POSTCARD from Mexico N°14

(By Fernando Rivadavia, April 3 to 12, 2004) 

A TRIP THROUGH CHIAPAS & OAXACA

PART 5 :  (last part)

            On day 8 of our trip, we left Oaxaca City heading NW for a little over 100km and then SW for a little over 50km, visiting two really nice colonial churches along the way in the towns of Teposcolula and Yanhuitlan. Our first CP goal of the day was P.conzattii, which Ed & I had 1^st tried to find in November without success and I had later been able to uncover in December – in full flower too! We were hoping they would still be in flower...

            After driving the bumpy 30km or so along the dirt road towards Santiago Nuyoo, I stopped the car and showed Ed just how close we’d come to discovering P.conzattii in November. We stood only about 20m away from the largest population, but I guess the afternoon twilight hid them from us and maybe they were flowerless. Sadly, by April all P.conzattii had finished flowering, the habitat was very dry, and there were only small compact winter rosettes to show Ed, Helen, and Joe. A few summer leaves were beginning to poke out from the winter rosettes. Supposedly the summer leaves of plants in cultivation have reached 10-12cm in length.

            There wasn’t much to see at the P.conzattii site, so we didn’t hang around long. We moved on to the next goal of the day, what was probably the 2^nd Ping we most looked forward to seeing on that whole trip (after P.laueana). In November Ed & I had climbed a mountain just above Santa Maria Yucuhiti (a village right next to Santiago Nuyoo) and found a wall covered with hundreds of winter rosettes growing on curtain-like stalactites (see pictures in postcard 5). We were very anxious to see what those rosettes would turn out to be (that is, IF they were in flower). Our suspicion was that it was not just another P.moranensis, but hopefully a red-flowered species…

            Decades ago, Alfred Lau had supposedly found 3 Pings on this mountain next to Yucuhiti: a dark-pink flowered P.moranensis, a species with red flowers like P.laueana, and a white flowered Ping. We had more time to spare on this trip and wanted to explore the whole mountain, hoping to find all 3 species. But what we were really hoping for was to see those stalactites covered with red flowers!

            It was probably around noon when we got out of the car and began climbing, and the sun was really hot. The vegetation was also very dry, which turned out for the best since it was much easier to reach the stalactite wall. As usual, in suspenseful moments like these, I get an adrenaline rush and sprint ahead forgetting fatigue and annoyances like prickly vegetation. Before I knew it, I was at the wall and the first deception was that it wasn’t covered with flowers. The second deception was that although there were some flowers, these were not red. Arising from the compact winter rosettes, borne on very short scapes, were dark-pink flowers with long spurs colored a creamy lime-green. It was P.moranensis and not a new P.laueana site nor a new species with red flowers. I didn’t even shout out to everyone else, I just waited for them to arrive and see for themselves…

A cliff near Santa Maria Yucuhiti, habitat of a population of P. moranensis.  Photo : Joe Mullins	A wall covered with hundreds of winter rosettes growing on curtain-like stalactites.  Photo : Ed. Read.
Winter rosettes of Pinguicula moranensis growing on curtain-like stalactites.  Photo : Ed. Read.	Fernando psoing clsoe to hundreds of winter rosettes of P. moranensis.  Photo : Ed. Read.
P. moranensis from Santa Maria Yucuhiti.  Photo : F.Rivadavia	Fernando Rivadavia posing close to winter rosette of P. moranensis from Santa Maria Yucuhiti.  Photo : F.Rivadavia
P. moranensis from Santa Maria Yucuhiti, flowering from the winter rosette.  Photo : Ed. Read	The bright flower of P. moranensis from Santa Maria Yucuhiti.  Photo : Ed. Read
Impressive collection of winter rosettes of P. moranensis from Santa Maria Yucuhiti with young sumer leaves.  Photo : F.Rivadavia	P. moranensis from Santa Maria Yucuhiti, flowering from the winter rosette.  Photo : F.Rivadavia
Impressive collection of winter rosettes of P. moranensis from Santa Maria Yucuhiti.  Photo : F.Rivadavia	P. moranensis from Santa Maria Yucuhiti, flowering from the winter rosette.  Photo : F.Rivadavia
P. moranensis from Santa Maria Yucuhiti, flowering from the winter rosette.  Photo : F.Rivadavia	Collection of flowers from the P. moranensis from Santa Maria Yucuhiti Photo : F.Rivadavia

