The Cactus Trip Diaries

Today we reached the famous Avenue de Baobabs at sunset.

This was one of my better shots after I found a friend to pose

Chameleon in Av. de Beobab

Christophe took us for a brief sightseeing tour of Antsirabe, the third largest city in Madagascar and seemingly the capital of ‘pousse pousse’, the French term for rickshaws that here come in three forms: the motorised luxury version, built around a scooter, the one-man power version, built around a bicycle and the version pulled by a young lad, often barefoot, that particularly in heavy traffic seem to be the most manoeuvrable. Our tour took us past the old station dating back to the old colonial days. It is the capital of the cooler central region and was founded by Norwegian missionaries.

We then headed into the country, past a non-active volcanic crater where a quarry provides Christophe’s pumice for his plant collection back home. Lots of agriculture going on here with rice paddies being prepared for the coming rainy seasons. We arrived at another non-active volcanic crater and were immediately surrounded by kids offering to sell us local gem stones and fossils. The crater was filled with water (Lac Tritriva) and we had to pay a small entrance fee and pay a local guide who told us that the lake was 300 m x 100 m with a depth of 140 m. It is connected to lakes in other calderas of near-by volcanoes. The guide offered to take us on a guided walk through the (imported) pine forest around the lake, but we were interested in the geophyte plants that grow here, Euphorbia primulifolia. These plants are very difficult to find when not in leaf or flower, but our luck was in as Christophe pointed at the flowers all around us.

Euphorbia primulifolia, in cultivation, growing with their tuberous root exposed.

Euphorbia primulifolia in habitat, with the tuber buried.

Our journey continued and as the low sun was beginning to colour the scenery a reddish colour we arrived at Mount Mandato, home of Aloe mambotoensis but also an opportunity to take a closer look at Pachypodium densiflorum that we had seen yesterday from a distance. Christophe was sad to notice a decline in the plants since his last visit.

Pachypodium densiflorum

Aloe mambotensis

After my failure yesterday to climb a reasonably low hill, today’s ‘Mountain’ Mt. Itiby looked quite intimidating as we parked the car.

Again, we’re pushed for time as I write this, so for now I’ll stick to the list of plants that I photographed and the fact that my pride is restored to some extend, although I am still the slowest thing on the road! The ‘invisible hand’ (beta blockers, to protect my heart) won’t allow me to build up to the speed of the others and the statin tablets to help the control of chloresterol have taken their toll on my muscles – dose halved at my last review shortly before take off. But I got there!

So, in alphabetical order we saw:

Aloe capitata var quartziticola
Aloe laeta
Bulbophyllum sp. – a small Orchids
Kalanchoe integrifolia – ranging from small plantlets to shrubs in size
Kalanchoe synsepala the “Walking Kalanchoe.”
Pachypodium brevicaule – bare, in leaf, in bud, in flower and in fruit – the full story!
Pachypodium densiflorum high on a rock, in flower

Pachypodium brevicaule on Mt Itiby

For me, the Pachapodium were the highlight of the day. As soon as I had photographed my first one, I was ready to go back to the car – but actually the break for photos helped me to recover a bit. The Pachypodium‘s bark is so smooth, it just demands to be stroked and there was lots of opprtunity to do so. But not for P. densiflorum that, here, only grew high on a large rock, out of stroking range, except for Willy, our local guide who was a former student of Christophe, who took off his sandals (Brian please note!) as an indication that there was some serious climbing for him to do, to bring down some of the flowers to allow us to see the one of the differences between P. brevicaule and P. densiflorum. From a distance, P. densiflorum forms short but clearly visible branches, as it had done in my collection in the UK before it rotted.

Great day!

In exactly one month time I should be on my way to Heathrow to escape British Winter before the clocks switch to Winter Time. This time, my escape is to the fourth largest island in the world, Madagascar, with the airport some 18 degrees south of the Equator.

‘But there are no cacti in Madagascar’, I hear you say. Well, there are, but none are endemic, with the usual culprits finding the conditions to their liking, thus continueing the non-endemic theme started by Cylindropuntia tunicata in Chile in 2015. In the absence of natural enemies and encouraged to spread by the now declining goat population was causing a real pest here. I expect Cylindropuntia to be again amongst the most successful invaders, but also expect Harrisia and, from ‘the other succulents’, Agave, to be among the aliens. All were brought here by humans, but found the conditions so favourable that they escaped into nature and started to compete with the natural flora.

The main image of Madagascar in my mind is the cover image of Werner Rauh’s first book on the Flora of Madagascar, of the giant pachycaul trees, Adansonia grandieri, standing guard along the Avenue of the Baobabs. It is a ‘must see’ place to visit.

… the giant pachycaul trees, Adansonia grandieri, standing guard along the Avenue of the Baobabs.

But the Baobabs are not the only ‘fat stemmed trees’ on the island. There are members of the Family Apocynaceae (Adenium and Pachypodium) and Euphorbiaceae to name but a few, that all possess these fat stems. I have come across them on my travels, in Australia, South Africa, Namibia and in Mexico, to the point that I thought that I could do a presentation on the subject, but not before having seen the Madagascan giants.

‘But you know nothing abouty these plants!’ I hear you say. Again, correct, but my library and the internet provide just about all the information I need and I have actually grown (and killed) a number of Pachycauls since my visit to South Africa and Namibia in 2012 and we are being guided by French botanist, Christophe Quenel, recommended to us by BCSS CactusWorld editor Al Laius, who has travelled with him before. Just as knowledgeable (?) as I am, is my UK fellow traveller John Childs, who is also looking forward to pointing his camera at the Pachycauls, while we both also hope that lemurs and chamelions will cross our lenses.

As usual, I plan to write up my reports of what we see on a daily basis for publication in the Cactus Trip Diaries Blog. It is likely that internet facilities to send out these epistles on a daily basis may be difficult to find, so that I expect them to be released in batches when ever wifi is available. And I don’t expect these to be ‘broadband’, just a thin fragile wire, so that images may have to wait until we arrive back in the UK in mid November. The images and movie clips will be sorted and arranged to become a digital presentation and I have already accepted many invitations from BCSS Branches to show What I saw Last Winter in 2017.

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I hope you’ll join us next month!