The Cactus Trip Diaries

The first stop today (S1460) was at the type locality of Parodia stockingeri where it grew alongside the much larger P. linkii and a very large form of Frailea pumila

S1461 took us along the BR-287 Santiago towards Unistalda where on flat rock outcrops to the left of the road we found Frailea pumila and Parodia glaucina. I’m not sure who was frightened the most, me or the nightjar that I disturbed and that suddenly flew up as I walked unknowingly into it’s comfort zone, only a few feet away. It had finally decided to no longer rely on its excellent camouflage and make its escape. Lucky for the bird that I managed a few shots with my camera rather than with a shotgun.

S1462, southeast of Santiago on the BR 287 we turned right to Nova Esperança and then followed a track towards the gruta Nossa Senhora de Fátima where we found Parodia muricata, P. oxycostata and P. glaucina as well as the usual Cereus hildmannianus.

S1463 was for pictures taken just up the road from the last stop at gruta Nossa Senhora de Fátima. A tourist centre if you like, but we were the only people there, from which you could make a walk through some caves and to a waterfall, in reasonable flow due to recent rains. John seemed to have designed his own trip but eventually rejoined us at the snack bar where we had been enjoying a few Coca Colas and beers. As we drove out, we passed the nearby settlement with a church far larger than the population would seem to justify and, at the other side of town a smallish cemetery again with a ‘street’ of very ornate graves, suggesting a local wealth again greater than would be suggested by what we had seen.

Some 12 km north of Jaguari along the road BR-287 we stopped at some sandstone hills to the left of the road (S1464) where among many shrubs and pine trees we found Parodia muricata growing in sand and pine needles.

We arrived in Mata, a nice village best known for the near by petrified forest. However, these fossil tree remains are so common here that they were used everywhere, as street curbs and the building of low walls and numerous ornamental monuments. Well worth a picture which are filed as S1465. We spotted a cute church down a side street, again surrounded by steps and a small monument made of petrified tree trunks. Opposite the church was a hotel and we suggested that Marlon should enquire as to price and availability. And so we had some very nice comfortable rooms in a very picturesque setting.

I went for a stroll to take some more pictures, of an old steam engine, turned monument outside the church. Plates on the machine indicated that it had been built by Heinrich Lanz from Mannheim, Germany in 1923 and we could notice many German influences in architecture and in the faces of the inhabitants. During dinner, a pre-wedding feast passed the hotel. All participants were dressed up in Bavarian costumes as the groom and bride introduced themselves and their intention to get married to the local community.

Cactus wise, the church had a huge tree-like Opuntia ficus-indica growing by the side and past it, an equally large monstrose plant of Cereus hildmannianus. 

Yes, that’s right, Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil has a Santiago as well! And a wonderful hotel, the São João Palace Hotel. This was a welcome change from last night’s Palace Hotel, which just was not a palace – perhaps one in the making. I had a fairly miserable start to the day, but fortunately a couple of Imodium tablets settled things down quickly.

Again, it was a bright sunny day, but quite windy, causing my already red-raw eyes to run continuously. Thank God for auto-focus cameras, or else I would not have taken a single picture today.

Just two stops, but very nice ones, as we completed our list of Brazilian Frailea taxa. Marlon has been a mine of information and I’ll have to re-read his excellent article in Cactus World to match the information there to what we have seen. However, his studies were even more focussed on the Parodia (Notocactus) ottonis complex including investigations into their relationship with any of the other Parodia from this State, so I have been encouraging him to write an article for the Notocactus beginner, such as myself, that covers all the information and observations that he has shared with us.

First of the stops today was S1458, with the spectacular natural arch / bridge in the Cerro do Tigre on one side of the road with on the other side a walk through Lupines about to burst into bloom, to reach rock shelves with boulders (not quite Baja California’s boulder field at Catavina) and sand, with Frailea fulviseta and Parodia (Notocactus) glaucina growing in the sand on the edge of the rock shelves, between mosses and Dyckia sp. Marlon tells us that the natural arch has deteriorated significantly during the last 4 years and that at this rate it won’t be there for much longer.

