POSTCARD from Mexico N°10

(By Fernando Rivadavia,  february 28th , 2004) 

 An ehlersiae-ish Weekend

   This past weekend I drove nearly 1000km and passed through 6 different states: D.F., México, Hidalgo, Querétaro, Guanajuato, and Michoacan. Saturday was devoted to CPs while Sunday was spent doing regular touristy stuff. Once again I left on Saturday before dawn and arrived about an hour and a half later at my first destination, not long after sunrise. This was an area just SE of a town called Ixmiquilpan in Hidalgo state, the only known place in that state where P.ehlersiae has been collected.

          Unfortunately for me, the herbarium info I had did not specify in what sort of habitat P.ehlersiae had been found, only that it was near a road. I think I found the right area, a dry hilly landscape, so now all I had to do was find a N-facing hillside or valley. I walked around for maybe an hour, exploring a few possible habitats. Unfortunately all I encountered were dozens of different forms of prickly plants! One especially nasty species of cactus I encountered has small segments that act like burs, with fish hook-like spines that stick to your clothes and dig deep into your skin. Very difficult to remove and it hurts like hell!! Well, if the trip to San Luis Potosi last November had taught me anything, it was that all these prickly plants were a good indication that I was probably in the right kind of habitat to find P.ehlersiae.

            Arriving at Ixmiquilpan, I had a hard time finding my way through the town looking for the road to Tolantongo. No signs and it must’ve been market day or something, considering how busy it was. I wanted to go to Tolantongo in hopes of finding a mysterious species mentioned in Eric’s site, a plant discovered in cultivation by Laurent Lengendre in Australia. It’s supposedly similar to P.ehlersiae and has blood red flowers! A very interesting find, if true... The only problem is that, as usual, the name of the place associated with the plant was probably wrong and Eric interpreted it as Tolantongo.

            So with high hopes, I drove along dirt roads in very dry hilly terrain, with barely any vegetation at all. A turn in the road brought me around a mountain and opened up a view of a very deep valley. The road zigzagged down into the valley to a touristy spot with caves and thermal baths which are what make the area famous. But I was more interested in some calcareous cliffs near the road.... Right off I spotted on the cliffs Vriesia-like bromeliads, a strange sight in such a dry area. I whipped out my GPS and sure enough the cliff was N-facing. This place was almost EXACTLY like the P.mirandae site I’d found in Oaxaca in December!!

     I parked the car near a curve, as close to the cliffs as possible, and began hiking uphill through dry bushy vegetation. Reaching the walls, I began scanning it for flowers. I didn’t know what to expect, if there were any Pings at all. Of course I was hoping to see some blood-red flowers, maybe a new species... But there was nothing.

            I continued exploring the cliffs, circling around columns of stone, pushing my way through the bushes. I clambered up on some rocks, trying to reach a higher part of the wall. And suddenly there it was, a Ping flower jutting out from the middle of a small island of bromeliads, cacti, and others. Then another nearby, higher up a few more. Sadly though, they were not blood-red in color, but a pink-lilac, similar to most Drosera flowers I’m used to seeing in Brazil.

            It was P.ehlersiae ! Or was it P.esseriana? After all, what are the differences between these 2 taxa ? Are they good species, or varieties of the same species? Or maybe they represent extremes of a continuum? According to Zamudio, the only consistent differences between both taxa are in the flowers : the lower lip of P.ehlersiae corolla are smooth while those of P.esseriana have a palate in the shape of two parallel ridges colored in yellow and covered with glandular-pubescent hairs. All other claimed differences were based on clones in cultivation, which do not represent the variability seen in nature."

            It seems that there are many questions surrounding P.esseriana and P.ehlersiae that can probably only be answered with a lot of fieldwork and some genetic analysis. 

            Interestingly, as far as I know, these plants I found in Tolantongo represent only the 2^nd collection ever of P.ehlersiae for the state of Hidalgo and the 1^st cliffside habitat for this species. Now all we need are some cliff climbing CPers to explore the mountains of Mexico! :):)

      Moving on from Tolantongo, I headed towards a P.ehlersiae site in Queretaro state I'd visited before, but had not found a single plant. As soon as I arrived this time, I immediately recognized that the area I'd explored previously was NOT a probable Pinguicula habitat - thanks to my accumulated experience Pinguicula hunting over the past months. Furthermore, I didn't have a GPS on my previous visit and I could now see that I'd actually explored a W to NW-facing side of the mountain.

            As I walked to the N face, I noticed this side of the mountain was very steep even with some cliffs. BINGO! Ping alarms rang in my head, as I looked at the rocky slope with sparse short pine trees. How hadn’t I seen this place before??? Although it was still early in the afternoon, that whole N face was completely in shade, because of its steepness. Perfect for Pinguicula !

