The Cactus Trip Diaries

All over Holland and Belgium, children were sweetly at play with their toys, brought to them by Sinterklaas.

It was a bright but overcast day as Cliff and I set out with our toys, our cameras, bought many moons ago.

S1572 took us back to the Itaobim – Itinga road where yesterday we had left the stop nearest to the hotel for another day, due to the weather at the time. It was here that in 1999 we found a large population of Melocactus ernestii with multiple cephalia. The plants have also been known under the name of M. multiceps as a result. This time, we found only Melocacti and Coleocephalocereus aureus to the north of the road and only one of the Melos had a multiple (double) cephalium. We can only assume that the others have disappeared due to collecting with the hobby in Europe, the USA and Japan as the main takers. If you have a habitat collected plant from here – shame on you! All the other plants found yesterday were here too, except C. purpureus.

Most remarkable find: a 3m (yes, 9 ft) tall Arrojadoa penicillata growing against the trunk of a tree for support. Is this the tallest A. penicillata recorded? No, I do not intend to erect the ssp. elongata for just a single specimen.

Cliff just remarked that C. aureus seeds collected here seem to be smaller than seeds from 3 pods collected yesterday of C. purpureus. There appear to be more but less accessible places along this road that seem ideal for these two species. If we had an infinite time budget, it would be interesting to check these places and also to stray off the main road, that follows the south side of the Rio Jequitinhonha and see what lies over the hills. In addition, Google Earth and our map suggests that there is a perfectly good road / track on the north side of the river with a number of exposed granite rock areas similar to where we scored with these taxa. Recorded for a future visit, if time permits.

Once again we saw and tried to photograph numerous diverse butterflies.

We also found one very untidy member of Hylo- or Selenicereus sp. The stems seemed too fat for H. setaceus that we would in this general area in ’99. I have included a picture in today’s photo album.

We returned to the BR 116 (the main Salvador to Rio de Janeiro road, but still only a two lane affair, with a third crawler lane up the steeper hill sides) and headed for the town of Padre Paraiso where Marlon had suggested a location (TL) for Coleocephalocereus fluminensis ssp. decumbens. (s.n. C. decumbens)

We had already seen these plants from the road, a few km north of the town (and photographed later as S1577) so when we found the entrance to the track suggested by Marlon, without any difficulty, we decided to sail by and instead took a right turn and some 20 km along a good but sometimes muddy track arrived at a likely place. You would be forgiven if you have never heard of this plant as it is not a plant that you would want to give space in a small greenhouse or windowsill. As a result it has hardly suffered from commercial or hobby collecting. It favours similar granite rock faces to its cousins aureus and purpureus, but prefers the really steep parts. So steep that here (S1573) we could not even get to the rock face where they grew together with a very large species of Bromeliad that would seem to be the typical companion plant to look out for, together with a white flowered sp. of Velloziaceae. We managed to climb up a ‘steep-as-we-could-manage’ hillside in what turned out to be a coffee plantation (Eunice, please note!) to get the best view of plants on the other side of a 4 m. wide and deep gully. There are not many reported localities for this plant, so we are glad to add this one to the list

We turned round here and stopped at S1574, a spot where the road ran along the edge of a granite rock face that had the large Bromeliads and Velloziaceae that we had spotted at the previous spot. We were optimistic that a closer look would find C. decumbens here. Wrong! The rock face was mostly so steep that we could hardly walk up it. Even on all fours it proved a problem. That was when it was dry. The recent rainfall meant that about 50% of the rock face was a wet seeping slide, as the mosses (?) that cover these rocks had absorbed the water and now had high lubricant qualities. Trying to find a route that made use of places where the Velloziaceae had found a foot hold proved a success, but the Bromeliads were to be avoided as the stems with which they appeared to be attached to the rock were rotten and disintegrated as soon as you stood on them. Despite this I managed to get to the top of the rock to where the tree line started (and the impenetrable vegetation! Father Christmas please note that I would like a machete for Christmas!) No cacti! We believe in recording ‘No Cacti’ stops as well, to help others expanding their energy to come to the same conclusion. The reward here was a large Orchid sp. with several spikes of yellow flowers. Nice!

S1575 was another no cactus stop, but it was again on a large granite slab that could have supported Coleocephalocereus. Instead there was a herd of cows here and a peculiar tree with most of the soil washed away from its roots. How could it survive?

On the way to BR116 we came across a hedge of a variegated Cereus (?) sp. Normal green stems with bright yellow parts. We had seen them before in the area and always thought that the stems had been painted or sprayed with something nasty.

We finally arrived at the spot that had been suggested by Marlon (S1576). At the farm where we were supposed to park the car, an old man came to greet us. Our Portuguese must have approved as he sighed ‘Oh yes’ and signalled for us to come on to his property. After introductions to his wife, who I think wanted to offer us coffee or tea or food we made our excuses and pointed up the hill and at our watch. He just wanted to show us his two man eating guard dogs that were straining at the lead to make sure that we did not want to do anything silly.

Again, the dark, moss (?) covered rocks were almost too steep to get up. Too steep to walk, not steep enough to climb, in the heat, high humidity and with all the photographic equipment. Cliff went one way, I the other. I must have lost my lens hood a dozen times, each time returning some 10 m down to pick it up, then start again. In the end my pocket was the only sensible place for it.

