CP trips in Brazil III
Fernando Rivadavia Lopes (ferndriv@usp.br)
Tue, 8 Aug 1995 18:01:51 -0500 (CDT)
D.communis was seen at Caraca, the Cipo Range, Diamantina, Catoles,
and at a town close to Catoles called Piata. At the last 2 I also found what
I call D.sp."Emas" a new species I discovered at the Emas National Park
in SW Goias state in '91. This species looks vaguely like a D.scorpioides
and I've been finding it all over sub-amazonian Brazil.
At Caraca I wanted to search for what I call D.communis var."green
giant". I'm trying to figure out what the TYPE D.communis is, if it's the
common form or this var."g.g.". A D.communis var.pauciflora was described
from Caraca and this might be one of these 2 forms. Only recently have I
really learned to distinguish between these 2 forms and have been
finding them growing together and even hybridizing in a few areas. I was
wondering if these 2 weren't also mixed at Caraca. I knew that the common
form grows there, I just wasn't sure about var."g.g.", which seems to be
restricted to the southern part of the country. Anyways, I couldn't find
it at Caraca.
Another plant seen was Saint Hilaire's D.hirtella var.hirtella, which
is now known as D.montana var.hirtella. I saw it at Diamantina and Cipo
Range and know from herbarium that it also grows in the Catoles region,
but I wasn't able to find it there. I believe this annual taxon should
be separated from D.montana once again.
Another confusing taxon under D.montana is what I call D.montana
var."Congonhas", which I discovered at the Cipo Range a few years ago. I
believe this could be separated as a whole new species. I'm not sure if
in the confusing taxonomic past of Brazilian Drosera it has received a
name or if it was completely overlooked. The most curious feature on this
plant are the giant outer tentacles of the leaves.
Yet another taxon in the messy D.montana-complex is one I call
D.montana var."dewy scape" and which I now believe was what Saint Hilaire
called D.parvifolia. On the contrary to all other D.montana, this one is
an anual. Other characteristics place it closer to D.brevifolia, with
which it can be easily confused when young. Anyways, I saw this taxon at
Caraca, Cipo Range, and Catoles. It's probably the most widespread of all
the taxons in the D.montana-complex, occurring from S to NE Brazil. I
believe Saint Hilaire may have been right in placing this as a separate
species.
Now what I can't seem to sort out well are the D.montana
var.montana, var.tomentosa, var.schwackei, and the ex-D.hirtella
var.lutescens. I've called each plant by a couple of names in the past
few years, a confusion probably only understood by a few of my constant
correspondents. I won't bother you guys with the whole story though and
will only present the names I'm using at the moment.
I now suspect that var.lutescens could be a species I found in
Mato Grosso state (W Brazil) 4 years ago (one that came out in CPN as
D.pumila/colombiana). Lutescens means something like 'becoming
yellowish'. This species from M.Grosso has spathulate leaves similar to
D.hirtella var.hirtella's but the peduncles are covered with very long
yellowish hairs, concentrated near the base, with glandular hairs at the
top. Var.hirtella has shorter red hairs and the peduncles grow initially
horizontal to the soil and then bend upwards.
Another candidate for the ex-var.lutescens is one of the many
possible taxons in the group I consider to be true D.montana: plants with
deep-red/purple tongue-shaped leaves and with erect flower scapes.
Hairyness of the flower scapes varies from almost glabrous to glandular
to slightly hairy near the base to totally hairy all the way up,
including the sepals (the simple hairs always being white in this
group). The main problem is that up to now this hairyness has been the
main taxonomic stronghold in separating the varieties in the D.montana
complex. Unfortunately, I've been observing that in the 'true-D.montana'
group, hairyness seems to vary according to sunlight and there seems to
be a certain degree of hybridization among the taxons involved.
In this group, I call D.montana var.montana the plants with
peduncles that are (in their lower half) covered with short simple
hairs to glabrous. The top 1/2 of the peduncle is covered with glandular
hairs. I'm calling D.montana var.tomentosa the ones with longer, simple
hairs thickly covering most of the peduncle, being replaced by glandular
hairs near the top. The boundary between these is still very artificial
and difficult to follow through.
The true D.montana var.schwackei should have simple hairs all the
way up to the sepals. I've seen TYPE material for this taxon from the
Ouro Preto Herbarium here in Brazil. I'm not sure if it truly is
something I haven't come across yet or merely an ecologial variant of
what I'm calling var.tomentosa. For now I won't consider this variety and
will simply refer to the plants as either var.montana or var.tomentosa.
The white hairs on var.tomentosa often become yellowish when the
scapes get older, usually after the fruit have matured. This could be
the ex-var.lutescens, though I doubt Saint Hilaire would have put this
one as a variety of D.hirtella, which is extremely different and much
more similar to the species from M.Grosso with the long yellow hairs on
the scapes. After all, he saw the plants in the wild, on the contrary to
most taxonomists who afterwards jumbled all of Saint Hilaire's species
into a few messy species.
What I call var.tomentosa is very abundant in Bahia (mostly
growing by streams) and also at the Cipo Range (where it's common in
very wet, marshy areas). Var.montana is commonly found by streams at the
Caraca and Cipo Ranges plus I also discovered it at Itambe. At
Diamantina, the plants were somewhat intermediate, having sparse, long
hairs over 2/3 of the scape, glandular ones then taking over on top.
At Catoles I found a hybrid between D.sp."Emas" and D.montana
var.tomentosa. I've seen this hybrid at various other places in Minas
Gerais + Goias states, though I'm not sure if all the hybrids were
with var.tomentosa. Apparently var.montana can also be a parent in this
cross.
Fernando Rivadavia
Sao Paulo, Brazil