Sorry if you don't like long mails! This one is VERY long.
I advise you consider printing it.
This is a report on a field trip to Cuba (and a brief excursion to
Venezuela). The report will name the species found, species collected
or photographed, habitat descriptions (including indicator plants),
only approximate locations (sorry) and cultural advice surmised from
the habitat. In addition, I will name plants not found and the
anticipated introduction to cultivation of plants targetted for
visiting during this trip. I will also describe other plants targetted
for future collection, including at least one form/variety that may be
previously unrecorded. Possibly to the horror of some, I will also find
it impossible to resist other comments on Cuba and it's wildlife (pun
intended), and I'll add some thoughts on travelling to/within
Cuba/Venezuela, just in case anyone else is foolish enough to try!!!
Conservation note: sorry but I will not publish specific locations for
plants. This is a deliberate act based on discovering the severe
threat currently facing Cuban species. Any uncontrolled collection,
including by me, could result in extinction of one or more species. If
I were the direct or indirect cause, I would feel heartbroken forever.
The lack of precise locations in this report should not result in any
significant or uncalled for delay in introducing species to
cultivation. The Cubans do not support uncontrolled collection and I
support their wishes (it's their country, not mine). I am grateful for
their support to date and their promises of future support.
For Cuba, the original Goals were known to be overly hopeful. At the
very best I had hoped to travel to see all 5 endemic Pinguicula species
(filifolia, albida, jackii, lignicola and benjamina) with possible
chances to see Utrics (two of which are endemic) and Drosera moaensis.
Parallel (non-CP) interests meant I also hoped to visit Mount Turkina,
Cuba's highest mountain at just over 2000m, to find Tillandsia
turkinensis and find Microcycas. I was also looking out for epiphytic
cacti (e.g. Selenecereus) and other epi succulents (particularly
Rhipsalis, which I've just started collecting - it's just impossible to
get wild sourced seed!).
In Venezuela, my interest was in finding P. elongata. I had a distant
hope of finding a Drosera and alsoplanned a side trip to La Gran
Sabannah (at the foot of Ayan Tepuy).
Though I do not plan to report using a diary format, the first two days
are best presented this way to introduce you to Cuba. I will get onto
the plants eventually, promise!!!
Arrival - flew in 4 hours late with VIASA, arriving long after sunset.
The entire island was blacked out, the first time I've ever landed on
an island with no light!!! Why no lights? Electricity saving on
orders of El Magnifico (cynicism already?), Fidel to his "friends". I
was greeted by the Cuban host (almost all tourists are received by
internal tour companies that theoretically look after you -
theoretically) and we then sat/stood for 2 hours waiting for a mythical
visitor who never arrived.
And so we went to my 4 star hotel (no I'm not rich, but I was strongly
advised to stay here for a day). Into my room; disgusting. In
Europe/US/Japan (probably elsewhere), star ratings are reliable. In
Cuba, they're a symptom of endemic hype! For 4 stars, interpret as 1
Star!
Being late and having
travelled for 17 hours, I fell asleep. 8 a.m. next morning, I'm
excited and it's Sunday so all I can do is relax. Breakfast looks
lousy at $10 so I walk outside toward the sea (10 minutes).
Immediately I'm spotted and targetted by every Cuban I pass. Did I
look like a wallet? Apparently so. You could see the Cuban eyes
tumble, cartoon style, revealing the dollar bill signs. I got about
half way before my ignoring people drove one entrepreneur to literally
join my walk. As talking is impossible to avoid at this closeness, and
as it's free (?) we exchanged introductory stuff. Suddenly his friend
was walking there too. By now I was on a free guide to Old Havana
which actually proved interesting. Everything is to the standards of
Eastern Europe; rotten concrete, corroded iron, faulty wiring, no lamps,
no space, plenty of occupants - in general the very worst of tenements.
Suffice to say that life in Cuba is hard unless you're senior in the
communist party or already rich. Oh yes, disgusting though it is, in the
Communist state that should be the perfect example of equality, being a
white Cuban helps!!!