            I began exploring the top part of the mountain, slowly working my way partway down. What a fantastic hike that was! The hillside was littered with dozens of flowering P.ehlersiae !! And there were far more plants than there were flowers. They mostly grew in clusters in humid soil among the rocks, often partially covered in pine needles. I also found many plants in islands of vegetation on a cliff, similar to what I’d seen at Tolantongo, with plants often growing practically without soil just sort of resting on dead leaves of other plants. The more exposed rosettes, like at Tolantongo, acquired a wine-red shade on the upper surface of the succulent leaves.

                   The most amazing thing about this P.ehlersiae site, a fact described by Zamudio previously, is the incredible variability in flower shape and size. They range from large dark pink flowers with rounded overlapping petal lobes to medium-sized pink-lilac flowers with nearly rectangular lobes, to small lilac flowers with very narrow lobes. In fact the smallest of the flowers were borne on short scapes and weren’t even completely open, reminding me of cleistogamous Utric flowers. And the smaller the flower, the further out jutted the nearly black stigmatic column. Truly amazing variation!

            And there were lots of P.moranensis alongside P.ehlersiae too! These were tucked away into compact winter rosettes with only the leaf tips visible at soil level. No flowers were found, which probably explains why I also saw no hybrids with P.ehlersiae. They probably flower at opposite times of year, P.ehlersiae being a winter-spring bloomer and P.moranensis a summer-autumn bloomer (at least this local form of P.moranensis).

            I spent several hours at this location, exploring the mountainside and studying the amazing variations in P.ehlersiae flowers. A nice wrap-up for the day. After about 13h on the road, I was finally found a place to hibernate in San Juan del Rio. On Sunday I saw many interesting habitats which could’ve been hiding Ping winter hibernacula buried in the soil. But my objective was non-CP, believe it or not. I went to Michoacan state to fulfill a childhood dream. I wanted to see with my own eyes something I had seen dozens of times on TV, in pictures, and in books.

            Every winter, in pine forests of a few selected mountains, millions of migratory monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) arrive from all over N.America to hibernate in massive colonies, completely covering the trees. It’s something unique, that you can’t find anywhere else in the world, certainly an amazing sight and unforgettable experience.

            I visited one of these monarch butterfly sanctuaries called Sierra Chincua. As is common here in Mexico at any tourist attraction, you 1^st pay an entrance fee for your car. Then there are kids (or sometimes adults) who charge you to “look after” you car at the parking lot (in this case, isolated in the middle of the forest – are they in danger of being stolen by bears??). Then you pay an entrance fee to the actual attraction. And finally, the guides will ask for a tip at the end of the tour! The most extreme case of this was in Acapulco, when I went to see the cliff divers. All the above fees were charged, the difference being that the actual divers were standing side-by-side on the stairs to the parking lot, blocking the exit with their huge exposed torsos while “kindly asking” for tips...

            Anyways, it was a long hike from the parking lot to where the butterflies thronged, around 3-4km, with lots of up and downhill. At ~3000m altitude it was a very tiring hike, even though I am (or should be!) accustomed to the high altitudes. So if you’re not panting too much, you might actually enjoy the pine forests along the way. I had no idea the monarchs were so far away and as I hiked along the trail, I kept expecting to see them at every turn.

            Finally, I began spotting a few broken bits of red wings on the ground, then a few dead butterflies, a few live ones, some flying by, a few small groups hanging in bunches from branches like large red fruit, and finally the actual spot.... ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! The monarchs literally cover tree trunks and branches, as well as carpetting the forest floor with dead butterflies. And thousands of them flutter all about, even mistaking you once in a while for a tree, landing on your head or shoulders.

            The most amazing part about all this is that these butterflies arrive around October-November, hibernate all winter, breed in spring, the females fly N again to the SE USA, lay eggs, a new generation develops, spreads, breeds, and only the following generation returns to the exact places where their GRANDPARENTS hibernated 2 years before! How could they possibly know where to go?!?! And what about the alternating lineages (one in odd the other in even years) which never meet their relatives, but manage to hibernate on the same trees every winter. It’s really bizarre, one of the big mysteries of nature.

            Unwittingly, having arrived at the monarch sanctuary early in the morning proved to be extremely fortunate for 2 reasons. 1^st, I got there before the mobs of tourists from Mexico City did (on my way back to the car, I was impressed by the huge numbers of people passing by, heading towards the butterflies!). 2^nd, I arrived at the patch of butterfly-covered trees before any of the guides did. So for about half an hour I walked around freely, taking great shots from incredible angles.... until a guide arrived on the scene and told me I was on forbidden ground, that I should be sitting on a grassy patch uphill, watching from a distance – Ooops! Oh well, at least I got some nice pics!  :):)

Take Care,  

Fernando Rivadavia