Another climb up the boulders would have taken me to the type locality of Parodia (Notocactus) fusca, but my eyes were burning and watering so much from the wind and the dust (plus a good amount of pollen, causing hay fever just as in Spring in the UK) that I could not see where I was putting my feet. On this rocky terrain with tall grasses and shrubs hiding rodent burrows, it seemed wiser to give this climb a miss. Especially when Wiebe disturbed a wasp or hornet’s nest and received four stings for his efforts. Later, Cliff walked by too close as well and received a couple of stings before spotting the nest.

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At the second stop, (S1459) my eyes had gotten worse, if that was possible. I followed the shapes of Cliff and Marlon, wiped my eyes and pointed my camera where they told me there were plants and auto-focus did the rest. A surprisingly good batch of images all things considered. Here Frailea cataphracta was the last name to join the list of Brazilian Frailea that we were to see on this trip. They were in plentiful supply and I could have pointed my camera almost anywhere along the ground to capture these tiny plants. Parodia (Notocactus) glaucina was also around, this time in better exposed locations and with the flowers opened wider.

The mountain goats in the group (all but me) had clambered up a rock face to photograph Gymnocalycium horstii ssp buenekeri. Eventually I followed gingerly. Who ever had named this plant for Rudi Bueneker could not have been very fond of the man, as the plants looked terrible in this harsh environment. If the aim of showing plants in UK C&S shows is to display cultivated plants that resemble their cousins in habitat, then all entries that I have seen in National and Branch shows should be disqualified for being too pretty. I made the point as my burning eyes ‘found’ a clump of plants that turned out to be ‘the brown form’ i.e. a mature cow pat. Echinopsis oxygona was seen by my fellow travellers but as it was not in flower, I was happy to find a shady spot underneath a tree until the others returned. The Frailea had again been the stars of this stop.

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We woke up to the flashing of sheet lightening – I thought for a moment that my eyes were playing up big time! Then the almost reassuring sound of heavy rain, and as the storm approached, joined in with the sound of thunder in the distance.

We followed the plan of getting up at seven for breakfast, more to keep our bodies used to a certain routine rather than from a burning desire to be out there looking for plants – the usual side roads would be near on impassable and the natural light inadequate for good photography.

Things had eased up a bit by 9:30 and we decided to get on the road and get ourselves to stop #1 of three planned for today’s easy day with all the stops along the paved road.

S1448 was a for Cereus hildmannianus, Frailea perumbilicata (not seen by most of the group, but Cliff, who had explored farther to our left found a few), Parodia (Notocactus) buiningii (a first for me) and P. sellowii, P. mammulosa plus P. ottonis completed the set here.

At S1449 we were treated to Frailea phaeodisca, looking good despite the far from ideal light conditions, Gymnocalycium urugayense, looking flat half buried in the ground if you could find them in the grass, Parodia buiningii, P. mammulosa and P. ottonis (or was it glaucina with curved rather than straight spines?)

S1450 completed today’s cactus stops with the best P. buiningii of the day, as they had dried by now and the light had greatly improved. Again they were joined by P. mammulosa and P. oxycostata (P. glaucina or P. ottonis?)

We wasted no time finding a hotel in Quarai and found very comfortable lodgings at hotel Fenic (www.hotelfenic.com.br) although if you plan to stay there, ask for a room at the back rather than one overlooking the 24 hour petrol station which was noisy.

A quick excursion into town saw me acquire a gaucho hat in the local style – flat with a wide rim – and a belt to match, both probably destined for ornamental use when I get home.

I know that for the most of these reports, i have focussed on the cacti that we have seen or looked for. But  we have seen (and photographed) a lot beside. Foremost the landscapes at each of our cactus stops. Hard to put into words, but not at all ‘foreign’ as you might expect on the other side of the world. Many times we could have imagined that we were in England in Spring or high summer. Then there were the tell tale signs that we were not: Araucaria trees, palm trees, groups of Rhea americana intermedia, the equivalent of the ostrich in South America, grazing among the cattle for protection, large numbers of white egrets, again accompanying the cattle in the lush grassy meadows that often have marshy spots as well as the rocky outcrops where we look for cacti. From the marshy patches we hear the sounds of frogs, favourites on the egret menu. And while the paved roads are as bad as UK roads, often poorly maintained with huge pot holes (Marlon warns that there is much worse to come in Bahia!) a significant amount (more than half I guess) of our daily track is driven on unpaved roads of varying quality and totally unpredictable.

