Central Patagonia - November 2017

[Richard Green]

I am currently with an AGS group to central Patagonia led by Harry Jans, and including experts such as Martin Sheader.  After a day in Buenos Aires we flew to Esquel and have now visited Lago Vintter.

Wonderful plants seen so far (amongst many others) include the following:
Embothrium coccineum, these shrubs are coming into flower and are instantly recognisable a mile away.


Chloraea alpina, a steppe orchid which can be spotted easily from the minibus.


Oreopolus glacialis, wonderful yellow mats looking rather like flat Dionysias from a distance.


Viola columnaris, one of the rosulate violas growing in the sand dunes by Lago Vintter.


Lago Vintter itself with Andes behind.


More postings when time and internet connections allow.

[Richard Green]

Today we visited the La Hoya ski area near Esquel.  Here we found plenty more floral goodies.  Hope you like them.

Ourisia coccinea


Oxalis adenophylla


Oxalis erythrorhiza


Ranunculus semiverticillatus


Viola sacculus

[fermi de Sousa]

Wonderful pics, Richard! Those oxalis are amazing
Looking forward to more - may you continue to get good internet connections!
cheers
fermi

[Richard Green]

I am glad you are enjoying the show Fermi.  I have looked at such pictures posted by other forumists for many years, and I can scarcely believe that these ones are now actually mine.  The flora here is just so completely different from anything I have ever seen before.  A serious forest fire meant that we had to rearrange our first couple of days accommodation from a remote forest lodge into Esquel, but at least we have some internet here in the town.  I shall post more pics soon.

[brianw]

Great to see those Oxalis "cushions" when in the UK they are often lax open floppy plants. How do we achieve this here? Light levels, nutrition, wind?

[David Nicholson]

Many thanks Richard, keep 'em going.

[Richard Green]

To answer Brian's point, it may help to know that the Oxalis are growing at elevation somewhere about 1800 metres, and there is very little cloud so UV and light are far higher.  We cannot match that in the UK.

OK David, here we go with some more.  We are just back from an 160 mile (256km) round trip eastwards into the semi-desert steppe, so here are a few of the plants we encountered at several roadside stops in the baking heat. Most are only growable with difficulty (if at all) in the UK.

Anarthrophyllum strigulipetalum, the northern bicoloured species is orange/yellow, there is a red species further south.


Junellia tridactylites, this is the typical form with flowers in shades of white/purple/pink but we have also seen it in yellow/cream.


Maihueniopsis darwinii, cactus with lovely large yellow/orange flowers.


Rhodophiala mendocina, has large onion sized bulbs and the leaves die down at or before flowering time.


Corynabutilon bicolor, woody shrub in Malvaceae.  Related to the genus Abutilon with cream and purple striped flowers.

[Ian Y]

Mountains, plants and sunshine are you having a good time!
Still better Richard is that you are sharing image here  on the forum so we can enjoy some of these wonders from cold dark Aberdeen.
Thank you.

[Richard Green]

Yes, Ian.  The quality of pictures is much better here on the Forum.  Before going abroad I always search our Forum for useful information, and I hope these pictures will help others, as well as lightening our dreary northern hemisphere December for you.  I have taken my small laptop with me and am backing my pictures up onto computer from memory card every evening.  It does not take much more effort to choose a few to share with you all and I wish more Forumists would do this, and use this excellent resource to share photos with us all.

I shall be happy to answer questions from anyone on what we have seen.

We visited Rifugio Piltriquitron near El Bolson today, a 220 mile round trip (thankfully on asphalt roads), with a steep 500m ascent from the carpark to what looks initially like a flat desolate area with snow patches.  However, a large number of interesting plants do grow here.

Calceolaria borsinii is a nice small plant growing in groups on flat ground, or slopes on the way up through the open Nothofagus forest.


Tristagma nivale - this was common on the mountain between 1500m and 1700m and comes in various colour shades from greenish through to dark maroon.


Tristagma circinatum preferred growing on slopes rather than on flat ground.  This was one of the few examples which was undamaged by frost.


Viola sacculus - these were better plants than seem further south at La Hoya yesterday, more robust and with more rosettes and flowers per rosette.  It was also interesting to contrast the conditions with these better plants growing in cool areas close to lying snow whereas yesterday's smaller plants were in hotter dryer conditions.


Habitat for Viola sacculus and Tristagma circinatum at 1700m with party members standing in the areas where the plants are growing.

[Maggi Young]

In cultivation, Calceolaria  can be a martyr to aphid attack - even to the point of  being indicator species for an infestation -   does this seem to be a problem in their native habitat - or are the winds in these open areas so strong that aphids cannot fly  there to any great extent ? 

[Ian Y]

I love those Tristagmas Richard especially that wee beauty - Tristagma circinatum.

[Matt T]

Glorious pics! The plants are wonderful and Richard's photos really do them justice.

[Richard Green]

Glad you are enjoying these.  Maggi, I haven't seen any evidence of aphids here, probably a problem for more temperate climates, as most of them seem to grow in warmer, drier conditions than Aberdeen.

Today I am showing a few plants from the wetter western foothills of the Andes, known as the Valdivian rainforest.

Gavilea odoratissima is an orchid of woodland, and we have seen it in a couple of different places so far:


Oenothera magellanica - probably - because there are several similar species:


Azara lanceolata, found growing in the forest, but also very happy at RBGE Benmore Garden in Scotland.


Fitzroya cupressoides, the "Alerce" or big cypress which was logged out almost completely last century, and now heavily protected in the Parque Nacional Los Alerces.


Codonorchis lessonii is a dainty orchid of woodland.

[Ian Y]

What a magnificent specimen of Fitzroya cupressoides, we have one growing in our front garden and Maggi keeps asking me why I have to prune it every year!
I wish we had the space to allow it to grow and the time to live to see it reach such a stately size as the one Richard shows here.

[Richard Green]

Ian, this was not the biggest tree we saw, but it was the biggest one I could fit in the viewfinder.  I expect that Aberdeen will be a very different place a thousand years from now when yours will be the same age as the one in the photo - as long as nobody prunes it or lops it any more!

Maggi, Martin Sheader reports that aphids are scarcely ever a problem on Calceolaria here.

We drove north to Bariloche today stopping regularly to view steppe plants.  Of course we also stopped at the famous icecream shop in El Bolson to partake of large tubs of muti-flavoured sustenance!  Here are a few offerings:

Adesmia corymbosa formed nice clumps with green/silver leaves and nice flowers.  This picture has beetles and flower damage just to show Maggi that not everything is perfect here!


Junellia micrantha, forming large flat mats only a coupe of cm high, some are around one metre across with some very old woody stems in the middle, with outer ends rooting as they touch the ground.


Junellia aff. tridactylites - an assemblage of sprigs, showing various flower types and colour variations.  The colour fades from yellow through brown and purple as the flowers age.


Scutellaria mummularifolia, was growing prostrate on the ground.


Fabiana imbricata looks like broom, but is from the Solanaceae family surprisingly.  It formed nice bushes with white, cream, or pale purple flowers.  I am told that it is hardy in the UK.