From time to time I’d look back and on one occasion I had worked my way right by a 2 m. long stem that seemed to be crawling up hill like a creeping devil in Baja, except that they have the good sense of growing along the road and on the flat. When time ran out and common sense dictated that it was time to go back, Cliff was already at the car. He was having problems with his feet and steep hills were not the best therapy. I saw more C. decumbens on the way back than when I was focussed on climbing, but only one long stem with cephalium. I failed to look for any of the other cacti that Marlon mentions from here and certainly saw nothing that resembles Nigel Taylor’s picture in his ‘Cacti of Eastern Brazil’ taken around this area in 2002.

S1577 was just a ‘drive by stop’, literally, as stopping (or even just slowing down to less than 30 km p. hr.) is suicidal on BR 116. On the way south we had spotted a hillside full of C. decumbens right along the road (west side) but in an even more inaccessible place. We could not do better than drive by slowly and stop briefly firing off some shots with a 200 mm zoom lens. Still, for the record…

Another great day!

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Today, children in the Netherlands and Belgium celebrate St. Nicolaas / Sinterklaas day, when the children who were well behaved during the last year receive presents and those that have not been good are put into the bags that had brought the presents and are taken by Zwarte Pieten, the Saint’s Moorish helpers, back to the Saint’s homeland, Spain, as punishment. That was before kids enjoyed holidays in the many popular Spanish seaside resorts and before kids could recite their rights under the European Human Rights Act. Happy Sinterklaas Dag!

While yesterday had been a day of occasional showers, it had rained heavily during the night and turned into a day of rain and occasional dry-ish spells. Fortunately all stops planned for today were along the hardtop BR 367 between Itaobim and Itinga. We decided to first drive the full distance (31 km) to Itinga, where people were dodging from doorway to doorway to avoid getting too wet. On our way we had spotted the planned stops and looked for safe parking, plus noted a few other potential sites, weather and time permitting.

Our main goal today was to see Coleocephalocereus (Buiningii) purpureus. This plant has for a long time be regarded to come from just one location along the road that we were exploring. Marlon Machado had reported as long ago as 2003 that the owner of the property had begun to clear the vegetation from the upper part of the granite dome, using herbicide and fire. These granite domes, are often referred to as ‘inselbergs’ – island hills – because their vegetation can be quite different from the surrounding area.

Our first stop S1569 looked just right, so, despite the rain, we set out. The list of plants found was phenomenal, in alphabetical order: Arrojadoa penicillata, Brasilicereus phaeacanthus, Cereus jamacaru, Coleocephalocereus (Buiningia) purpureus, Lilies, Melocactus bahiensis ssp. amethystinus, Pereskia aureiflora, Pilosocereus floccosus ssp. quadricostatus, Pilosocereus magnificus, Pilosocereus X subsimilis, Tacinga braunii and Tacinga inamoena. C. purpureus was in flower, confirming its ID beyond doubt. We were some distance from the known locality, so we had extended the known distribution of the plant. We had gotten soaking wet in the process.

A short distance on we arrived at the known locality (S1570) and the difference was remarkable. Most of the large Ceiba jasminodorus had been brought down and had been left to rot for a number of years. Out of the decaying matter new cactus stems were sprouting, some Melocactus but mainly Brasilicereus phaeacanthus.

Pilosocereus magnificus looked anything but magnificent. The usually perfect azure blue stems had been badly marked and had not yet grown out of the damage. These plants like to use shrubs and trees as ‘nurseries’ to eventually reach a height that allows the tops of their stems to poke above the canopy. So when trees and shrubs were removed, they were damaged and then left exposed without their nursery protection.

Perhaps least affected was C. purpureus. By preferring to grow on the exposed granite flats, they had escaped the herbicide and fire that had destroyed so much else. Again, many of the plants were in flower. It seems that both aureus and purpureus are morning flowering, as today their flowers were as far open as we have seen to date – and this was the earliest in the day that we had seen them. Although closed at other sites, we had noticed large ants and small beetles trying to force the petals open, possibly to get at the pollen before competitors could do so.

The rain was still coming down and I decided to let my usual waist coat dry in the car. Instead I had put on a weatherproof (supposedly) jacket that was better suited to the UK climate. Within seconds I was wet again – this time from the sweat as this rain-protection was much too hot for Brazil in December!

When we had covered the distance from the road side car park to the first C. purpureus, the batteries on my main camera ran out. Where were the spares? In the car! Fortunately I had my little S10 pocket camera with me and I am very pleased with the results while at the same time recognising that it is worthwhile to lug the much heavier main camera around as there were a number of shots that I could not take.

Back at the hotel it was evident that I could have cleaned the lens more regularly, as raindrops had blurred some of the images. Still, with plenty of good sharp ones left to chose from, these blurred images will be proof of the conditions that we saw the plants under – very different from 1999!

A quick stop with more dark skies threatening was at a place where Marlon had told us we would find Pereskia aureiflora. We had missed the recent flowering and while the small fruits with wing-like ‘leaves’ looked very cute, there was no seed ready to collect.

Let’s hope that tomorrow is a brighter day! Although Ian pointed out that in the UK the weather usually clears up on Mondays, when he has to get back to work.

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We had really enjoyed our time around Pedra Azul but once again, time had come to move on.

You’ll remember (or may be not) that on Wednesday we followed Marlon’s instruction to find a track that I thought would lead us to a wonder 1999 stop, but that this track had now all but grown over. I was going to recheck my data, but Marlon beat me to it, advising that the distance he had provided to the turning was actually from the town, not from BR 116. We had more or less come to the same conclusion and had earmarked three tracks for further investigation. It turned out that one of them was indeed the right track and Marlon’s email saved us driving up two duds (or prevented us from finding endless new populations? 🙂

The location was exactly as I remembered it – but wetter. The forecast was temperatures of 29 C and more thunderstorms and they were building already. The track continued over the granite rocks and into the forest so we decided to continue. A few km farther along we found another, very similar site and again all the plants expected were readily seen as we drove through. We continued until a light drizzle started and we reached a gate. A sign surely that we should go back and look at these two locations in more detail.

