Date: Thu, 22 May 1997 16:44:38 +0900 (JST) From: ss66428 <ss66428@hongo.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg2024$foo@default> Subject: Brazilian Expedition 2
Continuation.....
So on the second day Fabio and I started out by consulting a few people at the only gas station in Congonhas do Norte. We weren't sure where the Serra da Mangabeira was. Luckily, it was the group of mountains closest to the town (there were several other "juicy"-looking mountains, for future expedietions....) and we were given very precise instructions on how to get there. Although the locals didn't know the name of the mountains, they recognized a few of the details from the collection data I'd written down from the D.montana var.schwackei herbarium I'd seenn.
So we attempted to follow the winding and mazy dirt roads while "passing the 3 ditches, then turning to the right, going up a hill, then passing the large stand of eucalyptus trees," etc. But we were soon, obviously, very disoriented. Luckily my instincts worked well that day and I followed the right roads and arrived at the right spot. The only problem were the cattle herds we had to cross through. Luckily for me, Fabio doesn't drive so it was up to him to get out of the car and try to shoo the cattle (and mean bulls) away!!
Arriving at the foothills of the S.da Mangabeira, we found that we unfortunately could not go any further by car due to the bad conditions of the road(huge holes and a deep stream), although we could see it went all the way over and past the mountains. From below it looked like any other sandstone mountain range of Minas Gerais, with the low campo rupestre vegetation where CPs usually abound. So we got our lazy asses out of the car, put on our hats plus suntan lotion (it was a very clear day and the sun was baking away), prepared our backpacks with food, drinks, photographic equipment, other gadgets like a GPS I bought in Chicago, tupperwares to collect live plants, herbarium press, etc., and started the hike.
Right at the beginning of the trail we found lots of D.hirtella var.hirtella in flower and some D.montana. As I said my main objective there was to find D.mont.var.schwackei and since (by what I knew) the best way to tell between the D.montana varieties is to analyze the hairyness of the scapes, I quickly started searching for D.montana with scapes. I know var.tomentosa flowers mostly during the winter months, between June and September, while it appeared (from the few herbaria I'd seen) that var.schwackei flowered in Feb/March. We finally did find one D.montana with a scape, but it unfortunately turned out to be only one of the less hairy forms of var.tomentosa. No problem, we were only in the first 100m of the hike and we had already found 2 Drosera species. The S.da Mangabeira so far promised to be exceptionally rich in CPs.
Unfortunately it ended up being quite the opposite! We hiked and hiked and hiked and could find no more Drosera!! By the time we reached the 2nd crestof the S.da Mangabeira (there were several long, parallel "arms"), we had only found one or two patches each of U.laciniata, U.amethystina, and G.violacea, usually in humid sandy soil among sparse grasses. I couldn't and still can't understand why there were so few CPs in such a propicious place!
Only on the 3rd crest did our luck change. Instead of heading for a 4th crest, we decided to follow the 3rd one for a while and then start heading back. It was maybe close to 2pm and the typical summer afternoon showers had already begun. We could see many of these heavy clouds in the distance, vomiting their innards, and one or two smaller ones had already passed overhead.
The first stream we stopped at on the 3rd crest gave us new hope, although the plants found there were also present in small quantities. We found more of the purplish U.amethystina, U.laciniata, and G.violacea, and we also found the purplish U.tricolor among tall grasses by the stream, the tiny yellow U.nana in very wet open spots, and the cream-white U.neottiodes on the rocks submerged by streamwater.
Also a few D.montana were found, but no scapes, so we had no way of knowing if those beautiful blood-red rosettes belonged to var.tomentosa or var.schwackei. We collected a few anyways, in hopes that they would flower in cultivation and prove to be var.schwackei.
Var.tomentosa usually has a mix of simple and glandular hairs on their scapes, with the simple ones being more numerous towards the base and the glandular ones more numerous towards the apex. But it is extremely variable, with some specimens having nearly glabrous scapes while others may have vast numbers of simple hairs all the way to the sepals, mixing with the glandular ones. True var.schwackei supposedly have only simple hairs all over the scape and inflorescence and I had heavy suspicions that it might actually be conspecific with var.tomentosa, representing only the higher end of the scale in scape pubescence of this variable taxon.
Onwards we went, over the trailess mountains, climbing over rocks and squeezing through the low vegetation, with practically no more CPs at out feet to raise our spirits for another 1/2 hour or so. As always happens, at the precise moment when I was truly beginning to give up hope, we came upon a small streamside habitat with some Utrics and D.montana. I bent down and started looking for scapes. Fabio hung around for a few seconds and then walked a few steps further from the stream, where the soil became drier, a mix of white sand with white quartz gravel.
Suddenly I froze and my blood rushed through my veins as I heard Fabio cry out, his voice a mixture of amazement and disbelief "Ai meu Deus!" (= Oh my God!)
To be continued.......
Fernando Rivadavia
Tokyo, Japan
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