Plant mapping
Fernando Rivadavia Lopes (ferndriv@usp.br)
Wed, 6 Mar 1996 01:40:24 -0300 (GRNLNDST)
I thought I should enter this discussion, since I've been heavily
involved with CP field work here in Brazil for the past 6 years. As I've
said before, I really have few fears of CPs becoming endangered around
here due to the inaccessibility of most mountain habitats. The only CPs
apparently in danger in Brazil are aquatic Utrics, due to pollution of
waterways.
Elza Fromm-Trinta (Brazilian Utric and Genlisea taxonomist) has
suggested to me that U.nelumbifolia may be endangered due to
overcollecting of the bromeliads inside which these Utrics grow. Yet I
doubt that overcollecting is anywhere close to estinguishing the large
Vriesia species home to U.nelumbifolia. Maybe a few beautiful rainforest
species are endangered mostly as a result of habitat loss, but those that
grow on cliffs and which are home to U.nelumbifolia are inaccessibly safe,
except from alpinists!
Since there is really not much interest in CPs in Brazil, I doubt
anyone would go to the trouble of climbing mountains and travelling to
distant places to collect CPs for commercial sale. At least it wouldn't
be enough to threaten any species. Thus I do not consider that plant
mapping would be a risk for the Brazilian species, as it may be for some
N.American species. Only people truly interested in learning about these
plants would want to travel to most CP areas I know.
Now the problem is mapping. Luckily, I have a good sense of
orientation in the field plus photographic memory, being able to return
directly to CP sites visited years before. But it is simply impossible to
explain to anyone how to arrive at many of these sites! I try and include
as much location data as possible along with the herbaria I collect, but
that is unfortunately often far from precise.
This is in fact a big problem I have when exploring a new area, in
search of something interesting I saw at a herbarium. I usually just hike
around the general area where the plant was collected, hoping to come
across it sooner or later, which usually ends up happening. Once you know
the habitat in which the species grows, it usually becomes much easier to
find more. Knowing the habitat in which the plant is found is often more
useful than the precise location. So I suggest you (Jan, Rick, and Toby)
include as much habitat info along with your maps as possible.
So if you guys really want to go through with this, I'm not sure if
you've realised that you (or someone) will end up having to go to herbaria
and writing down the location and habitat data from ALL the herbarium
specimens, which will be one HELL of a job! How many CP specimens does
Kew have? What about Paris? I only saw small parts of their collections
and imagine that the entire collections must be far more than I'd care
to go through, not to mention writing down the info from each and every
one. What about all the other herbaria in Europe and the world? Have you
guys thought of this?
Fernando Rivadavia
Sao Paulo, Brazil