Date: Wed, 4 Jun 1997 17:39:49 +0900 (JST) From: ss66428 <ss66428@hongo.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg2178$foo@default> Subject: Brazilian Expedition 4
To all,
First of all, sorry for the delay in continuing this story. I've been
a bit busy. So where did I stop?
The next day Fabio and I decided to leave Congonhas do Norte and head
north for Diamantina. It was only the third day of our trip, but it didn't
seem like it since we'd already found so many interesting CPs. There were
still a few species we wanted to see in Congonhas do Norte (like D.sp.'stemless
chrysolepis), but considering how rare CPs had proved to be on the previous
day at the Serra da Mangabeira, we decided that our time would be better
employed in the CP-rich areas surrounding Diamantina.
Yet heavy rains during the night had flooded the town's north exit and
we were almost forced to hang around for another day (or more). We only risked
passing though the long stretch of road covered with muddy water after we saw
another car like ours pass through safely. We stopped several times along this
dirt road and found lots of CPs, including D.montana var.montana, G.filiformis,
U.simulans, U.tricolor, U.amethystina, U.subulata (of course!), and maybe
others.
About an hour later we were finally on asphalt again. We drove in many
directions and spent the whole day exploring areas west of Diamantina, stopping
whenever seemingly suitable sites for CPs were spotted. We found
D.graminifolia, D.sp."Congonhas", D.communis, D.hirtella var.hirtella,
G.violacea, G.pygmaea, G.filiformis, and several Utrics.
Almost arriving in Diamantina, we veered off to the right and after a
few hundred meters of dirt road we left the car and headed on foot to a stream
where Fabio had been to a month before with some other friends and where they'd
found D.sp."Emas" (a new species which is very widespread but which I had never
seen in the Diamantina area) and also U.reniformis (this now being the
northenmost site for this species).
Unfortunately Fabio couldn't find the correct spot, but our wanderings
had brought us to a very interesting region. Looking at Diamantina, sitting on
a long hill to the E or SE, I suddenly recognized the view. It was the same as
in the picture Thomas Carow had sent me, taken from the area where he had
found D.montana var.schwackei (what he'd called D.sp."golden leaf") 10 years
before!
We began searching for patches of white quartz gravel (the habitat
we'd seen them growing in the day before and which seemed the same as in
Thomas' pictures). We found D.graminifolia, D.montana var.montana, D.m.var.
tomentosa, D.sp."Congonhas", G.filiformis, G.pygmaea, U.purpureocaerula,
U.amethystina, and maybe other Utrics too. Two of the latter were found in a
deep water-filled hole, probably left behind by diamond hunters.
U.trichophylla's yellow flowers poked through the surface near the edges of
the pool, with its green leaves covering the soil below.
On the surface was a layer of green algae and I was suddenly surprised
to see tiny cream-white dots spread all around. I immediately thought these
belonged to U.biovularioides, the smallest of all Utrics. But on closer
analysis I noticed the flowers as well as the tiny green stolons were different
and slightly larger too. I'm not sure, but I believe it was U.olivacea.
Still searching for the quartz patches, I soon heard Fabio cry out
again: "Ai meu Deus!" This time I knew why he'd said that. I ran over and there
they were again, those beautiful golden jewels!! This time it was a small
population and unfortunately we'd just missed a few flowers (it was late in the
afternoon and they'd closed). Right next to these D.m.schwackei was a mixed
population of D.graminifolia and large D.sp."Congonhas", bringing back to my
mind the thoughts that D.m.schwackei could be a hybrid between the two. Also
present was G.pygmaea with its typical mucilage-covered leaves.
One of my main objectives in Diamantina was to search for a small green
larva I'd discovered a few years before and which lives on the leaves of
D.graminifolia, crawling around and eating the trapped insects. A green coccoon
was found on the backside of a leaf on that day. This was safely put away, in
hopes that it would hatch and that we'd be able to have someone identify
the adult.
Exausted, we headed back around sunset towards the car.
To be continued............
Fernando Rivadavia
Tokyo, Japan
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