S1567 was the ‘new’ stop. A gentle sloping granite rock face to the left, quite a steeper one coming down from the right – too steep to climb. Marling this location on Google Earth reveals this to be Marlon’s stop Ettax, what ever that means, so not a new startling discovery after all. The purpose of today was to find one of my favourite 99 stops and anything else was a bonus. We had seen all the plants already, had plenty of good photos, so for me this was just a nice relaxed photography day. For the first time my ‘spare’ camera came out of the bag so that I could vary perspective of the pics by using the 11-18 mm zoom lens – an excellent wide angle range. At home I never seem to find the time or the right subject to try out this end of the range. My pics so far have been taken with an 18-200 mm lens and my eyes and brain have grown accustomed to ‘seeing’ a potential shot the way that the lens sees it. Changing the lens is actually quite strange as you are seeing everything ‘differently.’ More practice and the eyes / brain will hopefully extend to handle the full 11-200 mm range.

S1567 gave us Coleocephalocereus aureus, Pilosocereus multicostatus, Euphorbia attastoma, Orthophytum sp., Tacinga inamoena, Brasilicereus phaeacanthus, Ceiba jasminodorus, Ceiba jasminodorus, Tillandsia sp. and, yes, water lilies! (in a small puddle that must remain wet all year round). Of course, as with all other stops, other plants grew here as well and many others were photographed but will ultimately be recorded as ‘unidentified genus/species’ as life is too short to know every plant in the universe, or even in these parts of Brazil.

S1568, between the showers, offered the same plant list plus P. floccosus ssp quadricostatus, Melocactus ernestii (s.n. M. azulensis) and an Orchid sp. with large pseudobulbs and yellow flowers. Many of the Melocactus had more than one cephalium, but usually just a double, in one case a quadruple cephalium had formed.

Marlon had drawn our attention to a small sprawling Asclepiad sp. that formed a caudex. The words ‘large’, ‘interesting’ and ‘attractive’ would be inappropriate, but that is just a personal evaluation. Marlon asked if we could take some pictures of the small flowers and two pictures, one from Cliff, one from me, are included in today’s album.

On our way to Itaobim, I could not help but take a picture of a man in a bus shelter who was not going to allow to let the grass grow under his feet.

Past Medina, we saw evidence that the right granite is in global demand for ornamental bathroom and kitchen fittings. It was being mined here by the hillside. By the time that the whole world has a granite kitchen and bathroom, these magnificent domes will be gone!

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The sky was still overcast but seemed to be brightening as we set off. Yesterday morning Google Earth had mysteriously disappeared from my laptop so there was little point in looking up finds from this area, so we decided to explore on instinct. The (poor quality) map suggested that the granite domes that we were enjoying around Pedra Azul might extend south, so we decided to follow the road (track) to the town of Jequitinhonha. Sadly the domes (technically termed ‘bosses’) soon disappeared. We carried on a fair distance (some 20 km) but either side of the road was just dense, impenetrable forest.  We had agreed that by 11:00 a.m. we would turn round. On the way back we stopped briefly to take pictures of a snake (soon to join the road kill statistics). We thought that it was dead already, but as Cliff got closer (I have a better zoom lens :-)) it moved briefly and seemed to grasp for air (or was it making a last attempt to sink its teeth into Cliff’s boot? It would clearly fall victim to the next car along, so Cliff picked it up by the tail and moved it to the side of the road, without protest. Another quick stop was of some Passionflowers in full bloom along the side of the road – always a stunning sight. All the shots taken so far today have been filed as S1563.

We had taken a track headed west once we were near the dome hills and waited patiently until they reached the track that disappeared off to a farm. (S1564). The morning TV weather forecast had predicted temperatures of 32-36 C and thunderstorms. It was certainly warm and the skies once again threatened. We had agreed that anywhere that we would find this type of rock, provided that the slope was not too steep – some rose straight up like a wall – and had the right aspect: open or north facing, then the chances of finding Coleocephalocereus aureus would be excellent. The exciting part would be finding what other cacti we would find. Here we were fortunate to have found another dense population. We had agreed that we’d make a quick stop, taking just ‘for the record’ pictures of the cacti spotted. Right! We arrived at  12:20 and left just before 14:00, with an extra 147 images on my memory card. Ah well. Many of the C. aureus were approaching the 90 cm (3 ft) mark set by ‘elongata’ seen earlier near Salinas.

We had recently missed a mass flowering of Pilosocereus multicostatus, judging by stems heavy with unripe fruit. When studying other people’s pictures of C. aureus back at the Stonehenge Cinema, Wine bar, No Star Hotel and Cactarium (otherwise known as home), we had wondered if what looked like offsets really were or were they plants that had germinated and grown in the debris caught in the areole? As there were many offsetting plants here, I checked and the evidence here was ‘true offsets’.

As the plants shared their habitat from time to time with cattle, a number of plants had been kicked over to reveal their extremely shallow root system. Cultivation tip, based on what we saw here: grow in large, flat Bonsai dishes, maximum 5 cm deep, in gravel, mixed in with well decayed cow dung. Water regularly and allow to dry out in between watering. Keep the temperature around 30C in bright sunlight. Good luck!!

