Welcome to
Scrapbooklithops
This is a website about the genus Lithops compiled by Keith Green. It came about due to my wish to correctly document all Lithops, and through contact with the world authorities on the genus, Professor Desmond Cole and his wife Naureen Cole, who took me under their wing and opened my eyes to the South African veld. (Anyone new to Lithops is invited to click on "The Basics" link on the right.)
In 1988 Professor Cole had his first monograph, LITHOPS-FLOWERING STONES, published in Randburg, Republic of South Africa by Acorn Books, and jointly with Naureen a second edition was published in Italy by Cactus & Co. in 2005.
My aim has been to equate the Cole Lithops research with the rules as laid down by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, which in 2011 became the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi and plants, and the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants. It is the Cole monographs however that form the bedrock of my studies.
My project began simply as a piece of paper tucked into the back cover of my 1988 edition of LITHOPS-FLOWERING STONES following the discovery of a new species from the Northern Transvaal which subsequently became known as L. coleorum. I continued to record all Lithops subsequently published or established within the rules of nomenclature and following encouragement from my wife Debbie, eventually presented my work to Professor Cole. I named my project LITHOPS SCRAPBOOK and the first set of those notes were published by the BRITISH CACTUS AND SUCCULENT SOCIETY in their journal CACTUS WORLD over three issues in December 2007 (Volume 25 No. 4), March 2008 (Volume 26 No. 1) and June 2008 (Volume 26 No.2).
With permission from the BRITISH CACTUS AND SUCCULENT SOCIETY given by the then editor of CACTUS WORLD Mr. Al Laius via e-mail to me dated 16 June 2013, the original unedited LITHOPS SCRAPBOOK I notes were made available via this website.
I developed a friendship with the Coles and was delighted to have joined them on a host of field trips, making many more acquaintances and friends along the way. I consider myself privileged to have visited so many beautiful places in Southern Africa, to have met so many genuinely good people and on many occasions to have seen and photographed Lithops growing where they evolved to be. Accounts of my field trips up until February 2013 have been published in several journals and a list is available by clicking on the Lithops Travelogue link on the right. Accounts since then have been written primarily for this web site, although subsequently published elsewhere. I have on occasion written other articles and given talks about the genus too.
My documentation of new Lithops continued after the publication of LITHOPS SCRAPBOOK and following contact with Eric Collins, a Lithops grower from Snowtown, South Australia, a decision was taken in June of 2013 to make LITHOPS SCRAPBOOK II available as an online book by clicking on the link on the right. The original LITHOPS SCRAPBOOK I was likewise converted from a pdf download to electronic book format in April 2018, and is now complete with extra photographs. When LITHOPS SCRAPBOOK II became full in 2021, the project was continued in LITHOPS SCRAPBOOK III and likewise in 2023 continued further in LITHOPS SCRAPBOOK IV. Eric’s computer knowledge, enthusiasm and guidance has been instrumental in the construction of this web site. I thank him sincerely for his help and a link to Oz Lithops, his Lithops nursery is included below.
In August of 2013 I was informed by Dr. Alan Leslie, that following a meeting held in Beijing of the Executive Committee of the International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS) Commission for Nomenclature and Cultivar registration, I had been appointed the International Cultivar Registration Authority (ICRA) for the Lithops genus. That register is available via a link on the right.
My ICRA role and cultivars in general were the topic of an article I wrote in 2019 entitled “Coles, Codes and Lithops Cultivars”. Publication (in Czech and English) was in KAKTUSY (the journal of the SOCIETY OF CZECH AND SLOVAK GROWERS OF CACTI AND SUCCULENTS, ZS), LV11 Special 2, pp. 4-12 (2021) and (in Italian & English) in PIANTE GRASSE (the journal of the ITALIAN CACTUS AND SUCCULENT ASSOCIATION), vol. 41 (2), pp. 49-67 (2021). Links to both of those organisations are indicated below and from 2023, a pdf of the text has been available here.
My personal tribute to Professor Cole, written after his passing in May of 2018 and reproduced in the MESEMB STUDY GROUP BULLETIN vol. 33, p. 54 (2018) and (slightly edited) in CACTUS WORLD vol. 36, p. N33 (2018), can also be accessed via the appropriate link on the right. Likewise, my tribute to Naureen, as reproduced in the MESEMB STUDY GROUP BULLETIN vol. 38, pp. 53-54 (2023) following her passing in July of 2023, follows that.
