Happy 2010 everybody!
Marlon is a hard taskmaster, has us up for breakfast one hour earlier than we had grown used to and today got us back after sunset. As a result I’m slipping up on the Diaries. So today is just a short summary that I might fill out in years to come.
But he does manage to squeeze some exciting stops into each day’s itinerary, so we more than forgive him.
We woke up to a wet and dreary looking day.
S1647: Type locality of Discocactus subviridigriseus, (now a synonym of D. bahiensis ssp bahiensis) near Juazeiro’s (official?) municipal rubbish tip. The gloomy light, threatening skies some how matched the rubbish tip setting well.
After a long drive over very poor roads (they had taken most of the hard top off the road, turning it back into a dirt road, which (surprisingly) was of a better quality than the short bits of tarmac that they had left behind, with pot holes big enough to lose your complete front axel in.) for some 3 hours to arrive at the type (and only reported) locality for Discocactus zehntneri ssp. albispinus. (S1648) Magnificent plants in a magnificent setting with wonderful clouds to heighten the dramatic settings.
S1649 and S1650: Marlon had looked at Google Earth and decided that there were some nearby rock outcrops that looked similar to the D. albispinus location, so we went to explore and found the plants growing here as well. Well done Marlon, two previously unreported locations added to the distribution information! Lots of other cacti photographed as well but full list will have to wait.
In the mean time, I’ll let the pictures tell the story.
The Cactus Trip Diaries 
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