At the bottom of the hill we had to cross a small stream of water still draining away after recent rains. It drained into a small pond with water lilies. As we left, just across the brook were hundreds of butterflies, each seemingly different in colour and pattern, each refusing to pose for a picture. I managed to catch just a couple. This place would have been heaven to any butterfly fan!

The rain came down at 14:00, accompanied by distant thunderclaps. By 14:45 the worst was over.

S1565 was nearer to town, where yesterday we had looked for a location of Pilosocereus azulensis, that incorrectly I thought was a natural hybrid between P. quadricostatus and P. multicostatus. It is in fact a good, rare species, but not one of the prettiest. We believe we found it. Not many plants and hidden in the forest at the top of a granite slope perhaps too steep and the wrong aspect for C. aureus. Cliff walked farther along the rock while I nosed around in the forest and he reports that C. aureus was just around the corner. The forest had been hacked about by machete’s or heavier duty tools. We still need to buy ours. Where do they sell these? A macheteria? Any supermarket or hardware shop?

One more stop (S1566) was another side track that ran out near a farm. We could park the car on the granite slab. We found Brasilicereus phaeachanthus, P. multicostatus, Tacinga inamoena (also found at every stop today), T. werneri or was it T.palmadora? plus Cieba jasminodorus, the latter not a cactus but a tree with huge thorns on its stem. Oh, and there was also some orchids and bromeliads waiting for an ID ….. maybe.

Picture wise, I could have shown you plenty more of the same things that I have included during the last couple of days, but instead I have chosen to show you pictures that illustrate dense, impenetrable forest, the snake story especially for John, the passion flower that was growing as a weed along the side of the road and a picture taken as the rains came down. Fellow travellers in the Atacama Desert will appreciate how rare a sight this would have been there!

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The area around Pedra Azul features huge granite domes, hundreds of meters high, that can rise straight out of the surrounding countryside and that make very photogenic subjects. In between are forested areas and green meadows where herds of Brahman cattle graze. In between these forests and meadows are open rocky clearings where nothing will grow to harvest or graze on. These rock sheets are where members of the Buiningia group in the genus Coleocephalocereus grow. They have green to yellow flowers that gave them their specific name: aureus. The last few days we had seen populations where stems reached to 100 cm (c. 3 ft) in height. Here they averaged out at 60 cm (2ft) for the tallest plants.

Marlon had again provided us with instructions of how to reach some of these populations but sadly time changes things. The track that he recommended was possibly the same one that we had followed in 1999 to a Fazienda where we had stayed the night. The next morning the owner showed us a wonderful location of these plants, but the additional feature was the huge number of other cactus genera and species that could be found here.

This time the track was overgrown and after about 1 km a farmer was putting up a barbed wire fence across it.  Again language should have been a problem but was not, as talking with hands and feet I managed to ask him if we could pass to see cacti growing on rocks. He nodded his approval and cleared his tools and barbed wire off the track. One km farther along we were forced to turn around. The track was covered in cut down shrubs – the spiny kind – and once we had cleared that it became too steep and uneven with wheels spinning on the wet grass after last night’s rain. The area looked to offer so many alternatives that are easier to reach that we cut our losses and turned around. The farmer again cleared his tools out of the way. The smile on his face told us that he had expected this outcome but could not make us understand.

Earlier we had spotted the ideal Buiningia rock right along the main road leading from BR 116 into town and we returned here for a look around (S1560). Tacinga inamoena was the first cactus to be spotted for a ‘for the record’ picture. They were soon joined by Melocactus ernestii (s.n. Melocactus azulensis) as we looked among the vegetation that had washed – as plants or as seed – from the smooth rock surface higher up. We found a couple of plants with a double cephalium and one with a triple! Always guaranteed to go down well in presentations. We also found a Bromeliad, recorded as Orthophytum sp. and of course C. aureus. Some of the plants had spines up to 7cm in length!

To add extra interest we were being observed by a couple of  small owls – not sure if they were young or adults.

For our second stop we moved to the other side of the town to look for a location where Pilosocereus azulensis had previously been recorded in very small numbers. When we arrived at the appropriate coordinates we found no obvious cacti and the area did not look promising for a look around. Two motorists racing down the hill nearly crashed into our car, parked on the edge of a wide dirt track.

We drove down this track until we met a ‘cross track’ and took the left turn. Soon the track opened up to a gentle sloping granite hillside, bare of vegetation except for thousands of C. aureus. Although I had just taken nearly 100 images at the previous stop, here ( S1561), I managed another 148 images here. It was remarkable that here there were no Melocactus found, unlike all the previous finds.  At the edge of this large area there were a few Pilosocereus multicostatus  but no ‘blue’ Pilosos. It was a wonderful therapeutic site to try to improve on images of these plants already taken. Behind us was the dramatic scenery of the colossal rocks, to one side the daily thunderstorm was darkening the sky while the other side offered white fluffy clouds against a blue sky. The ninety minutes here were pure self indulgence in a peaceful setting.

S1562 was back to the main track to Almenara and straight across to the other track at these ‘cross-tracks’. As we drove on, through a herd of white Brahman cattle, we felt that we were getting farther and farther away from potential cactus sites, so turned around and at the base of one of the granite domes made our last stop of the day. There were comparatively few C. aureus plants here (only about a dozen spotted) but then the rumble of thunder was getting closer and we had satisfied our appetite for cactus photography and decided to return to our Pousada, but not before snapping the other species here: Tacinga inamoena, T. werneri,  Brazilicereus phaeacanthus, P. multicostatus and possibly one hacked stem, regenerating of P. azulensis.

