CPs in Brazil - a fantastic trip (part 4)
Fernando Rivadavia Lopes (ferndriv@usp.br)
Fri, 8 Mar 1996 00:55:30 -0300 (GRNLNDST)
Still overwhelmed with the discovery of the G.uncinata-like new
species, we headed back up around 200m to see G.violacea, which was
found next to a small streamlet on a hillside covered with D.chrysolepis
colonies, growing in their typical scattered way. It was all really
beautiful, the G.violacea with flower coloration typical of the Serra do
Cipo-Diamantina region and the exotic long-stemmed D.chrysolepis, but all
I could think of was G.sp."cipoensis".........
How could it be possible that nobody had ever collected such a
large and magnificent species at the Serra do Cipo, which is supposedly
relatively well collected?? Especially well collected should be the
areas near the road! Absolutely amazing! It shows the enormous potential
of mountain ranges in Brazil, how unexplored they all still are! Could
this species be rare at the Serra do Cipo? We did not see any more
during the rest of the trip, but there was plenty where we discovered it.
Heading back along the road, we stopped at an area where I knew
D.hirtella (ex-D.montana var.hirtella) grew together with D.montana
var.tomentosa (?). I'm not sure about the identity of the latter since
there are numerous intermediate forms between var.montana, var.tomentosa,
plus var.schwackei, and I haven't been able to sort it all out yet. It's
realy very confusing! Especially because you can only really see
differences between them when they are flowering, which only occurs a
few months from now.
BTW, D.montana var.montana also grew near the D.chrysolepis and
D.hirtella + D.montana var.tomentosa(?), but I often forget to mention
it since it is so common at the Serra do Cipo.
Next we stopped at a place where I'd become a little confused
about D.chrysolepis on my previous trip there. TYPE plants are very large
and hairy, but at this plus another site I'd found plants that were
shorter, with petioles that are glabrous on the upper surface, deep red
lamina (those of D.chrysolepis are green with red tentacles or only
slightly reddish), and growing in soil littered with quartz gravel
(while TYPE plants usually grow in sandy, but not gravelly soil).
At first I wasn't sure, but now I believe this is a new
subspecies of D.chrysolepis and I'm calling it D.chrysolepis
subsp."glabrous petioles". Joe and I weren't able to find the TYPE
plants, which I'd seen growing only around 300m away, but a few
subsp."glabrous" specimens were spotted.
Our next stop was an area called Congonhas, where I'd discovered
a new species a few years ago, which I call D.sp."Congonhas" or
D.sp."tentaculata" (because of it's gigantic glandular hairs on the tips
of the leaves, like those of D.burmanni). I knew this new species was
very abundant there and when we arrived at the spot, I asked Joe if he
was seeing the Drosera. He said yes, but what he saw was a large patch
of D.chrysolepis subsp."glabrous", beautifully reflecting the late
afternoon sun on the mucilage glands of the deep-red lamina.
We began photographing the plants and I suddenly kneeled close to
a weird patch of D.chrysolepis which caught my attention. The plants were
smaller, the leaves were strap-shaped,......this was the D.chrysolepis
hybrid I'd been searching for years!! Finally, I couldn't believe it!
I first saw (around 3 or 4 years ago) some old slides of these
weird plants at my university, taken at the Serra do Cipo. At the time I
wasn't sure what they were. But soon afterwards herbarium specimens of
these plants were brought back from the Serra do Cipo by the university
taxonomists and I immediately noticed it was a hybrid between
D.chrysolepis and some smaller Drosera, maybe D.montana or D.communis.
Unfortunately though, I was never able to find the site mentioned
for that herbarium collection. It was just too vague, I needed to know in
which type of habitat to look for it. Well now that I've finally found this
hybrid, I know for sure that the it's a cross between D.chrysolepis
subsp."glabrous" and D.sp."tentaculata"! And to think I'd passed by
that site 3 times in the past and had never noticed the D.chrysolepis
subsp."glabrous" nor the hybrids growing right nearby!!
This is the 4th Drosera hybrid I find in Brazil, the others
being D.montana var.tomentosa(?) X D.sp."Emas" (a widespread
D.scorpiodes-like new species), D.communis X D.sp."green giant" (a
D.communis-like new species native to southern Brazil), and D.hirtella X
D.pumila (the latter probably being a synonym of D.colombiana).
When Thomas Carow from Germany visited Brazil in 1985, he found
a D.villosa-like plant near the city of Diamantina, not too far north
from the Serra do Cipo. He called it D.sp."golden leaf" and sent me a
photo of it a few years ago. I visited Thomas early this year while on
my European trip, and finally saw this plant, which he still has in
cultivation. If it hadn't been in flower, I would've said it was a
strange plant belonging to the D.villosa-complex, but the flower scape
was mind-boggling! It clearly placed the plant somewhere in the
D.graminifolia complex, though the leaf shape told a different story.
Thomas told me he suspected it was a hybrid, since it had never
produced seeds. That sure made more sense, but what could cross with
D.graminifolia and give such a strange plant? I thought about several
possibilites, but none seemed to fit too well. There was obviously some
hybrid vigour and dominant/recessive activity affecting a few
characters. For example, though I was sure it was a D.graminifolia
cross, Thomas' plant had almost inexistent stipules, which is very
strange considering the giant ones present on D.graminifolia.
Now that I've found the D.chrysolepis subsp."glabrous" X
D.sp."tentaculata" hybrid at the Serra do Cipo, I'm almost sure I've
solved the mystery of Thomas' plant's parents. First of all, I knew that
the D.graminifolia parent had to be the golden-leaved subsp."spiralis",
which is the only D.graminifolia-complex taxon native to the Diamantina
area (where Thomas found the hybrid).
Knowing that the D.graminifolia and D.chrysolepis complexes are
more closely related to each other than to other Brazilian Drosera (a
field experience theory!), it is easy to imagine that if D.sp."tentacu-
lata" crosses with D.chrysolepis, then why not with D.graminifolia?
Concluding (yes Thomas, I'm getting to the answer now!), I believe
Thomas' plant must be D.graminifolia subsp."spiralis" X D.sp."tentacula-
ta"!!!
I'm practically convinced of this, though I did find these
suspected parents growing near each other at Diamantina last July
without any signs of hybridization. Maybe they were there and I just
didn't see them. I have found one other place (Itacambira further N from
Diamantina) where these 2 species grew together without signs of hybrids.
Yet the D.graminifolia native to this area belongs to a third subsp. I
call "nortensis", which are very similar to subsp."spiralis", but which
may not be capable of hybridizing with D.sp."tentaculata".
To be continued............
Fernando Rivadavia
Sao Paulo, Brazil