            Although it was a bit of an anticlimax, we nonetheless enjoyed the site. It was actually a beautiful form of P.moranensis in a fantastic habitat. Yeah, yeah, all very nice but… but it would’ve been soooooooo much better to have found red flowers! Yet we still had hopes. This was only one rock wall on what was a big mountain and we still had several hours of daylight. So off we went, up the mountain, the trails becoming narrower the higher we climbed, sometimes disappearing altogether. We circled the mountain completely, going in a spiral to the top by one side, and then back down by the other. This way, we hoped to cover different altitudes as well as different habitats facing in all directions (N, S, E, and W). But all we found were two small populations of what appeared to be more P.moranensis, both growing semi-shaded by trees on rocks near the trail. Only winter rosettes were found and one especially large plant had a young flower bud that was entirely dark purple in color. But absolutely no signs of Pings with either white or red flowers... Could Alfred Lau have gotten his plants & locations mixed up? Or were we just unlucky on that mountain?

            We climbed back down to the car, sweaty and tired, and before leaving we had a few cold drinks at a bar of sorts – it was a hot day! On our way out, we passed by a really interesting area that Ed and I had seen in November, but hadn’t stopped to explore. The road crosses a labyrinth of ragged limestone pillars and crests. We took a short walk through this area and sure enough found what appeared to be P.moranensis winter rosettes growing with mosses on the rocks. By the time we wrapped things up there, it was already getting dark and once again I had to drive back along that terrible dirt road at night (a few dozen km on dirt and a few more on asphalt before reaching the town of Tlaxiaco where we spent the night).

            Day 9 was our last and we still had many Pings to see. We began by driving ~50km SW towards the village of Putla de Guerrero, to try and find the elusive P.greenwoodii. I had already tried to find this species in December (see postcard 7), after long discussions with Ed about the probable location of the one and only collection ever made. Thanks to Ed’s talks with the collector, Mr.Greenwood, before he died, we at least knew that contrary to what had been published the species had been found on the road to Zacatepec (and not Iacatepec). So it was only a matter of finding one from where a road led to the coast, passing at ~1500m altitude at ~30km from the ocean. Easier said than done…

            In December I’d explored the only road that matched these criteria and apparently something was very wrong with the location data since ~1500m was over 100km from the coast. Although I didn’t find P.greenwoodii, it was a plant worth spending a little more time hunting down. After all, nobody has ever seen it again since Mr.Greenwood collected it in 1987! Not having found any other Zacatepecs near the coast on our maps, we decided to give this site another try.          

            In December I’d found an interesting cliff by the road at ~1500m, but wasn’t able to explore it well. I drove back to this cliff on day 9 of our trip and we spent over an hour hiking around the base of the cliff, following a rocky streambed. However it was very difficult and the going was slow because there were no trails, the vegetation was very thick & prickly, plus the boulders pretty large and difficult to get around and over. We didn’t go very far. Sadly, we didn’t find any Pings nor suitable habitats. Maybe it wasn’t the right place after all, but just to be sure, we drove a little more up & down the road. Finally, we gave up. P.greenwoodii is one mystery that will remain unsolved for now…

            Back up the road we went for about 100km N, stopping briefly at a P.moranensis site Ed and I had found in November near Juxtlahuaca (only winter rosettes, no flowers this time), before stopping for an hour or so at the Laguna Encantada, type location of P.medusina. When Ed & I were there in November we’d seen lots of plants growing on the gypsum hillside with the typical plantlets sprouting from the leaf tips (see postcard 5). We were hoping to find some early flowers in April, but no such luck. If we hadn’t seen the plants in November, we would’ve never found the stringy dead leaf remains in April. It was all too dry. We dug up a bulb and there were no signs of spring growth yet.

	More on P. medusina and in wild with postcard N°5 from Fernando Rivadavia.

            Another ~30km further N and we arrived at the site near the town of Tonala where Ed and I discovered a new annual species in November, probably the smallest of all Ping species (see postcard 5). There was no sign of this plant, but we didn’t expect any. What we were hoping for were early flowers of the P.heterophylla / medusina which we’d also found at that site. But no luck here either. The good news is that these plants have flowered in cultivation. While plants from Laguna encantada continue to produce plants from the leaf tips while those from Tonala do not, the flower shapes are not in agreement with the differences drawn for P.medusina in the original publication, in fact they even look reversed! If the production of plants on the leaf tips is the only difference that stands between P.heterophylla and P.medusina, I think the latter is probably not a good species after all…

            Only a few km past Tonala, we passed a small canyon at ~1350m altitude that had caught Ed’s and my attention in November. We stopped to take a few pictures and realized there was a walkway along one of the walls of the gorge. Going down to explore, a sign announced it was El Boqueron canyon. The walkway led to a small damn a few km upstream and we ended up spending a few hours at this site – not only because it was a beautiful place, a pleasant walk, and even a good swim for Joe & Helen, but because we unexpectedly found Pings!!

