POSTCARD from Mexico N°19

(By Fernando Rivadavia, 4 to 6 August, 2006) 

SIERRA GORDA AND MOCTEZUMAE

            Another weekend in Mexico, another Ping hunt with my friend Ruben Resendiz. And this time we were joined by our friend Ed Read from Los Angeles. We met on Friday, August 4, 2006 and drove over 1200km before returning to Mexico City on Sunday night. We had very ambitious plans for that weekend… maybe too ambitious.

            We first headed towards the Sierra Gorda de Querétaro, which is on the border between Queretaro and San Luis Potosi states. We drove ‘till 4am and only slept 3h before getting back in the car so we could get an early start at the Sierra Gorda. These mountains are the only known place where P.martinezii (a P.agnata-like recently described species) and the fantastic P.calderoniae (a species with linear leaves up to 26cm long and large pink-red flowers) are known to grow. P.martinezii supposedly only flowers during the winter dry season, but we had high hopes of catching the beautiful P.calderoniae in flower.

            We studied Goggle Earth for weeks before going to the Sierra Gorda and found a trail up one of the mountains, taking us past vertical walls at about the right altitude where the two Pinguicula species were collected. We were almost sure this was not the exact escarpment where they’d been found, but we imagined that the plants would probably be present anywhere on those mountains, as long as we found the right habitats.

            It was very foggy in the morning and we couldn’t really see the cliffs above us as we hiked through a mossy temperate forest with beautiful large mushrooms and many centipedes all around. Starting at a small pueblo around 2000m altitude there was a broad trail leading uphill, confirming what we’d seen on the Google Earth. After about an hour of hiking, we finally caught glimpses of impressive rocky cliffs through the tree tops and fog. We decided to leave the trail and head up the mountain through the forest towards the walls.

            The vegetation became thicker and the going got tougher as we neared the cliffs. Before we reached them, we saw our first Pings of the day: P.moranensis of course! They grew on mossy rocks at around 2350m altitude on an east-facing slope, which is rather rare for most Pings. This was probably only possible because the plants were semi-shaded by forests.

            Upon reaching the cliff, we hiked north along its base – which was easier said than done due to the thick vegetation. We hoped it would curve towards the east and we would get a north-facing wall. Along the way we saw more P.moranensis growing around the base of the cliff.

            After maybe an hour of exhaustive hiking – but little distance covered – we arrived at what we hoped would be a paradise for Pings: rocky north-facing hillsides. And it truly was! But only for P.moranensis. At this spot, maybe around 2500m high, we found numerous P.moranensis growing on mossy rocks and also a beautiful population growing on the ground in a fantastic patch of open pine forest with low trees on a sloping hillside, their trunks covered in mosses. It looked like something out of a fairy tale! All the P.moranensis we’d seen that day were relatively large, but they reached an apex at this pine forest population, with huge purple-pink flowers on scapes up to 26cm long! In fact, I think this was one of the most beautiful P.moranensis sites we’d ever found in Mexico (and believe me, there were MANY!).

            From this point on, we knew our chances of finding P.martinezii and P.calderoniae were close to zero. We simply hadn’t climbed the right mountain, proving that they weren’t present everywhere on those highlands. But we continued hiking north along more cliffs, hoping to find the plants in some north-facing little niche in the walls. Alas we finally gave up about an hour or two later and began heading back down the mountain towards the car, admitting our defeat (but already making plans for a return trip…).

            Back in the car, we headed south and were soon driving past a beautiful population of P.agnata I visited nearly 3 years ago (see postcard 1). The plants at this site have reddish leaves and grow on a dry rock wall along the highway, between ~1350-1400m. I’d seen numerous plants in flower back in October 2003, but there wasn’t a single live scape present this time, only remnants of very old inflorescences.

             Starting at a small pueblo around 2000m altitude there was a broad trail leading uphill, confirming what we’d seen on the Google Earth. After about an hour of hiking, we finally caught glimpses of impressive rocky cliffs through the tree tops and fog. We decided to leave the trail and head up the mountain through the forest towards the walls.

               We only stopped driving at 10pm that Saturday, when we found a hotel in Cadereyta – only to be up again early the next morning (in case you haven’t noticed, we get very little sleep on these Ping trips!). Once again (I’ve lost track already) we took the winding road down to La Mora, at the northern end of the Moctezuma Canyon. Our objective: to hike upriver along the Moctezuma Canyon and hopefully this time reach the exact spot where P.moctezumae was collected. We’d already attempted from different sides and even hiked neighboring gorges in hopes that P.moctezumae was not as geographically restricted to that short stretch of the Moctezuma Canyon, as believed. All unsuccessful.

                        From La Mora, we were unfortunate to choose what turned out to be the difficult side of the river. We took over an hour to hike maybe a kilometer, before we were able to cross the river to the easy side, since it was very full (either too deep or with currents too strong along most of the way). Our happiness in reaching the “easy” side was short-lived as the trail soon ended and we were forced to cross the river numerous times while hiking up the canyon, as well as clambering over numerous large rocks and making our way through thick patches of prickly vegetation. Not to mention the rattlesnakes we saw along the hike, yikes!! Luck not being on our side, the most difficult side of the river was of course along the north-facing walls, where we hoped to see P.moctezumae.

            Needless to say, we were soon exhausted from the weekend’s accumulated efforts. Furthermore, we had to be back in the car by early afternoon in order to catch our flights out from Mexico City. After hiking only about 2-3km, I was just about to give up when I was forced to give up by a narrow part of the canyon where I couldn’t climb over the rocks nor walk past the turbulent river. Saddened by yet another defeat, we headed back downriver while making plans to return in the dry season…     

            On our way out, we stopped the car once again at the El Tepozan site where P.esseriana and P.moranensis with beautiful dark purple flowers grow (see postcard 17). In the 3 weeks since we’d last visited the site, all of Mexico had received plenty of rain and it was amazing to see the effect this had on P.esseriana. The rosettes were now large and very easy to spot among the pine needles on the ground. It almost seemed like another site!

            And that wraps up my last Ping-hunt in Mexico. Maybe not a complete failure, but certainly not what we hoped for that weekend… Oh well, that’s the reality of plant hunting, it often takes numerous trips before you can find a species.

Fernando RIVADAVIA