Another excellent day, finished off with a Pizza and a couple of beers.

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Today we had considered (last minute) to go back to Mato Verde to find what we had missed, but when we drove back it rained (not hard), during the night it rained (leaving large puddles, so quite hard?) and when we left it still rained. So we decided against 50 km of dirt – mud.

As we dove along BR 251 it brightened up a bit and at one point, I looked over my shoulder and saw ‘Buiningia habitat cliffs’. Cliff did a U-turn and we found a track. We agreed that as we did not have far to go today, we’d take a look at the condition of the track. There were a couple of gates and bridges (all painfully noted on the way back for future use) and then the track opened out at a magnificent Coleocephalocereus aureus site, the same form (s.n. Buiningia brevicylindrica var. elongata) as on Sunday’s stop. But here we could drive to it!

When we arrived at our hotel in Pedra Azul, yes, one with wifi, I could hardly wait to tell Marlon that we had found yet another location for this plant. He had written five emails while we were on the road, one with a large attachment (thanks Marlon!) and by the time that I was about to start my email, this morning’s images had downloaded. I wanted to send him a screen shot of Google Earth to show him how the three sites lined up, his original site that we had looked for on Sunday, our Sunday site and this one. Much to my surprise, this morning’s location was exactly on Marlon’s site. At least we had gotten here independently (even if it was through my stupidity that we missed the location on Sunday.)

As a result, I can give you Marlon’s account of what grows here:

Plants seen: Pilosocereus pachycladus (s.n. P. cenepequei), Pilosocereus multicostatus, Melocactus bahiensis subsp. amethystinus, Coleocephalocereus aureus, Tacinga inamoena, Ceiba jasminodora, Orthophytum falconii.

We managed to recognise all of them except the Orthophytum, which on the internet appears to be a small and insignificant Bromeliad. I can hear cries of outrage from the Bromeliad fans!!

After booking into our hotel, we went for a stroll around the town. It was prettier than I remember, but then in 1999 we stayed at a farm outside of town and only drove through to climb 365 steps to a cross on the huge rock overlooking the town, so did not really see much of the colonial architecture claiming to date back to around 1919. Suddenly we were accosted by a woman and two teenage girls. They asked us questions in Portuguese and were disappointed that we could not speak Portuguese. They ran off in a hurry, to look for other men?

Towards the end of our stroll, we passed a park where some sort of activity event was in progress. Lots of teenagers running around, voices over P.A. systems and lots of laughter. We went to take a look. Again I got accosted by a lady, again she was disappointed that I did not speak Portuguese. Then another lady appeared. She spoke a little English and explained that today, 1 December, was HIV-AIDS awareness day and handed me a leaflet. It seemed to be a world wide event and as Cliff & I represented ‘the rest of the world’, could I say some words in English to the audience? Never afraid of a public speaking engagement, I had a microphone pushed in my hand. I had heard enough BBC Radio 1 Roadshows in my younger days to know what was expected.

My thunderous ‘Hello Pedra Azul!!!’ was greeted by a tremendous cheer. ‘HIV-AIDS is a world wide concern. It affects people in England as well as Brazil. Take it very seriously. Many famous music and film stars in the world have died of it and many more ordinary people. Be careful and follow the advice of your teachers!’ Loud applause.

There then followed a competition of which team could fill the condom that were being given away with the most tap water. For a second we were worried that the first price was to throw the filled condoms at the English, but that was not the case. Cliff & I privately judged the ‘Wet T shirt’ competition that resulted. 

As we left the park, the ground was littered with what looked like used condoms, as if a very aware orgy had just taken place (I imagine).

Tomorrow we’ll return to cactus hunting.

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Yesterday’s ‘north’ turned out to be more ‘east-north-east’, so today we headed ‘north proper’. For those if you keen to follow our adventures on maps etc, we drove from Salinas to Taiobeiras to Rio Pardo de Minas – all on hardtop – and then on good dirt to Mato Verde, hitting hard top again 28 km from town. In terms of distance we drove 177 km to get there and 177 km back, so 348 km just to see one population of cacti, thus proving again that we are ‘cactus loco’. Well, the cactus stop was actually some 20 km out of Mato Verde as the road climbed from 555 m to 1, 020 m. twisting and turning up the mountainside between partly bare rocks.

Our hearts missed a few beats as we were seeing large official signs to say that it was forbidden to cross the barbed wire fence, all along the south side of the road for some 12 km. Shiny new barbed wire on concrete posts enforced the manage. Not another Grão Mogol! The signs were just on one side of the road, although the new fence posts and wire were on both sides. In Grão Mogol the local people had advised us to ignore the signs and go anyway, which there, with regular motor bike patrols would have been a mistake. But here we managed to park the car at a scenic viewpoint, off the main road and out of sight (S1558). We then walked a few hundred meters up the road and got onto the rocks to the north of the road.

We could easily see Pilosocereus pachycladus, (a form originally described as P. cenepequei, the same as yesterday but now identified by Marlon), poking their heads above the shrubbery, but the first cactus seen and photographed once we had crossed the wire was what I guess is Brasilicereus sp. (B. markgraffii or B. phaeacanthus?).  Yellow Tigridea (?) irises were in flower all round and soon I had found a 30 cm tall 5 cm diameter densely spined ceroid. What could that be. I had walked myself into a dead end into the vegetation and returned to the main road with arms scratched open. Cliff had found a much easier way in and showed me the easy bit in the fence. Tacinga inamoena was spotted and photographed just for the record, we’ll see it in most places in Bahia later. Then, in a white quartz sand clearing, once our eyes had got used to the bright light reflecting off the sand, there were large numbers of Melocactus concinnus. From a higher rock I could see what looked like even taller than yesterday Coleocephalocereus aureus plants in the distance. On closer examination they turned out to be (I think) Micranthocereus albicephalus that is reported from this spot. Not a bad stop at all and in the hot humid weather an hour and a half had been quite enough.

