Date: Tue, 19 Aug 1997 18:00:12 +0900 From: ss66428 <ss66428@hongo.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg3162$foo@default> Subject: Brazilian Expedition part 16
To all,
I left the Chapada dos Veadeiros behind in the fog and rain and spent
the night in Brasilia. Next morning I was up and out of town way before rush
hour once again and drove first to the town of Pirenopolis, about 250km away.
Arriving in this town, one of the oldest in Goias and where Saint Hilaire
probably spent his rest hours in the early 1800's between his plant collections
in the surrounding highlands. I took one look at the town and immediately saw
that there were no good CP areas that I could reach easily, so I drove another
20km or so to the Corumba waterfall.
My first impression was so-so. The waterfall was really nice, but the
habitats around it only so-so. The first trail I took heading towards the
waterfall only gave me a worst impression. There were several good habitats by
the trail and plenty of water, but only a few U.triloba scapes.
I then took a trail to a smaller waterfall on a tributary, further
downstream along the main river. At one point I found some D.montana
var.montana right next to the trail in clayish soil. Among these I found one
specimen which appeared to be D.sp."white hritella", but considering the plants
I found later on, I'm not sure anymore what it was.
Along a small tributary stream I found D.communis, U.simulans, and more
G.filiformis. I climbed some rocks to see if some humid areas near a cliff had
any CPs, but no luck. Heading back towards the car, hoping to have more luck at
some other point of these mountains and find what should be the TYPE D.hirtella
var.hirtella and var.lutescens, I strayed into a grassy area right next to the
trail I had come along. To my surprise it was rather wet, seeping with water.
Suddenly, unexpectedly, right at my feet, there was another 'OHMYGOD'!!
And then it became a 'WHATIZIT?!?!' And then it became a 'WHATTHEHELLIZIT?!?!'
There I was, at the type location for D.h.hirtella and D.h.lutescens and
instead of finding either one or both, I find something which is like a cross
between both taxa, with characteristics of both present very clearly and
separately.
The deep purple-red color and narrow oblong-spatulate shape of the
leaves were like those of D.h.lutescens (in D.h.hirtella they are more
spatulate-cuneate and usually a reddish-green color), the scapes were
strongly ascending as in D.h.hirtella (in D.h.lutescens they have only a
shallow curve at the base of the scape) and of a yellowish color as in
D.h.lutescens (they are red or reddish in D.h.hirtella), plus the crisp simple
hairs on the scape were red as in D.h.hirtella (yellow in D.h.lutescens)!!!!!
I was facing a little genetic monster!!
This find boggled my mind so much that I knew that even though I had
planned to return to Sao Paulo as quick as possible, hopefully on the next day,
I could never bear to return to Japan with this live jigsaw puzzle unsolved in
my mind. If necessary I would have to spend another day or two exploring the
Serra dos Pirineus to find out what the hell was going on with the D.hirtella
complex!!
To be continued........ With even more live jigsaw puzzles and a commitment to
return to Goias first thing on my next trip to Brazil,
possibly the next CP frontier after the state of Minas
Gerais.
Fernando Rivadavia
Tokyo, Japan
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