CPs in Brazil - A fantastic trip (part 3)
Fernando Rivadavia Lopes (ferndriv@usp.br)
Wed, 6 Mar 1996 17:43:07 -0300 (GRNLNDST)
We left Caraca at lunch time, stopping by Belo Horizonte, the
capital of Minas Gerais state, to restock on food and film for the rest
of the trip, and arriving later that night at the Serra do Cipo. We were
up early the next day and heading north along the road which crosses the
Serra do Cipo. We first drove on to an area I had never been to before,
but found nothing much. So we returned to a place where I knew we'd see
the fabulous D.chrysolepis, an erect species which forms stems up to 40cm
in length.
We stopped the car and walked around 50m to D.chrysolepis site.
While I stayed to collect material and photograph, I sent Joe off to
explore further down the stream. Soon he came back, shouting from the
distance. He asked me if G.violacea grew up to 80cm! I said I'd read
about such long specimens, but that it was unusual. He almost gave me a
heart attack when he showed me the plant which he was hiding behind his
back! It was G.uncinata!!! It was the magnificently giant G.uncinata,
which I'd found last July in the state of Bahia!! But no, it couldn't
be! G.uncinata is only known from mountains around 800km further N from
the Serra do Cipo.
Breathing deeply, trying to calm down, I began looking closely at
the plant in Joe's hand. The flower scape was around 80cm long and very
thick, just like G.uncinata. It looked identical, but then I checked the
flowers. Surprisingly, or maybe not, they were different! They were
colored differently and did not have G.uncinata's characteristically
curved or hooked spur! A new species!! So the next thing I did was to
turn to Joe and camly scream "TAKE ME TO WHERE YOU FOUND THIS!!!!!"
We walked a bit further down and came upon the long scapes among
tall grasses right next to a stream. G.uncinata had also been found among
tall grasses, as well as in similar black sandy soil. Analyzing the
plants better, I notice that the peduncles were really very thick, but
not as much as some of the G.uncinata I saw last year which were almost
as thick as a pencil. Curiously, there seemed to be even fewer leaves on
this new species than I'd seen for G.uncinata, where they were usually
very few or absent. We only found a few scattered leaves, one or less per
plant.
To my sadness, when we dug up a few plants I noticed that the
traps were not as numerous as in G.uncinata nor were they as large, but
still much more so than other species I know. Thus, G.sp."cipoensis" (as
we're calling it) can be called the second biggest Genlisea, after
G.uncinata!
To be continued........