Having gotten so close to the town of Mato Verde, we drove the extra few km. to claim our customary and very welcome bottle of Coca Cola for a successful stop at a bar near the town square.

We knew that there were still more interesting and unusual cacti to be seen along this road, but with the signage up, we did not want to waste lots of time being frustrated by bureaucracy. Time was ticking by and the new tarmac road had no lay bys, let alone out of sight pull overs. During our Cola break skies had darkened over and our drive back to Salinas included about 50 km of dirt road that we’d rather not tackle as mud road. We slowed down at GPS locations suggested by others, but none of the essentials were in place.

Back at the hotel, with more time to establish where we had been it transpired that on the other side of the road at S1558, we could have seen Arrojadoa eriocaulis. Nearer to Mato Verde we missed Arrojadoa rhodantha aureispina and Coleocephalocereus decumbens and that 14 km past our stop we might have seen Arrojadoa eriocaulis rosenbergiana, and Cereus albicaulis. Ah well, such is life.

We cleared the 50 km of dirt without a drop of rain, although skies continued to threaten. Past Rio Pardo we had a few brief showers, but by then we were on hardtop so did not care too much. Interesting observation was that as the cold rain hit the hot tarmac, a thick fog hung about 50 cm deep over the road. As we drove through it, the hot moist air outside condensed on the cooler windscreen of our air-conditioned car, so that now we were steaming up on the outside. Strange!

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The life of a 2009 Cactus Explorer is not all hardship and tales of woe, as you can see from this link to the hotel where we’ll be staying two more nights.

http://www.hotelrenascerpalace.com.br/

Marlon had warned us in Rio Grande do Sul, while we were acclimatising from the UK in October (autumn) to Spring in Brazil, that temperatures in Minas Gerais and Bahia would be even hotter. The heat is not the main issue, but the average relative humidity, 70% is quoted for Salinas, can cause problems especially of overheating and heat exhaustion. But here we step from our air-conditioned room into our air-conditioned car and it is not until we step out that the heat and humidity hit. Within seconds we are soaked with sweat and attract all kinds of flying insects that are after our blood, sweat and tears.  Hence, our excursions into the field are usually around an hour only and our daily ice cold Cola serves as a reward for what we have found – or consolation as the case may be.

Salinas is the world’s centre of Cachaça production, the sugarcane rum that can be anything from 38-80% in strength.

Enough of local stats and culture. Today I had mapped out a circular route of some 160 km, taking BR 251 east to Curral de Dentro, from there heading north west to Taiobeiras, and then south back to Salinas. It seemed a good idea looking at the map. Much of the distance was hard top suitable for an average speed of 70-80 km p.hr., a bit less unless you wanted to join in with the trucks playing chicken, overtaking in some highly unusual places. We’ll definitely give parking on the hard shoulder a miss in future!

There were very few side tracks or stopping opportunities on BR 251 and Eucalyptus plantations had again replaced the natural landscape either side of the road for many kilometres on end, so I was getting a little concerned about another cactus-free day.

Past Curral de Dentro, hard top gave way to what my GPS calls a ‘Terra draft’ or a dirt road in the planning stages. It even offered a number: LMG-000. It was actually quite a good track, servicing the Eucalyptus plantations, where we would not find any cacti. So we took a lucky guess aiming for a waypoint where the database showed a mysterious marker for ‘Entbl1’ We wrecked our brains as to what botanical name this acronym might refer to, but failed. We  realised that the new tarmac road ran farther north than the mysterious marker, but carried on anyway.

As we passed forks and cross roads we took fairly random turnings aiming for a low hilly range to our south. As we got closer, we saw some large Cereus jamacaru, still a novelty on this trip, as we have not yet been to Bahia where they dominate the landscape in many places. We took their picture near a farm house and also spotted a Pilosocereus on the edge of a clearing, near the tree line. Encouraged, we carried on. More forks and turnings and the track seemed to run out at a gate to a farm. We were now quite close to a bare rock face sloping at some 20-30 degrees and could see lots of azure blue Pilosocereus near the tree line through our binoculars and zoom lens.

Cliff felt that we were so close that he walked to the farm house and in his best PortuSpEnglish asked if we could drive to the rocks. No problema!

Through two gates and then came a third with a convenient parking place. We must have moved to another farmer’s land, asked permission to park, showed him a picture of a cactus on the camera monitor and received the thumbs up.

Just a short, 100 m crawl through the vegetation described yesterday and I stumbled across a mature Melocactus ernestii fa. I’d guess judging by the traditional long lower radial spine. Pictures were taken, then another few steps into a clearing and BINGO!!

In this small area were five species of five different genera of cacti! They were: Cereus jamacaru, Pilosocereus sp. (no idea what the species here is called until I get home and consult literature), Melocactus ernestii, Tacinga inamoena and …. Coleocephalocereus (Buiningia) aureus! The latter must be what used to be known as Buiningia brevicylindrica var. elongata, not one that I had seen before but hoped to see during this trip. Many plants were approaching 100 cm in height (over 3 ft for non-decimalists).