These additional features are more difficult to include in the diaries and I’ll try to include some pictures to help to overcome this.

S1439 was another one of those stops with huge diversity of cactus taxa as we found and photographed Cereus hildmannianus, Frailea pumila, Parodia (Notocactus) mammulosa, P. ottonis, P. tenuicylindrica, Parodia (Wigginsia) sellowii and its form erinacea.

In contrast, S1440 just had P. mammulosa and P. sellowii fa arinacea. Frailea pumila was reported from previous visits but not seen (photographed) by me this time. ,

S1441 brought a new (for us) Frailea, F. perumbilicata and a new Parodia (Notocactus), P. mueller-melchersii as well as P. mammulosa

F. permubilicata was still there at S1442, but this time accompanied by Gymnocalycium uruguayense, but none of its neighbours from the previous site. Why? or I guess: why not? or as John would say: Soooooo?!

At S1443 found G. uruguayense again but this time accompanied by Parodia fusca, not yet seen by us on this trip. Why, what is so special about this place that it occurs here, but not elsewhere. It seems so similar to the other Notocactus group that we see elsewhere. The more you see, the more questions it raises. We are always looking for logical reasons that in nature is not always a reasonable expectation I guess. And that makes it all the more intriguing.

At S1444 Parodia (Notocactus) glaucina was the stranger in town and at S1445 P. mueller-melchersii was back, this time with P. tenuicylindrica. At S1446 it was P. mammulosus and P. mueller-melchersii, and by S1447 I seemed to have lost the plot as I have allocated a stop number but have neither pictures nor notes for it. Who knows. I’ll take a closer look in the future and leave S1447 blank for now.

Today started as well as yesterday had finished, again another heap of taxa all in one location (S1432) : Cereus hildmannianus, Dyckia sp., Echinopsis oxygona, Frailea mammifera,  Lepismium lumbricoides, Opuntia brunneogemmia, Parodia ottonis, P. linkii,  P. arnostiana,  P. permutata (Notocactus ritterianus),  P. langsdorfii, P. sellowii – we were in a real area of cactus diversity!

S1433 gave us Frailea pygmaea, Parodia ottonis and Cereus hildmannianus according to Marlon’s list for his stop RS-051. Looking through my pictures I also find that I photographed P. linkii, P. sellowii, and Gymnocalycium denudatum and I now see that Marlon has added two extra reference numbers to his list for these additional plants. I also photographed a couple more Iris sp.

S1434 was an impromptu stop along the track, because the side of the road was a low rocky outcrop with lots of cacti in flower. we found  Frailea pygmaea, Gymnocalycium denudatum, P. ottonis, and P. sellowii. Those yellow flowers really stand out and shout! We noted that while we had at most stops squeezed ourselves between tight strands of wire, here, and at various other stops before, the cacti were on the road side of the fence, not inside the fenced off area. That is where the cattle grazed, while roadside the plants were protected from these bovine bulldozers. I promised myself to look roadside first before squeezing myself between more wires.

Close to the gate to Fazenda Aurora we made another stop (S1435). Here we found Frailea densispina (and F. horstii?) growing on outcrops of metamorphic igneous rock together with P. langsdorfii and P. ottonis.

S1436 was almost continuous with the previous stop and had Frailea densispina with golden spines and F. horstii with white spines again together with P. langsdorfii and P. ottonis.

At S1437 all these taxa were joined by Parodia scopa ssp. succinea.

S1438 was another stop for P. succinea, a yellow spined subspecies of the white spined P. scopa.

By just reading these reports you might ask why we put ourselves through some expense and discomfort, just to see these same plants growing in nature. It is to see the diversity of these habitats that is interesting, with sometimes an expected taxa missing and sometimes a species not yet seen coming into the picture(s), literally. Yes, I know, we’re mad. But having harmless fun and seeing and learning a lot about foreign countries and its nature, people and climate in general.  