By now, it's 9.30 a.m. and out came the rum. A bit early (!) but I
actually love the stuff so ... Later, we (still three) go to the
beach to hear real Salsa (great, infectious, gotta dance) and then
there were five! Now we are me, my friend, his friend and two women
who I was dancing with before I knew they were there. Night falls,
we return to the hotel and decide the night is still young. So I'm
introduced to Black Market food. Hotel dinner was $20US without
drinks or desert. I paid black market for all five of us to each
have two courses plus beers. Total price (you read right, total
price) was $15US. Still rich (note however that I'm paying for
everything and everyone), we go to a bar. It looked fine, felt
fine, sounded fine (a guitarist and bongo player producing the best
Salsa) but all those women coming and going finally caught my
attention - yep it's normal to rough it in the Caribbean and drink
(only drink - honest) in a brothel!
By Day 2, breakfast time, we were seven. My friends wife and someone I
never quite understood the origins of (he declared our friendship was
for life but I think he meant until my dollars dried up) had also
joined us. Rather than the $10 breakfast in the hotel, which still
looked lousy, we all moved to a Black Market tenement hovel. The family
there were unceremoniously thrown out (dollars rule) and all 7 of us
each had 3 home made hamburgers, coffees and fruit juice. That's 21
really tasty hamburgers (the only really nice food I ate in the two
weeks), 14 coffees, approximately 14 large fresh fruit juices. $3US!
That's not a misprint. I say again - $3.00US, total!
Time to get the car. At this point, to cut a long story short, my
credit cards (all English, NOT american) are refused. Non-US credit
cards are accepted in Cuba. Unknown to me, my cards are distributed by
Public companies with shareholders, and the main shareholders are
American. These americans have banned the honouring of credit against
their cards if used in Cuba. Embargo!!! Stuffed, I now have no car,
no means of getting anywhere and no hotel to stay at that night (I'm
meant to be 100 miles away). My friends all leave now, they've lots to
do elsewhere!!!!!
(But the cavalry will arrive soon.)
And so to plants.........
The cavalry proved to be the Botanic Garden. I'd written them with
introductions from the UK, the US (surprisingly) and personal notes.
On meeting them they immediately provided two botanists, a chauffer
driven car and full access to their records. OK, I had some really
good introductions and, despite my amateur status, I guess I can be
reasonably well received when I explain what I do and my
scientific/conservation status in the U.K.. So we spent a day
planning. The East coast of Cuba was too far for a two week trip.
We limited the search to Central and Western Cuba. And so we went
to the most Westerly province, Pinar del Rio, named after the main
town. We passed en-route numerous Roystonia, the national tree, and
saw the Sierra de Organos; mountains shaped as incredible mounds
(mini-tepuy came to mind), composed of Mesozoic calcareos rock, the
oldest in Cuba. Here I was welcomed by the University and a
professor joined our hunt. All of us contributed information and we
decided our plan. Pinar del Rio is full of lakes, hundreds
(possibly thousands) of them. We went to a group called Las Ovas
(The Eggs) so named for their shape. These were really difficult to
find, even with excellent maps and guides, and certainly 4 wheel
drive terrain. The first site was approached to reveal a habitat
remarkably like the Carolina home of Dionaea. A very sandy soil is
home to fairly thick pine forest, with clearings appearing every now
and then. The soil is damp or wet whitish sand, the deeper you
enter. At a promising spot we searched for an hour. We still think
we missed plants but we actually never found any Pinguicula. We did
see several Utrics, all yellow flowered, which I ignored (almost).
Site two was little different, other than being just as open but for
a wider area. The sand here was gleaming white in places, varying
grades of silicate, in places mixed with peat-like humus and
generally creating acid conditions. The first area had been known
for P. filifolia but was now empty. Pigs and Cows wre merrily
grazing where the land was not ploughed. A disaster. So we moved
on, just. We crossed a ditch and there they were. Not just P.
