This is a “must attend” event during the Calitzdorp Succulent Festival. You will have the chance to meet and mix with succulent experts from all over South Africa, enjoy a wonderful dinner prepared and served by the ladies of the Calitzdorp NG Church.

The featured speaker at this year's dinner will be Peter Bruyns who is one of South Africa's foremost authorities on Succulent Plants. He will be speaking on Succulent Euphorbias. His new book Euphorbia in Southern Africa is currently regarded as the definition of the genus.

The menus for the dinner are partially presented here. Please note that there is a meat based menu and a vegetarian based menu. The vegetarian selection will be added as it is available. Please select your choice when booking.

EVENING SCHEDULE
18:00 - Social Hour
18:30 - Dinner Served
19:30 - Talk Begins
21:00 - Dessert & Coffee

DINNER MENU
Complimentary wine on each table.

Starter
Brown Mushroom Soup with Port Reduction

Main Course
Lamb Shank
Sweet Potato Puree
Roasted Vegetables

Vegetarian Main Course
Vegan Steak
Sweet Potato Puree
Roasted Vegetables

Dessert
Poached Pear with Chocolate Truffle
Served with Tea and Coffee

VENUE
Calitzdorp NG Church

DATE & TIME
Saturday, 21 September 2024 from 18:00 onwards.

COST
R300 per person. Includes a salad course, main course and dessert, with wine from local wineries. Remember to select your option of Meat or Vegetarian when booking.

BOOKING/REGISTRATION
Seats are limited and booking is essential.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER - DR PETER BRUYNS

Educated at Oxford (Rhodes Scholar for three years) to PhD in Mathematics in 1986. Also MSc in Botany at UCT. Worked at UCT from 1986 as Lecturer until retirement in 2022 as Professor in Mathematics.

Keenly interested in the Taxonomy of succulent plants, working especially in Stapeliads of the Apocynaceae and Euphorbia of the Euphorbiaceae, with other work on Crassula, Aizoaceae and Didiereaceae. Used  basic morphological methods and more recently the most modern DNA-techniques to enhance classification.

Published first new species in 1974 in South African Journal of Botany and have now published over 120 peer-reviewed papers.

Major monographic works include ‘Stapeliads of southern Africa and Madagascar’ (Umdaus Press, 2 vols, 2005) and ‘Euphorbia in southern Africa’ (Springer Verlag, 2 vols, 2022).

Particularly interested in exploration of Mossambique and Angola, from where many new species have been described. Also exploration of Yemen and Somaliland, the former no longer possible since 2010, but the latter opening up for investigation, though still tricky. Many new species discovered during this exploration and some 14000 herbarium-specimens made, mostly deposited at BOL, NBG, E, K and PRE.