Following the very successful convention in the Meise Botanical Garden our Chairman Rikus van Veldhuisen has written a brief resume of the proceedings.

The International Euphorbia Convention in Meise.

On 24^th and 25^th of May the International Euphorbia Society celebrated its 20 years existence in the ‘Nationale Plantentuin’ in Meise Belgium. Nearly 100 lovers of the plant Genus Euphorbia gathered this weekend in the idyllic castle lying centrally in the beautiful scenic landscape of the botanical garden. Although many of them came from far distances, many of them are friends for many years, or at least became friends this weekend. During the whole weekend there was plenty of time to meet and catch up, but in the end it seemed there was still not enough time.

On both days two talks were held and every single talk got ample attention and a lot of credits. This was not surprising as the auditorium in the castle, made available by the ‘Nationale Plantentuin’ for free, is very well equipped to host such an event.

Another highlight of the weekend was of course the visit to what I think is one of the best and largest collections of succulent Euphorbias worldwide, normally not open for public. It is in fact so large that the visitors in the greenhouses were hard to find when walking in between the tables, loaded with the many plants, sometimes over 3 meters tall.

In the opening talk of Marc Reynders, the Scientific Manager of Greenhouse Collections, the importance of the collection was highlighted. The goal is not only to keep a species of Euphorbia in the collection, but the genetic variability needs also to be secured for the future. A lot of succulent Euphorbias are highly threatened in their existence in nature. If a species can successfully survive in cultivation or in a seed bank in the genetic variance, successful re-introduction in nature is possible when a species might go into extinction. This task taken on by the ‘Nationale Plantentuin’ will become more and more important in the future.

It was in no time the weekend was already history and based upon the members asking when it will be held the next time, it was a great success. I look forward to the next convention as I am sure you will also.

Rikus van Veldhuisen  (Chairman)

23rd September 2025

We have just become aware of a paper written by Natallia Levchyck from Ukraine about the Meise Convention. We had the pleasure of Natallia’s company at the convention and are pleased to share her thoughts of her experience at the convention, you can download the paper and translation here.