filifiolia, but in flower too. And even with seed capsules. The
plants grew in sand which was wet but above the standing water
level, so roots were not drowned. Nothing taller grew by the Pings
except occassional Lycopodium cernum plants that scrambled
everywhere. These pings, in case you don't know them, are the
equivalent of Drosera filiformis in habit, very upright long thin
leaves covered in sticky "dew". The flowers were the expected white
tinged blue. Seed was collected. NO PLANTS WERE COLLECTED. In
case it helps the botanists, the following plants served as
indicator species (i.e. grwew nearby and were typical of such
locations): Hypericum stiphylloides, Grasses (mainly Eriocaulaceae),
Burmaniaceae (Burmania bicolor; very interesting!), Melastomastaceae
(real acid indicators, like Chetolepis cubensis), Polygola
squaifolia, heliotropium antillanum, Phyllanthus junceus and
Tetrazigma antillanum. And finally (for P. filifolia), the
conditions were full sunlight, 30C degrees 40% humidity at day, 20C
degrees 55% humidity at night and this was dry season. In May -
August, soil will be wetter (i.e. very wet) and I would guess the
humidity would be about 20 to 40% higher (more at night less at day)
with about a 4 degree higher temperature throughout. two last
facts, P. filifolia has a local kname of "Grasilla" and is found
only at zero altitude.
Almost forgot! We found Drosera near P. filifolia which proved to be
(I think) D. capillaris which was about 2.5 inches in diameter, and
D. intermedia at about 5 inches diameter.
Next day, we searched for P. albida. P. filifolia is found in
pockets throughout the white sandy areas of Pinar del Rio,
effectively excluding the North of the province which is
mountainous. P. albida is found, though rarely, in Pinar del Rio
but also, more commonly, between Havana and the central West, in the
Sierra de Rosario. These are much newer mountains, more jagged.
The typical habitat (my Professor friend has seen the plant in the
wild) is in mountains above the tree line, very near to but not in
water, in exposed soil (little shade). Strangely, in Pinar del Rio,
the few plants found actually occur in dense cover at zero altitude,
totally atypical. We believe this plant is small when at rest. We
certainly couldn't find it in either Pinar del Rio or in the
mountains. Believe me, my feet knew we tried, as testified also by
the cuts on arms, face and back, gained from diving through almost
inpenetrable tropical forest! But I did learn something more.
Although the Pinar soil is mainly white silica sand, the true home
of P. albida, in the mountains, is on laterite. Laterite soils are
very rich in heavy metals. Heavy metals are poisonous to all but a
limited number of highly specialised plants. Most such plants are
barely able or unable to survive on other soils. Perhaps laterite
is the key to successful cultivation of P. albida. When will we
know? Perhaps in June. I've been promised seed by what were now my
very good friends. And I have been fortunate to have brought back a
little laterite rock which will easily crumble into soil. With luck
I can test seed on it.
Here the Ping hunt temporarily ended but we had time off to hunt for
other plants. (By now this is all that I care about as we're too
exhausted to enjoy the nights and food is unbearably boring - entirely
without taste for main meals and deserts entirely of sugar. Yeuch!)
Vinales town is actually in the Sierra de Organos (remember them? - old,
calcareous, mini-tepuy like). We found a first site using a Mango tree
as a marker from previous visits. These mountains are home to an
interesting "tree", a cycad (popularly known as Food of the Dinosaurs).
We found it in dense forest but the forest was damaged again by
farming. The trees looked poor and are unlikely to survive or
increase. The plant is Microcycas. It's endemic and especially odd
for it's name. Translating as the "small cycad", it is in fact the
largest cycad in the entire family! We moved on to the Vinales tourist
route and stopped to enter a thick tropical forest (not a rainforest
but a slightly drier form). Concealed behind a grass covered knoll,
you couldn't know it was there. Once in it, it was a haven for Vanilla
(an orchid), Selenicereus (found it!), Rhipsalis baccifera (my lucky
day - incredible to see it grow wild!) and a host of common bromeliads
that were none the less breathtaking to see wild.
But back to the Botanic Gardens and I've Friday/Saturday to recover.
Then Sunday we leave for Cienfuegos. This is at the foot of the
Trinidad mountains, the second highest mountains in Cuba, reaching just
over 1100 metres. We travelled on the motorway. (Another aside: in
Cuba, roads are for children, babies, chickens, lovers, pigs, in fact
anything but cars. Roads are very innovatively designed to be made
entirely from holes which have no visible means of interconnection.
Roads are not associated with any rules or laws - vehicles and anything
else travel at any speed in any direction in any lane at any time.
Lights, indication of intention to change direction and even moving are
all optional in all lanes at all times. Combining the outward journey
on Sunday and the weekday return, travelling half the length of Cuba we
counted a total of 4 other cars and 6 lorries. Petrol is bought with
dollars only.)