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At the moment, I write up my notes in the morning following the Diary Date, simply because after a quick freshen up after our arrival, it is down to dinner and when we get back, I’m in deep sleep as soon as my head hits the pillow.

We had another great day cactussing, making six stops (according to Angie’s notes – mine are in the car). Again, there were a good number of first time encounters with taxa that so far I only knew ‘from captivity’ in my collection back home. 

We were due to have spent the night in Bage and arrived in good time to allow a much needed rest and start on downloading and note writing, but all hotels and motels in town turned out to be full or out of our budget. Once again (as in Chile) it turned out that a mining corporation had block booked all available rooms for a six month period. We turned down the opportunity to stay in a hotel clearly designed for an additional purpose, with cabanas providing only a double bed, rather than the two singles preferred by most blokes sharing rooms on a cactus trip. 

So it was that we decided again to drive on to the next town, Dom Predito, another 65 km along the road where our third attempt to find rooms was successful. Apart from a minor set back when Woody’s bed collapsed underneath him as he was downloading his pictures.

The complementary glasses of rum, the cocktails (similar to Pisco Sour in Chile) and ample quantities of cold beer helped to raise the spirits (excuse pun) again and to wash down the excellent food.

Oh yes, we had seen cacti as well today:

S1427: We drove along RS 357 from Caçapava do Sul towards Lavras do Sul before turning right (west) on an  unpaved road towards Santa Bárbara. After some 15 km we stopped at rock outcrops to the left of the road and found Frailea pygmaea, Gymnocalycium denudatum, Parodia (Notocactus) crassigibba, Parodia (Wigginsia) langsdorfii and P. sellowii

S1428: was farther along RS 357 and had G. denudatum and a form of F. gracillima called gigantea growing in the grass. Good job that no one cuts the grass here, or the plants would be gone.

S1429: still on RS 357 heading from Caçapava do Sul towards Lavras do Sul we stopped to see Parodia crassigibba, Parodia ottonis, Frailea pygmaea, and Parodia langsdorfii. I also managed a few shots of the ovenbird nests. These birds get their name because the nests that they build from mud look very similar to clay ovens. We had seen them before in 2005 in Argentina.

S1430 was a short, but difficult climb through low shrubs. I kept seeing Angie’s hat bopping up above the shrubbery while I had already reached a higher vantage point. We found Parodia ottonis, P. neobuenekeri, Gymnocalycium denudatum, P. sellowii, Cereus hildmannianus and Opuntia rubrogemmia

S1431 was a real treasure throve in terms of cactus taxa found in one location: Frailea gracillima,  F. pygmaea, F. horstii, Parodia langsdorfii, P. mammulosa, P. werneri (Notocactus uebelmannianus var. pleiocephalus), P. ottonis, Opuntia brunneogemmia, O. rubrogemmia,  Gymnocalycium denudatum, Echinopsis oxygona, and Cereus hildmannianus! Not bad for a single stop. Let’s hope that I can put the names to the pictures in time to come.

Our Cactus Adventures continue at a relentless pace, another ten stops today! Excellent! But with the day cramped solid from the 6 a.m. alarm on Angie’s mobile phone until I fall into bed exhausted at around 10 p.m. we’re on the go. Something has to give and that something is writing up the Diaries. Even just a list of today’s stops and a list of what we had seen would take too long. I have my images ad paper notes for that later so will keep to a few overview impressions.

I somehow managed to forget my traditional expedition hat, on the packing table at Angie’s. As I still had my pre-expedition no. 3 hair cut, the result was a red scalp and a new hat bought in the shop next door to the hotel after the damage was done.

As was the case yesterday, today’s stops were revisits of the exploration that Marlon had done before in 2005 and 2006 and again he was amazed at the changes, all due to the much more intense use of the land for forestry, agriculture and the highly efficient land clearing activities of bovine tractors (cows), sheep and goat. Many thriving habitat locations from 2005 and 2006 had their plant numbers decimated or destroyed. At the TL of Parodia (Notocactus) scopa only a few young seedlings were found.

