Date: Fri, 07 May 1999 18:26:49 PDT From: "Fernando Rivadavia Lopes" <fe_rivadavia@hotmail.com> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg1579$foo@default> Subject: I'm Back!!
Greetings to all!
I returned yesterday from yet another CP trip, this time to central
Brazil. What can I say, it was a complete success!! I found over 40 CP taxa
and still need to identify all the Utrics. Remember what I wrote just before
leaving?
>Hopefully I'll stumble into a few more new Drosera taxa, as well as some of
>those rare Utrics I only know from the books, such as >
>U.huntii, U.myriocista, U.oliveriana, and U.meyeri.
Well, I didn't find any Drosera I'd never seen before, except for a
new natural hybrid (see below), but I did find a new Genlisea species and as
for the above-mentioned Utrics, I found ALL OF THEM! I'd written the above
names mostly out of wishful thinking, hoping to see them all, but expecting
to find one or two, maybe none, but never all of them. And I even found one
species which I hadn't even dared list among the above: U.guyanensis!
I'll send a summary of this latest trip of mine to the listserv when
i get the time. I still have to organize all the herbarium, plants, photos,
etc. which are a bit more urgent. I'll probably have to send it in chapters
again as I write them. This will be called "The 'Veredas' Expedition" --
I'll explain the meaning later.
But just to give you all a taste of what saw, here are some
highlights:
- I drove over 4000km (maybe close to 5000, I'll check) through 6 states
in 16 days.
- Saw loads of animals including, macaws, toucans, rhea (with around 80 in a
single day!), giant anteaters (including a face-to-snout encounter with a
really tame one), deer, and others, but luckily no snakes!
- I believe I solved the taxonomy of the D.hirtella-complex: 4 taxa,
including one of possible hybrid origin (D.hirtella var.hirtella X
D.h.var.lutescens). Plus a hybrid: D.h.var.lutescens X D.communis. For the
first time I have a clear map of the distributions of D.h.var.hirtella and
var.lutescens.
- Collected several D.communis from different areas and different forms,
which should help solve many doubts regarding this complex. Among these was
D.sp."communis green-giant" a few hundred km away from the next nearest site
and many collections of D.sp."communis flat-red".
- Found large numbers of D.sessilifolia for the first time, at one of the
most beautiful CP sites I've ever visited, growing larger than I've ever
seen it (alive or in herbarium), together with large numbers of the
beautiful golden-yellow flowered form of U.amethystina and extensive mats of
the cream-white flowered U.oliveriana on smooth wet rocks.
- Walked down memory lane and revisited the original D.sp."Emas" site at the
Emas National Park, where I found my first new species of Drosera in 1991.
- Photographed what may be the first report of a Drosera trapping a frog!
(Anyone ever hear of this before? I sure hadn't!)
- I FOUND G.GUIANENSIS!! Only a few collections were known of this giant
species south of the Amazon Basin. A new site is now known in Minas Gerais
state.
- Discovered what I believe is a new species of Genlisea resembling a
hypothetical cross between G.repens and G.filiformis.
- Discovered that U.huntii is more widespread and common than previously
believed -- and it has thick mucilage like G.aurea!
- Discovered sweetly-scented Utricularia.
- Rediscovered the rare and beautiful pygmy jewel, U.costata.
- Discovered 3 new sites of the smallest of all Utrics, said to be the
smallest angiosperm in weight: U.biovulariodes. This DOUBLES the number of
known locations for this species.
- Waded deep into a muddy lagoon to collect the magnificent U.myriocista, a
larger version of the already beautiful U.cucullata (which I saw tons of,
more than I'd ever seen on all previous trips together).
- And finally, I donated liters of blood to all sorts of blood-sucking bugs!
More later and best wishes to all,
Fernando Rivadavia
Sao Paulo, Brazil
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