In Trinidad, we spent the first day searching the second highest
mountain for a place and local people my colleague had met before.
This seemed to require an enormous journey (mandatory 4 wheel drive)
and then a hike, up hill all the way, through a pitch black dense
forest which was very dry and, from the appearance of the holes
covered in silk, home to either millions of Tarrantulas or some
equally large spider. "Arachnophobia" refused to disappear from my
memory - I hate Hollywood! Above spiderland, we entered equally
thick pine forest. After 4 hours (remember, it's all up-hill, I'm
wearing a rucksack that weighs almost as much as I do and it's
almost 30 degrees hot) we find a house. My colleague recognises it.
We're there. And it's still occupied. By the same people. No,
relatives of the same people. It's the wrong house. Only another
hour to the right house. So off we go, still uphill. This time
it's wet mixed forest, full of orchids, Bromeliads, even a weird
minute 1 cm diameter earthstar (the Brom type, Cryptanthus) which
was too fragile to try collecting. We finally found the house, and
then a documented site for P. jackii. With racing pulse I searched.
We searched. Believe me I'd have found an ant if I'd tried to.
Nothing. Plenty of pigs though. Aaargh!!!!!!! Site destroyed by
farming. Several hours later I was down, exhausted and ecstatic at
the experience though despondant at the failure to find my Ping..
High and low at the same time. Weird.
Next day began with the highhest peak, 900-1000m. Almost there, we
rounded the penultimate bend, three cameras around my neck, to be
faced by a road block manned by the Cuban army. This is their new
highly secret radar base now (so how could I know if it's secret!).
Rapidly setting aside the cameras, my colleagues began to negotiate.
To give them credit, the army were delightful. They turned out the
full high command. Understandably not including me, they allowed my
colleagues to pass and search the peak. No plants were found
though. We bid a cheery goodby and moved to lower ground.
Travelling up and down the near vertical tracks with major potholes
(our 4 wheel drive vehicle almost couldn't negotiate it) we reached
an ordinary patch that held little attraction save a vertical cliff
or limestone. Ever one for the odd chance, we decided to check for
anything interesting, knowing that in general Cuba's Pings don't
like calcareous rock. How wrong we were. There it was. Amazing.
P. jackii. You have to understand that, in Cuba, only up to three
previous field trips had ever located this plant to Cuba's
knowledge, very few herbarium specimens exist and no-one in Cuba
knew of any photos of the living plant (Jan now tells me a few
photos do exist, including a past publication in CPN - how did I
miss it!!!). This was as rare as they get and there it was. First
one plant, then was that a second, and a third? Finally we could
count nineteen, though I used binoculars to count them on the cliff
face. Almost dead from shock, we'd all been reduced to gibbering
idiots who were wandering aimlessly trying to collect our sense.
Suddenly a shout. Another group, only 3, but one's in flower. This
was truly unbelievable, you cannot begin to imagine the feelings we
had. Unfortunately there were no seeds. The plant is so rare that
NO PLANTS WERE REMOVED. But we learnt.
And so the facts:
Day temperature of 28 degrees C, 49% humidity. Grew on North wall of
rock face in deep shade, at least 50% but probably more like 75-80%.
Rock was calcareous, pure, soft. The situation was remarkably similar
(except for water) to that for P. vallisneriifolia. As to water, the
rock was bone dry as indicated by the obvious dehydration of all the
plants growing on it. Apparently, the rock gets occassional downpours
in the dry season that just prevent the plants from dying. It's not
until the wet season that the rocks contain sufficient seeping water to
maintain growing plants in a stable condition.
The obvious indicator plant was Chaptalia dentata (Compositae), which
was by far the most abundant, almost the only other, plant found (with
the occassional fern). Almost forgot the second indicator - Begonia
banaoensis. P. jackii only occurred where both indicator plants also
grew. But P. jackii was far more fussy and didn't (couldn't?) grow
everywhere that Chaptalia and Begonia both grew.