Yesterday, those of us that managed to cram into Woody’s car (all except Cliff & I) finished the day at a P. scopa location where they found only three or four plants. On both occasions it would have been better to visit these first thing in the morning as, unlike other cacti we had found, these have a strong preference to grow on east facing slopes, i.e. in full shade by the time we got their at the end of the day.

And we continue to be surprised at what we find in some unlikely looking places. I dare say that without Marlon’s guidance we would not have stopped at many of them. The sound of water logged meadows squelching under foot is not usually associated with cactus explorations. Once we had reached the rocky outcrops the cacti appeared.

So, what did we see today? In no particular order and without checking books for the correct spelling: Frailea phaeodisca, F. gracillima ssp. horstii, Echinopsis oxygona, including one plant with its flower fully opened (an orderly queue was formed to take its picture), Parodia in the Parodia (Notocactus) crassigibba complex, including the red flowered P. uebelmannianus and its yellow flowered cousin, P. archnites, suggesting that flower colour alone is not enough to uphold different species names and Gymnocalycium denudatum.

Breakfast calls, so I’ll fill in with more detailed text and pictures at a later date.

Still trying to get used to the hectic pace that can be part of field trips, my notes for today are abysmal. That is the great thing of being part of a group, others can help you out. So with the help of Angie via MSN chat and Marlon’s stop numbers and relevant data and with plotting these on Google Earth, I can tell you that we took road BR-392 from Santana da Boa Vista towards Canguçu, and that after some 32 km from the entrance of Santana da Boa Vista, we turned left (north) onto an unpaved road to Paredão, after 8.1 km granitic rock outcrops to the right of the road. was our first stop, S1408, providing us with pictures of Gymnocalycium horstii, Parodia ottonis nothominusculus and Frailea gracillima.

For S1409 we left the car at the same place as for S1408 but walked to a different hillside aspect where Frailea gracillima, Parodia (Wigginsia) langsdorfii (with strong central spine) and P. ottonis nothominusculus provided the cactus interest with a blueish Iris sp and small Petunia (endemic here) provided the colour.

Marlon was shocked to see what had happened here since his last visit in 2006. At the time it was obvious that the area would be cleared and planted up with trees – Eucalyptus and pine, mainly for the paper industry. It seems unlikely that the cacti can survive this change of habitat use. A great shame, but usually commercial interests outweigh plant conservation issues.

We moved some 2 km towards Santana da Boa Vista for S1410 and found two species of Eryngium, belonging to the family Apiaceae, although their appearance suggests that they are Bromeliads. Once the flower spikes are produced, things become clearer. The flowers are clustered in tight umbels, with a whorl of spiny basal bracts. Although these plants occur in Europe, their centre of diversity is in South America. I have no pictures of the P. ottonis that Marlon reports from here.

Things were a lot easier at S1411 where the raised side of the track, was covered in P. ottonis in advanced bud. In theory we only needed to wind the windows down to get the pictures, but with seven people jockeying for position, out of the car was easier.

S1412 was not for plants, but to take pictures of Cliff & Wiebe’s valiant efforts to get our Fiat Doblo up a steep part of the track. Woody had already managed this feat in the lead car, but our almost bald front tyres (on a front wheel drive car) had no chance and just spun round aimlessly. There was no other solution than to go back. Combined with a gutless engine (it became a bit better when we changed from an alcohol/petrol mix to pure petrol mix at the next fuel station). As consolation we still managed a few images of P. ottonis growing at the top of the hill where the car would not go.

Angie and I had been looking forward especially to S1413 where we again found P.ottonis, but growing alongside a new, yet to be described Frailea sp. Marlon had first come across this plant during previous trips and a picture of it appears on the back cover of one of the Cactus World journal (details to follow when I get home). Marlon had sent Angie some 20 seeds from the only fruit with ripe seed found and although there had been reasonable germination, Angie’s green fingers had failed this plant. Others who were given seedlings to graft were similarly disappointed. By Spring 2009 there was one plant left and it flowered. Angie stirred the flowers in the hope that self pollination would produce some seed and at least this was successful.

