succulents in the country) presented a compilation of his four different plant expeditions to Madagascar (to date) in his talk entitled, “Madagascar: Fantasy Plantasy”. Griffin, the President of the San Diego Cactus and Succulent Society, has also hybridized over 100 aloes, succulents, and many cultivars. He showed us the rustic and hazardous roads, “bridges”, and camps his four man crew endured during their quest for seeds to bring back to the States for propagation and hybridizing. Photos of the Baobob trees, AKA pachypodium, which means “fat trees,” showed us how different the landscape is but also how uniquely similar our climate is to other Mediterranean climes, even as far away as the east coast of Africa. Kelly shared with the audience that plants worldwide are endangered to make way for man’s progress. For example, in Madagascar the fragile one-of-a-kind aloes that grow only on rock have been decimated because the rocks are being removed to make buildings. The coastline is burned in order to flood it to create rice paddies.
He also brought two-dozen of “Kelly Griffin hybrid” aloes in four-inch pots to sell. He was sold-out immediately and wished he brought more. More than 100 attendees learned so much more about the world of plants.