Above the 30-40 foot rock wall was a horizontal plateau containing
primary tropical forest, relatively impenetrable. I fought through
it (the resultant cuts and bruises covered my entire body) to find
that no P. jackii grew on the plateau or even high up on the rock
face where sunlight was more plentiful. Too much light is obviously
an inhibitor either as a direct cause or because it causes too much
dehydration. This will be worthy of investigation with cultivated
plants. On the flat, I think competition from other plants
overwhelms P. jackii, but it could also be that the ground can be
too wet. Given the circumstances, I prefer the competition option
and I think it's leaf devris from taller plants that actually
prevents P. jackii from colonising.
Equally, although seeds had obviously fallen there, no plants grew
on the soil below the rock. This soil supported crops, mainly
coffee, and is actually acid. The rock formed an overhang and bare
soil was found. So it seems likely that acidity was the only reason
preventing P. jackii colonisation.
Back to less directly relevant stuff. Although I couldn't or didn't
collect, the Cuban's do accept the threatened status of P. jackii. We
are discussing potential conservation plans including the mapping of
known and yet to be discovered colonies, protection from disturbance
and the introduction into cultivation. At the moment, I expect my
Cuban friends to help me introduce this species sometime in 1996 or 97,
depending on when I can return there. Sooner is possible but unlikely.
Exhausted yet? Not much more to report. Driving back we went through
the pass toward the East and then back West from Trinidad to Havana.
This was a delightful cobbled village. The oddest feature was the
characteristic iron or wooden grills covering every single window at
ground level. These windows were all door sized or bigger and could
have been used for entry if they had not been barred. The practice of
barring dates to when colonisation started. Chaperoning of single
women was then in vogue. But males used to serenade attractive ladies
at night. So the bars enabled the seranading to be private between man
in street and lady in bedroom, but without any chance to take things
further!!! A very good thing too based on my observations of Cuban
ladies - but enough about the wildlife (pun still intended).
The return trip took us past a dead looking 15 foot tall twig which
later proved to bear about 5 leaves. This turned out to be
Megalopanax rex. Why tell you? Well, there are only two trees in
existance and both are in Cuba. I've seen one so I'm showing off!!!
Thence, to Trinidad. Most of the ground was cleared annually by burning
so devoid of interest. After Trinidad, the South coast is a haven for
cacti and succulents including many pachycauls and caudiciforms but the
ground is covered in thick scrub so this would need it's own dedicated
time to cover (and I was too short of time to try).
Finally, returning to Havana, I had a chance to review all the
Herbarium records I'd not already seen. This means I've now reviewed
all CP herbarium records in Cuba. In doing so, we were discussing the
benefit of such records and how flower colour remained detectable long
after pressing. As an example, P. filifolia was brought out. To my
utter amazement, along with the blue flowered form I actually saw dried
flowers that could only have been yellow. I now know the exact
location of this yellow form and there are plans to collect seed. I
also located the records for the endemic Genlisea. I now have a fairly
good location description including a town name, landmark and
associated compass bearing which should take me within about 100 metres
of the plant. This is a very exact location compared with normal
Herbarium record details so there is hope of finding and introducing
this plant in the near future.
O.K. That's about it. I'm getting tired now anyway!! To round off,
some extra comments on Cuba.
First, I'm well and truly a friend of the botanists there, all of them,
and will see many this summer when they visit here (England). As to
Cuba, I can truly recommend, with all my heart, that unless you plan to
go there for the plants or cigars, there is every possible reason to
avoid the place. You really might not like it. I was pleased to leave
except for the plants.
Secondly, there are no really nasty creepy-cralies but there are plenty
of mosquitoes. And you will get stomach trouble - it's unavoidable.
But otherwise you don't stand much risk of disease - no malaria, cholera,
etc. (unless of course you succumb to the attractions of the wildlife
- pun still intended).
And if I still haven't put you off - here's a guide to the cost. If
you want to spend two weeks in Cuba, eat slightly more than a
starvation diet (but only slightly more because the food is
disgustingly tasteless), search for CP's and not meet wildlife (more
puns intended) then you can count on it costing not much less and
potentially a lot more than $3000 (per person), not including your
return flight to Cuba and also excluding all souvenirs and luxuries
(like the occassional snack). In fact, I'd advise anyone to assume a
minimum therefore of $4000 per person (plus flights) for two weeks
covering no more than half the island and I'm probably still being
cautiously conservative on costs. I'm not rich, so believe me this
price hurt me!