The Pilosocereus sp. can only be described as GORGEOUS, the epidermis on new growth un unreal blue in colour, somewhat variable spination and white hair at the apex with evidence of very recent and imminent flowering, but again these are night flowering cacti, so nothing open.

Between 12:00 noon and 13:46 I took 123 images, filed as S1557, to be able to tell the story when I get home. I’ll include a few shots in the album below. A remarkable stop!

We have another spare day tomorrow and might take another look in this area now that we seem to have gained a feel of what to look for: high vantage points to spot low hillsides with the right aspect and open rock faces.

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Two nights earlier than planned we decided to move on. Salinas is a bigger town and as you can see, we have found a hotel with Internet Broadband facilities, so important to the modern day cactus explorer, so he can keep friends and family up to date with the goings on.

It continues to be the case that there are no obvious cactus stops that suggest themselves along the road. Unfortunately on the very smooth hard top but two lanes only BR 251, it is dangerous to slow down when things may start to look promising as the risk of being run down by giant trucks motoring along at 100 km p. hr. is not insignificant. Also, a car park lay by from which we might launch ourselves into the wilderness are few and far between and usually NOT near places with potential. So we resorted to noting a few known localities from the database and set off on our next stretch.

The first stop earmarked illustrated the problem. I had GPS coordinates for a spot along the road, and as we approached it there was a lorry on our tale and no car park. So, 750 m along, on a now deserted road, we did a U-turn and pulled over on the hard shoulder, parked the car and disappeared into the thick vegetation (S1554). Yes, through the trees was a rocky outcrop that promised cacti! The vegetation could be divided into three groups:

1. Thorny, hanging on to clothes and hat or scratching bare skin

2. Vines etc, trying to tie you in knots while you are trying to avoid (1) above

3. Dead branches that the vines from (2) are attached to and drop on you when you pull too hard.

Each night I check for ticks but so far they have missed me.

You can see that in these circumstances it comes as a pleasant surprise when the aroma of a very pleasant perfume enters the nose. Where is the young lady wearing such pleasant perfume? Instead I noticed that I was standing next to an Orchid displaying two or three spikes of delicate green and white flowers.

I finally reached a huge rock and immediately found our target plant: nice azure blue Pilosocereus aurisetus the form previously known as P. supthutianus. I am still confused in the huge range of forms that are now classified under this name and might include a sequence of them in a future talk, particularly if I can explain the what & why for.

Climbing to the top of the rock got me to the nicest plants, plus a look at the other two cacti listed: Tacinga inamoena, that we will see ad nausea in Bahia, and a Melocactus ernestii form, may be ssp longicarpus. I only found one Melo and it was hanging precariously from one root over the edge of the rock, well out of my reach, but within zoom lens reach.

With the pictures taken, I noticed a car pull up in front of our car and two men in uniform getting out and taking a look at it. I was quickly back at the side of the road where they turned out to be a breakdown patrol. Either some one had phoned in a report of a deserted vehicle, or they had just happened on us during their regular patrol. There was much smiling and thumbs-up from me to indicate that all was OK and that we were just cactus loco tourists.

Later we saw that the use of the hard shoulder in Brazil is not such a great idea, as it is frequently used when lorries overtake each other as an escape route for oncoming traffic.

S1555 was a track off BR 251 in the hope that we might find somewhere interesting to take a look without the parking and lorry problems. Only one problem remained: no cacti!

S1556 was a pleasant surprise. At the Type locality of Micranthocereus violaciflorus (HU275), we readily found the plants, growing on rocks behind a microwave communication tower. I bet that was not there when the plants were discovered in the 60s/70s! What the location notes did not reveal was that there was also an abundance of Discocactus here, probably D. placentiformis, as well as P. fulvilanatus. The bad news was that, probably within the last twelve months, a fire had swept through here. Bare quartz with many charcoal black Velloziaceae stems were the scene, with blackened Micranthocereus on the rocks. Most of the Discocactus again seemed to have survived, although most were badly scorched by the flames. There were old and young plants and evidence that some had flowered last night, so it looks as though these plants will survive. Many of the Micranthocereus looked less fortunate – time will tell.

Brasilicereus markgraffii was also here, but that plant always looks ‘beaten up’ so seemed unaffected.

You left us yesterday crossing our fingers for a favourable outcome to our request for permission to be granted for us to be allowed into the Parque to see and photograph Discocactus horstii.

Claunidio Soares BomFim again gave up his time as Solicitor to help with interpreting for us. The outcome was as we had feared. Although the Grão Mogol office of the IEF (Instituto Estadual de Florestas) had put our request to their chief, who in turn had taken it to the Department Chief in Monte Claros who in turn had asked permission from the highest placed person in Belo Horizonte the answer remained a polite but firm ‘No.’

Knowing that we would be disappointed at this outcome, they would allow us to join the Volunteer, Joáo, who we first met at the newly completed Parque entrance yesterday, to take us on a guided tour of the Parque, except to the location where Discocactus horstii grows. They offered us digital images of the plants growing in habitat and struggled to understand why, if that is all that we wanted to take home with us, this was not enough. I struggled to explain this myself, as it was a perfectly reasonable and rational thing to ask. 

