Date: Wed, 21 May 1997 17:57:09 +0900 (JST) From: ss66428 <ss66428@hongo.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg2008$foo@default> Subject: Brazilian Expedition
To all,
I'll try to be brief, although that's something difficult for me. I spent 6 weeks in Brazil, alternating a week with family and friends with 2 trips to see CPs. I first spent 2 weeks going around the state of Minas Gerais (Eastern Brazil) and then 1 week in Goias and the Federal District (Central Brazil), travelling a total of 7000km by car.
Before going to Brazil though, I was in the USA for 10 days. I first visited fellow CPers and friends Ed Read, Ivan Snyder, and Leo Song, all of whom I can't begin to thank for their time and hospitality. We had a great time together and once again it was all too fast and was quickly over. One of the highlights from my stay in L.A. was that I finally saw the series "The Secret Life of Plants", which was endlessly praised by numerous people on this listserv when it came out, leaving many of us drooling and wondering what could be so special about it. Now I believe no flattery is sufficient for it! Truly an amazing program!
In Chicago I was overwhelmed with the museums, especially the Field Museum, where I intended to spend a whole day studying herbarium specimens of CPs, but ended up having only a few hours, since I spent almost the whole day going around the museum's endless and wonderful exibits. Unfortunately, almost all the South American Drosera herbaria (which is what I most wanted to see) were on loan to a taxonomist in Panama. In fact they had been on loan for the past 12 years, I believe, and apparently had been forgotten there.
Anyways, in Brazil I went to several new places, as well as otehr places I had already been to in the past to explore for CPs. It is always surprising to see that no matter how many times I visit a place, I can always turn up new and interesting CPs. Because I am not living in Brazil anymore, this trip had to be very well planned, so that I could gather all the data I need. Who know's when I'll be able to go back there again?! So I had to organize a schedule based on the short time I had, which species I needed to see, and where would be the most convenient places to see them (closest X abundance of CPs species).
One of the plants I most wanted to see on this trip was a Drosera found by Thomas Carow (Hi Tom!) near the town of Diamantina in Minas Gerais state, when he visited Brazil 10 years ago. I had seen pictures he took and even a live specimen in his collection in Germany, but its identity was still pretty much a mystery, although I suspected it was a hybrid between D.graminifolia and a new speciews similar to D.montana. Unfortunately, Thomas couldn't remember the exact location of the plant, but luckily he did take a picture of Diamantina as seen from the area where he collected this plant. I asked Thomas for a copy of this picture, in the hopes that it would lead me to what he called D.sp."Golden Leaf".
I decided that it would be best to make 2 trips while I was in Brazil. The first would be to Minas Gerais state and would last around 2 weeks, during which I would hop around from one mountains range to another, spending only a few days at each. The second would be to the state of Goias, and although it was farther away, this trip would have to last less than 2 weeks. My main oblective in Goias was the Chapada dos Veadeiros Nat.Park, where I'd been to twice in the past but felt there was still much to be explored. If I had time, there were many otehr interesting places to go to in Goias.
The trip to Minas Gerais started out in late February with a one day stop at the Serra do Cipo Nat.Park, a place I've visited so many times that I've lost count already. Together with me was my good friend Fabio Pinheiro. He had also been there before, but never with me, so I showed him some sites I knew and vice-versa.
We saw numerous species of Drosera, Utrics, and Genlisea, but I won't list these for lack of space! I'll just mention a few highlights. One of the first places we stopped at was to see a small population of a possible hybrid between D.chysolepis and a new species similar to D.montana. Fabio had found this site last year and because the plants grew alone there, without either of the 2 possible parents or any other Drosera nearby, we are now wondering it it truly is a hybrid or if it is a new species. The only other place I've seen these plants was at a site not far away where the two possible parents grow together. In fact, at this latter site it was interesting to observe that all the D.chrysolepis had been burnt a few months previously during the last winter dry season, and there were very few signs of recovery.
Another interesting stop was at the site where Joe Mullins (Hi Joe!) and I (or actually Joe himself) found a large new Genlisea species similar to G.uncinata, which is only found several hundred km further north in the state of Bahia. It was great to see these beautiful plants again and although we tried very hard, by the time I arrived back home 2 weeks later, all the scapes had broken on the plants we'd collected.
My strongest memory from that day at the Serra do Cipo was a stop at a large site of D.chrysolepis, the only large site I know on the Serra do Cipo of this rare species. We were walking among the tall grasses on which this long-stemmed species leans on for support, with the old leaves wrapping themselves around the grass blades as they shrivel up, examining small clonal clumps of plants spread around on that hillside. Although it was not the flowering season (winter is), we did find one clonal group with flowers.
Usually the taller specimens of D.chryolepis have twisted stems, from having fallen over once or more in result of their weight, the perfectly erect stems usually being only present on smaller plants. Yet all of a sudden I saw one beautifully large plant rising above the grasses and sparkling in the sunlight, with a very erect stem. It was especially conspicuous since all no other plants were tall enough to rise above the grasses. In measuring the stem with a ruler, I was shocked to see that this was the longest D.chrysolepis I had ever seen either in the wild or in herbaria! The stem was 46cm long, with the leaves briging the total height to 53cm!! Amazing!
And then right next to this plant I found the thickest clump of D.chrysolepis I had ever seen. There were more or less 30 semi-prostrate stems fastened to each other by the dead leaves. Around 1/2 of these were dead, but some of the live stems had one or more growing tips. Among these I found one especially long, twisted stem, which when stretched out ended up beating its neighbor's record from a few minutes before, with a stem length of 46.5cm! An old scape found on that plant brought the total length of the plant to 62cm!!! I was aghast!
The following day we headed out towards a small town called Congonhas do Norte, not far north from the Serra do Cipo. Well, it wouldn't be far if the condition of the tiny dirt roads we had to take had been a little better. And with the summer rains, it was especially muddy too. I had never been to this area and my main objective there was to hunt down D.montana var.schwackei. This and D.intermedia were the only 2 known Drosera taxa native to Brazil south of the Amazon Basin which I still hadn't seen. Considering how complicated the D.montana complex is, it was vital that I find D.m.schwackei to study it. I had only seen herbarium specimens of this taxon from the Serra do Cipo and from the Serra da Mangabeira, which is near Cong.do Norte. Since I had never found it at the S.do Cipo (which is too big), I decided to try the S.da Mangabeira, where it might be more abundant.
To be continued.....
Fernando Rivadavia
Tokyo, Japan
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