And so, briefly (did I hear you say "good"?) to Venezuela. La Gran
Sabannah was to me a disappointment. I can not criticise the feelings
as I flew into and saw my first site of so many Tepuis. I felt
similarly awed by the sights of the Tepuis as I left. And each
sunrise/sunset view of Ayan Tepuy was totally incredible. But to be so
near and yet so far from a Tepuis summit proved to be a major
disappointment for me, even if I knew in advance that this was just a
scouting trip. I will return but only if I'm visiting to climb or be
dropped onto (by helicopter) a Tepuis itself. And I did swim in the
lakes and waterfalls that owed their source to Ayan Tepuis, which was
an experience anyone would always remember.
But my main reason for visiting Venezuela was to find Pinguicula
elongata in the Andes. This I failed to do. Having searched for two
days, I can only assume that this plant is fully dormant in the dry
season (of which there are two in the Andes). At this time I believe
the dormant plant will contract/die down to a very small tight ball as
is common for many Pings. Thus it would be necessary to hunt the plant
in the rainy season (of which there are also two!). I do now have very
good contacts with appropriate botanists and still hope to source some
seed. Meanwhile, other CP'ers just beat me to the Andes (by a week)
so, in theory, if they were luckier of better than me at looking, there
may be plants or seed in the US already. Oh yes, Casper's description
of the type location is probably dead accurate. The location itself is
imprecise but there is indeed black sandstone which is very
wet. These are not obvious but careful searching eventually reveals
suitable patches. How do I know this is right if I didn't find the
plants? Because everywhere else is baked solid, dry as a bone, often
covered with plants of a larger stature and thereby exceedingly unlikely
to be home to a Pinguicula.
As to cutivation. Clues (obvious I know but I'll still say it) are:
cold tolerant but probably not frost tolerant - taking very high
temperatures daytime (30C or more) and down to about 5C at night,
possibly less! Acid lover (all soil in the Paramos is acid). No
shade whatsoever, very direct sunlight, extreme light exposure
including very high levels of U/V light (enough to burn human skin
through at least two layers of cold resistant clothing - now how do I
know that!!!). 12 hours of sun. Nights often creating cloud forest
environment with ultra high humidity and heavy condensation (dew).
Plants not seen in Cuba or Venezuela included an endemic Drosera for
each. In Cuba, I met the botanist responsible for identifying and
naming D. moaensis and I saw the herbarium specimens. It certainly
seemed distinct to me. Rosetted but exceedingly small, I needed a hand
lens to look at it reasonably. There seems to be some doubt as to
whether it is a separate species but the name is published and, as I
said, it looks kosher to me. No sign or local records of Drosera in the
Andes; again it probably requires a search in the rainy season.
And so to distribution. P. filifolia seed has been distributed
(already) in the hope that someone will successfully germinate and grow
it. Those sent seed are known or thought to be willing to redistribute
future generations of plant/seed. The indiduals receiving seed already
know who they are. My apologies that there was insufficient seed to
include everyone. Hopefully those with seed will report back to me on
success with germination/growth so we can collate all we learn. I'll
leave it to them to distribute what they can, when they can. I've tried
to facilitate this by distributing to several continents.
Well that's about it. I could have told you that Venezuelan Salsa is
almost as good as Cuban. But I didn't. I could have said that the
Venezuelan women are disasterously more beautiful (but slightly more
restrained) than Cuban wildlife (there I go again with those puns) but
I didn't. I could have described how artificial respiration feels when
one isn't even vaguely unconscious, but I won't (she was very good at
it though!!!). And I could have told you all about how Aerotuy are
such an incompetent airline that they messed up my entire Venezuelan
trip, and I will, because I STRONGLY advise you never to fly Aerotuy.
(Yes yes, I know about being sued for what I say on the net. Too late
- I'm suing their agents already!).
I'm exhausted, my poor typing finger is exhausted and my VXT is
exhausted too. If you're brave enough to think of anything more I
might have added (oh no, not more!), try asking.
One last (I promise) thought - if you've never been plant hunting
somewhere wild and far away, try it; no matter how bad things get,
(and believe me, this trip was horrific) looking back can never be
less than brilliant, if only for the stories you can tell!
Regards
Paul