Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => Travel / Places to Visit => Topic started by: Hans A. on December 30, 2009, 05:22:13 PM
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This year again it was possible to visit Chile and enjoy the wonderful landscapes and wildlife.
As nearly all European visitors I entered the country in Santiago by plane, where I spent the first day and discovered the first native species: Jubea chilensis and a kind of blackbird on a meadow next to the 'Moneda'. There I also found a beautiful flowering tree - think its origin is Australia .
Santiago is a very interesting city and for sure worth to spend some more days - but as the time was very limited we started the trip to the south the next morning.
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Thank you Hans for sharing these pics - more please!
Your blackbird is Turdus falcklandii - called ' Zorzal ' in Chile
- in English ' Austral Thrush '.
Gerd
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Looks good, Hans.
Paddy
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Lovely start Hans, looking forward to more.
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Thanks Hans - will follow this thread with interest.
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Hans, please keep us warm with more pictures from Chile.
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Super Hans !
waiting for more of course.....
I suppose you took hundreds of pictures.... not easy to do the selection... good luck ;)
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I look forward to more of your pictures in the New Year Hans, thanks for posting.
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Thanks to all for your the kind and helpfull comments.
Gerd - I see you are specialist also in chilean fauna - your comments will be very welcome in further posts :D
Fred you are right ;) - the selection is nothing but easy ::)
We left Santiago in the morning direction to Concepcion by bus.
In large areas native vegetation is replaced by foreign species. The landscapes changes while going to the south. While near Santiago often Acia caven occurs on dry habitats (sometimes together with Echinopsis chiloensis), going more to the south we crossed larger rivers, passed rice fields and finally closed forests of Eucalyptus and Pinus. Especially Eucalyptusforest tend to burn in summer but seem to be able to sprout from burnt trunks.
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Looks like Chile has braided rivers like NZ
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Really enjoying your trip, Hans ... anticipating some glorious images.
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From Concepcion I visted first mainly coastal ares in the 8. Region - like for example Quidico.
VIII - Beach Quidico kl.jpg
VIII - Seagulls + Terns.jpg
VIII - Carex spec.jpg
VIII - Cotula spec. kl.jpg
VIII - some more seagulls.jpg
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I LOVE the Carex pic Hans !
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A most promising take off Hans !!
Very anxious to see (much) more... 8)
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Really enjoying your trip, Hans ... anticipating some glorious images.
Yes, from me the same!
Sorry, no help from my side in identifying the seagulls and terns (from 'Birds of Chile') - because they are very similar to each other.
Gerd
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Hans
I may have missed it in the posting but at what time of year were you there. When I was there in January the Echinops chiloensis appeared to be in flower but were in fact covered in a type of scarlet mistletoe,I wonder did you see this?
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Thanks Fred, Luc and Gerd!
Tony, I was in Chile during the first three weeks in december. At this trip I have seen only very few cacti (the shot of Echinops chiloensis was taken from the bus) - so I was not able to see the beautiful mistletoe (Tristerix aphyllus) which grows on this Echinops - a similar species (Tristerix verticillatus) I have seen on the way to Laguna de Maule in 2008 : http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=1573.0
Here some more plant pictures near the seaside of the 8th Region
VIII - Libertia kl.jpg
VIII - Lobelia tupa + Eryngium paniculatum -kl.jpg
VIII - Alstromeria hookeri -kl.jpg
VIII - Chlorea crispa - kl.jpg
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Hans interesting I did not see the other species on the way to Maule.
That Chlorea crispa is stunning,I wish I had seen that !
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Wonderfull orchid Hans !!
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Great tour thanks Hans, how fantastic to see Alstroemeria and Chloraea in the wild!
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Tony - Trysterix verticillatus flowered in march on the way to Maule - if it had not flowered at that time I also would not have seen it.
Here another pic of Chlorea crispa - normally they were about 80cm but I found one which was about 140 cm high.
Gunnera tinctoria is sometimes offered at the road - not bad with salt and merkčn. I have told not all Gunnera tinctorias have the same good taste.
Liolaemus tenuis was a very quick photo motif - it was much more difficult to take a good pic of it than of most plants ;o)
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Why would a lizard be half yellow and half blue - cannot think of it as camouflage (had to look up the spelling of this last word - any wordsmiths to tell me its origins ( half German??))
Looks as though it would be pretty fast.
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camouflage (had to look up the spelling of this last word - any wordsmiths to tell me its origins ( half German??))
My dick and harry says.....
1917, from French: camoufler, Parisian slang, "to disguise," from Italian camuffare "to disguise," probably alt. by Fr. camouflet "puff of smoke," on the notion of "blow smoke in someone's face."