            There were a few spots along the walkway where the canyon walls dripped with water. These were densely covered with flowering summer rosettes of what some people call P.rectifolia, while others consider it just another form of P.moranensis. It was magnificent! The flowers were very variable, but mostly with narrow lobes and heavily-veined. The overall color varied from a light-lilac to a dark purple-pink, often with darker veins. There was usually a white patch at the base of the lower lip containing a smaller yellowish patch. We even found a pure white flower! What a lovely detour it turned out to be.

            Leaving this site, we continued driving N towards Tehuacan, taking a detour E in order to attempt one last Ping hunt. I wanted to stop at the site where I’d rediscovered P.mirandae in December (see postcard 7). We got a little distracted again, while driving up a small road through a very interesting area. There was a gorge below the road, but after a few frustrated attempts to climb down and time pressing, we decided to move on.

            We only arrived at the P.mirandae site past sunset. I dropped Ed and Joe off, pointed up the mountainside to where I’d found the plants, and drove off with Helen to do some cactus spotting further down the road. I’d already risked my neck twice at this site, slipping over the loose rubble and climbing the limestone cliff to see P.mirandae. I sure didn’t want to go there again, much less in the twilight! So I gave Ed & Joe half an hour or so while I went to show Helen some interesting views of cactus-covered landscapes. Well Ed & Joe ended up just sitting it out, having quickly come to the conclusion that it was just too crazy a climb. I couldn’t agree more!!!

            By the time we picked up Ed & Joe it was dark already and we still had ~300km between us and Mexico City. But we had NOOOOO intention of going there just yet. It was Sunday night, last day of a national week-long holliday. The highways leading into Mexico City would be PACKED and we’d take HOURS to get past the tolls. In fact just outside Tehuacan we did spend an hour at a toll line. We had absolutely no plans of spending that night inside the car, so we pulled into Tehuacan, had our “last supper”, and got ourselves a nice hotel to compensate for all the crappy ones we’d stayed in along that trip! This way we had a nice rest and missed out on all the traffic.

              And thus ended my last trip in Mexico before heading back to Brazil. I’d dreamed for years of visiting Mexico to see Pings in the wild, so the opportunity to actually live there was a dream-come-true. Looking back, it’s even hard to believe it all happened. I was offered to move there in late June 2003 and was already in Mexico City in early September! It was all so quick and I knew very little Ping taxonomy, so I had to go through a crash course.

            Fortunately there was plenty of information available on Eric Partrat’s & Laurent Legendre’s website, and both these guys were endlessly helpful in answering all my questions. I also had the help of good friend Ed Read, who is fortunately one of the biggest Alfred Lau specialists in the CP world, having gathered lots of info and pictures directly from Lau. Furthermore, I had the help of local Ping lovers in Mexico. Ruben and Marlen not only accompanied me on several Ping hunts, but took Ed & I on our 1^st Ping hunt in Mexico. Then there was Adolfo who also joined me on some trips and helped with his great knowledge of Pings in the wild. Last but not least I had the help of Zamudio, the famous Ping taxonomist, and what a wealth of information he was!

            Other than Ping taxonomy, I also had to learn Mexican geography in detail, pouring over maps and herbarium information (see Mexu herbarium article). It was heavy detective work trying to find many of the Ping locations, especially because much of the info was often very sketchy. Not only do city names repeat themselves often in Mexico, but one has to interpret data in order to find specific habitats, for example guessing which direction the collector was walking/ driving. It was a lot of studying at night after my regular work, but it’s amazing how much one can get done when removed from the distraction of family and friends, hahaha!

            Some Ping species turned out to be easy to find, some demanded lots of searching (and sometimes a few trips to the general area), and some I never did find. Others I simply didn’t have time to go search for. I calculate having driven over 30,000km in Mexico in total, usually 500-2000km per weekend – EVERY weekend (I admit some were simply sightseeing trips however, hehehe!). I saw approximately 30 species of Pinguicula in the wild in Mexico, including a few yet undescribed species known to cultivation and even discovered at least one new taxon! Some species I saw at several locations, like P.moranensis, in all its splendor of natural variation. I especially enjoyed discovering that some species were much more variable in the wild than suspected from the clones known in cultivation, suggesting even that some “species” like P.potosiensis, P.medusina, and P.jaumavensis are probably not good species after all…

Fernando Rivadavia.