President Vonne started out the meeting by announcing that, for this new year, Steve Crippen has agreed to be the Vice-President and Anne Lee will be the Secretary. Both are long-time members that will serve the club well. Vonne also asked that people sign up to bring refreshments.

Lynn McDonald mentioned that she would like to set a date for the Rock Collecting Field Trip – March???

Bruce Hargreaves then began his presentation of "The Canaries and the Origin of the Sahara." As usual, Bruce not only brought pictures, but many other interesting items as well - Books, plants, brochures, newspapers, etc. He began in the Canary Islands by explaining that the islands were named after dogs (Genus Canus) and that the songbirds were named after the islands. We were given a tour of a botanic garden built on a volcanic cliff. Among the plants were Euphorbia lambii, Euphorbia purpurea and 30 types of Aeonium.

Bruce then moved on to discuss some rock art found in the Sahara. The oldest of which shows giraffe, hippopotamus, and crocodile and implies that the Sahara was not always a dry, sandy desert. As one looks at younger art cattle are depicted – cattle were brought in by humans. The newest art shows horses, another man introduced animal. Now lets go back to the Canaries and talk about Dragon trees (Dracaena draco is the most common one seen in Southern California). There are 2 species of Dragon tree on the Island and 1 species in Morroco. Dragon Trees also occur along the Red Sea and on the island of Socotra just south of the Arabian Penninsula. But none exist in the middle Sahara. However, pollen studies show that they have been there in the past. Along with the Dragon Trees, Euphorbia balsamifera exists on both sides of Northern Africa but not in the middle, and there is one species of East African Aeonium. The question then is: As time progressed the Sahara became dryer and, at the same time, man introduced grazing animals. But, were these plants separated by a natural change in climate or did man hasten the process by introducing grazing animals?

We finished off the evening with many members winning some great plants at the raffle table.