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Thanks Maggie.
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Gunnera tinctoria is sometimes offered at the road - not bad with salt and merkčn. I have told not all Gunnera tinctorias have the same good taste.
Thanks for these pictures. I was at a conference in Concepcion a few years back (just before the beginning of the digital era, hence all my pictures are on slides), and recognised some of the places (that bridge, for example). I went afterwards to Chiloe Island and I asked a guide in the national park to demonstrate how they ate the Gunnera (which I had seen in markets). I was impressed by the pleasant mild taste. Do you know how they tell good tasting from bad tasting plants? ( I presume they are collected from the wild).
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During my time at the Wuppertal Botanic Garden a Gunnera tinctoria was cutted back and a visitor asked me if I would allow him to keep some of these ' giant rhubarbs ' with him for a meal.
I replied that this was ok but it would be better to ask my chief (Erich Pasche) if he agree.
Erich Pasche told him that it might be possible that this ' rhubarb ' wasn't quite correct for the kitchen.
How wrong he was! ;D
Gerd
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:)
Also in Chile they make this mistake. I asked another local person on Chiloe Island about how they used this plant and he told me that they make a jam with it. He wrote the name for me and sent me to a market. it turned out to be Rhubarb jam....
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Sorry Stephen I do not know how the good tasting Gunneras differentiate from the less good tasting - but I think there was allways the doubt about the nomenclature of the large chilenean Gunneras - there exist regional differences between the populartions (specially the form of leaves as I could observe).
Here some more pics of the 8. th Region - the flower of this Loasa was enormous and very beautiful - Id highly appreciated. And no, I did not try if the urticating hairs of this species have the same or worse effect than Urtica. ;)
Acaena spec.
Herbertia lahue
Loasa spec.
Jovellana punctata
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Some more pics:
Acanthinodera cummingi - now I have the doubt if the beetle is very large or my wifes hands small ;)
Two native, well known shrubs in Britain: Fuchsia magellanica and Drymis winterii
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Hans,
Beautiful and interesting pics (except the horror beatle ;)) -
according its leaves the Loasa seems to be similar to Loasa tricolor .
Gerd
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Thanks Gerd,
to find this large beetle was fascinating, never have seen such a large one before.
You are right the colours are similar to Loasa tricolor but the size and appearance (and also habitat) are distinct (will post a picture later) - the flower of this one is about triple of the size of L. tricolor and the plant is growing much more upright. The large leaves are marked white - it seems more to be close to Loasa acanthifolia.
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Hans, I would love to go to Chile and see some of these wonderful plants you show by the seaside like the Carex spec. and others too Libertia, Chlorea Crispa, Loasa spec & Jovellana punctata - are any of them scented? Thanks for sharing your trip :)
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Thanks Robin,
sorry I did not check if the those plants were scented - and especially checking if Loasa is could be painful.
Here some more pics.
From coastal area of the eigth Region we went to the east (9th), the area of volcanos and Araucaria araucana. First large Araucarias we saw were Araucaria angustifolia planted on a Cementary.
On the way we some beautiful plant like the giant fern Lophosoria quadripinnata, climber Bomarea salsilla, shrubby Viola portalesia, another white Chlorea and Buddleja globosa.
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fantastic Chloraea again Hans !
But I think you use a very hard jpeg compression as your pics are lee sharp than usual...
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Thanks Fred,
Sorry for the worse quality, used different computer and different program for resizing ::) Hope this are better now. ::)
Volcano Llaima can be seen from far away - on the way we stopped at a waterfall and found some fine plants.
IX - Llaima
IX - Waterfall
IX - Hymenophyllum spec. + Luzuriaga radicans
IX -Azara serrata
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Haaaaa !
Much Much better ;) :o
and stunning flora !
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Hi Hans,
great pics!
What is all that purple in the landscape pic?
cheers
fermi
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Thanks Fred and Fermi!
That purple is Echium plantagineum, one of the many introduced and naturalized european Species.
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That purple is Echium plantagineum, one of the many introduced and naturalized european Species.
I was about to say that it reminds me of "Patterson's Curse" (or "Salvation Jane") which covers the hillsides around Australia as well! I think it's a different species of Echium but it maybe the same one!
cheers
fermi
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Seems to be the same species ::) : http://www.csiro.au/resources/ps29o.html
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A bit late Hans but what other plants were growing in the cemeteries - an interest of mine!!!
Sorry to see the dreaded Salvation Jane covering the hillsides like here. Looks pretty but when dry it is a real pest plus it crowds out other plants and is poisonous to stock.