So you can imagine our excitement at seeing this plant in quite some numbers before us in habitat. It is nice to see that there are still things to be discovered and that mere mortals like ourselves can play a role in this. Quite a few plants were in flower. We should have some viable seed next year.

At S1414 we took more Frailea pictures, F. pygmaea, together with Parodia ottonis, Gymnocalycium denudatum, and Cereus hildmannianus and a variety of animal droppings for use in a future Zone Quiz. Animal grazing had taken the tops out of the Gymnocalycium and it was amazing to see how these plants had managed to generate new heads from the centre of the damaged stem. They must have a very deep meristem.

S1415 was for a tree that had a large Lepismium lumbricoides hanging from its branches.

The last stop (for Cliff & I) was S1416 for Frailea gracillima, Parodia ottonis. We again failed to negotiate a steep part of the track so Cliff & I waited by our car while Angie joined the other car to take a look at P. scopa, before returning and driving exhausted to our hotel.

Great day – again!

During the night, the clocks had switched from Winter Time to Summer Time, which meant that we had to carefully set alarm clocks to be up at 6 a.m. for breakfast at 7 and on the road by 8. Our body clocks were already so confused that it really did not matter. It was light when we got up, and we were itching to and see our first cacti in habitat. We all managed except for Marlon, Woody & John, all sharing a room, firmly blaming Marlon, all in good humour.

Today we spent most of the time on good dirt roads, running parallel to BR471 making seven stops in all. I’ll stick with my S (stop) numbers, but will include Marlon’s MM numbers to enable cross referencing to his field list for names and other information.

S1400 (MM177) – Marlon pointed at the rocky out crops with the instruction:’ Go get them boys!’. Well, not really, but that’s how we felt.  In the end Marlon and Angie sat this one out as a formidable fence including barbed wire needed to be conquered. As I walked up hill through dense low forest I was reminded of a similar walk south of Mazatlan, Mexico over six months ago. Lots of lichens on the trees and rocks, mosses and the lush vegetation indicating that this place was usually quite wet. There they were: my first sight of a Frailea in habitat: Frailea gracillima. The plants were hardly the size of the top of my little finger. Why is it that small plants are often so fascinating? Other cacti included Parodia (Notocactus) ottonis and Cereus hildmannianus

Stop S1401 was a total of three clearings that Marlon had given separate numbers to on an earlier visit MM178, MM179 and MM180. The cacti were the same taxa as at the previous stop, except that the Frailea here was a nomen nudum: F. gigantea, regarded to be no more that a large form of F. gracillima. The plants were in bud and if we had waited, we would have seen one of the Frailea’s flowers open. Nice stop in very pleasant ‘not too hot, not too cold’ conditions.

Stop S1402 was very brief, caused by me exercising the right of any member of the expedition to shout ‘Stop!’ because they had seen something of interest: A reasonably sized P. ottonis with three nearly open flowers.

S1403 was Marlon’s MM181. Again, it was just a quick stop for a couple of dozen P. ottonis in full flower., near a farm house, as though they had been planted there.

S1404 (MM182) was for a Dyckia, some Tillandsias and one or two more Frailea gigantea.

S1405 (MM185) was for Parodia (Wigginsia) langsdorfii, something different again! We were seeing a good amount of cactus diversity on day 1!

S1406 (MM186) was a Marlon special, as he introduced us to Parodia gaucha, a new species that he and João F. Larocca described in 2008 (in Novon: A Journal for Botanical Nomenclature 18(2):214-219. 2008). It is an interesting plant that we could see growing / hanging on the steep rock face along the side of the road. We also found it growing alongside P. ottonis and along a plant that we referred to as a ‘dense-spined form’ of P. ottonis, that gave the impression of possibly being an intermediate form between the two. To add to the excitement, we also found anther Frailea, F. pygmaea, tiny plants, some already in bud.

We finished the day at S1407 (MM104) which had Parodia concinnus, P linkii and P. ottonis growing together.

A great day, full of promise for the rest of the trip!

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