We decided to accept their kind offer for Joáo to show us all the other cacti in the Parque, but first we had an appointment at the Prefeitura Municipal, the Mayor’s Office. Last night, Cliff and I went out for a stroll and a beer. We sat down at a small street terrace and chatted with the owner, Antonio. ‘Chatted’ meant that we used a mixture of say 80% English, 15 % Spanish and 5% Portuguese words, a lot of arm waving and some pictures on my camera’s monitor to tell our new found friend that we were eco-tourists from England, touring Brazil for three months to photograph cacti. They were appalled to learn that we were not allowed to visit D. horstii and spontaneously reached for their mobile phones to plead our case with officers from the Mayor’s Office. The outcome was that we had a 10 a.m. appointment there.

Again, we very much appreciated the effort of the people of Grão Mogol to help us, but we realised that this would change little, as it seemed that the Parque was a State owned and managed project, outside the jurisdiction of the Municipio. By now there was every danger that we would spark off a major incident between local and state government and this really was not our intention. We made the visit merely as a courtesy call but found no one at the office who could speak or understand English or who knew of our appointment. Just as we were about to return to the Parque’s Office to pick up Joáo, who should arrive, but Claunidio, again as the interpreting voice of reason, just as he had been when Thomas Wegelin and his wife sparked off an incident, believing that they had received permission from the Prefeiture office and then had been ‘arrested’ when found inside the Parque’s boundary. Again, the Mayor’s secretary and her assistant were called out of meetings, repeated that there was nothing they could do and back we went.

Joáo took us to two different parts of the Parque that I have recorded as S1553a and S1553b, as effectively they are in the same location, the Parque Estadual de Grão Mogol.

S1553a was a matter of stepping through the barbed wire fence not too far from where we had done the same for S1552 yesterday. He had really understood what we wanted to see and took us straight into a very dense area of Discocactus pseudoinsignis. No sooner had we photographed what we thought was the largest plant that we had seen, or he would show us an even larger plant!  Sometimes the plants grew so close together that it was difficult not to step on them. This had also been a problem for the cattle that had been here (not sure how long ago) as some plants had been kicked out and others had been trodden on. All Discocactus are night flowering plants that produce a strong aroma that to attract their pollinators, a species of Hawk moth.

Photographing these plants was not without its challenges as many grew exposed on absolutely snow-white quartz sand, while others grew in the shade of shrubs and grasses, providing strong contrasts. When I get home, I will check the available literature to check if D. pseudoinsignis has been reported from outside the Parque boundaries as well,  or if it is another Parque endemic.

Joáo pointed at a Pilosocereus fulvilanatus that I had been photographing and asked if I liked these as well. Certainly, as all cacti were of interest to me. But this one had been seen outside the Parque boundaries. He took us to an area where the D. pseudoinsignis had suddenly disappeared from the scene and a small forest of Pilosocereus had taken its place. Why? Another one of Mother Nature’s quirks that makes studying cacti in habitat so fascinating.

It then struck me why it was so important to see D. horstii in habitat, when habitat pictures had been offered at the office. I felt a bit like a Brazilian tourist to Europe who had planned to visit the Louvre in  Paris to see The Mona Lisa (also known as La Gioconda or La Joconde) by Leonardo da Vinci in the museum. Millions of people visit the museum each year to admire her mysterious smile. Now imagine the disappointment of arriving there to learn that the hall where the picture hangs has been closed, but that staff are giving away pictures to help to overcome any disappointment. There are just some things that people want to see for themselves and are prepared to travel and pay for to see. Just as the mysterious smile drives us to see her, so the question as to why D. horstii grows where it does and nowhere else on the planet has been a discussion point for many years since its discovery in 1967. 

On our way back to the car I pointed at stems of Brasilicereus markgraffii and asked Joáo if he knew a similar thin stemmed plant from here with a hairy stem that forms a ring cephalium. Amazing what you can do with hand gestures and a mixture of words from different languages. I was trying to check if Arrojadoa eriocaulis ssp albicoronata grew here. He nodded to indicate that he knew it. Later, he showed us a small stem that mimics the Portulaca sp. (yellow flowered) that abounds here. Encouraged but puzzled by our excitement at such an insignificant plant he found as a whole area at  S1553b. He demonstrated that the stems never get taller than some 30 cm. We saw two or three stems with a ring cephalium that is characteristic of the genus. He looked in disbelieve or confusion (?) when I explained that there was a huge tuberous root below the soil and that many of the stems that he showed us were probably all connected to the same root. It seems that this plant has adapted a similar survival strategy to Pterocactus elsewhere: invest in an underground tuber from which new short lived growth emerges when conditions are favourable. If you happen to visit at the wrong (dry) time of year, I suspect that there is no sign of the plant. I suspect that this plant is more rare in nature than D. horstii, but it’s rather temperamental in cultivation in Europe and the short untidy stems seem not to appeal to hobbyists.

We reached the base of a waterfall and Joáo suggested that we’d climb to the top. At around 13:00 hrs, the heat was very uncomfortable and we decided to decline the kind offer, had a rest in the shade by the bottom of the waterfall and returned to the car to drive to the small bar along the road past the official entrance site and have a Cola or two. It turned out to be 3 litres as clearly we were very dehydrated. Joáo only wanted two small glasses of Cola. In total I was able to take 183 digital images in the Parque, compared to the 72 or so slides taken in 1999.

All in all we had a great day and were really impressed with the friendly helpful attitude of the people we met. Claunidio stands out as a key person to help to improve the situation with his language skills. In the meantime, I have offered to help by communicating the current position regarding visits to D. horstii in habitat to cactophiles around the world through my Blog and internet cactus forums. In the short term it may result in fewer international visitors to the town, but once the visiting rules have been agreed and implemented and when the new hotel being built on the outskirts of town is finished, there is great potential for organised cactus trips returning here for every one’s benefit and enjoyment.

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