Fig.
1 Trichocereus terschekiiArgentina. This article has been originally published in CACTI & OTHERS, a journal published by Tomasz Romulski.
More information on the journal here:
Translated by Tomasz Romulski.
Summary: Mariusz Mieczakowski gives a report on his cactus trip to Argentina, as part of Czech and Polish 2005 cactus expedition to Argentina and Bolivia.
In our cactus hobby, friends are obviously more important than the cacti. And it was due to a friend, Andrzej Mucha from Gdańsk that my name was enrolled on a list of Czech and Polish expedition to Argentina and Bolivia, and that I found myself on the Frankfurt airport in the beginning of November. And just there, our four-piece group (apart from Andrzej and me, there came also a lobiviolog Tomek Blaczkowski from Gdańsk and five Czech cactiphiles) queued for the airplane entrance. The air trip was a dozen or so hours long, tiring, but finally we landed in Buenos Aires, from where a bus took us north to Salta. Here we hired cars and the same night we camped in Campo Quijano, at the mouth of the famous Quebrada del Toro, the Bull’s valley, in which we were planning to spend some time traveling from South to North.
In the early morning, having struck our camp, we barge into our cars and after some time we see our first cacti, moreover, the cacti of due hight. We are in the ravine, the Sun is shining now only on the hilltops around us. And these cacti are Trichocereus terschekii – imposing plants, but in reality not very pretty, with sparse, short and grey spination, and without flowers at this time. Later on we will find out that they grow on a very restricted area – we saw them only on few localities here, in Quebrada del Toro.
Fig.
1 Trichocereus terschekii
At one of our turnings we check up the hillsides on each of the road sides. They are very steep – climbing is dangerous, but… Rebutia xanthocarpa. The same old plant from grandmothers’ windowsills. At first – uncertainty about species name, but later one of the Czechs finds a specimen with a fruit. The yellow colour of the fruit shatters our doubts, because this is really it, unfortunately, opening the fruit shatters our hopes – it is empty, without seeds. We find only withered red flowers. But we check up a hillside on the other side of the road and find a pretty large population of Parodia nivosa, one of the most popular (quite justifiably) Parodias, glassy-white spination of which and its crimson flowers make it similar to the another America’s ‘star’: Mammilopsis senilis. Both the Parodia and the Rebutia occupy cracks in vertical rocks, filled with humus, but Parodia nivosa, as many other small Parodias, grows most frequently in cushions of moss that can be even completely dry, or in clusters of bromeliads of the Abromeitiella genus. Most probably, only there the young seedlings are able to find enough moisture needed to reach maturity. Till now, there are no high altitudes, only slightly above 1800 m, so here and there we find clumps of cleistocacti. These are beautiful plants but somehow do not draw attention of any of my colleagues. They grow only on those altitudes – they are seen only occasionally in the higher parts. Probably they are not able to systain chiliness which some 1000 m higher up occurs more than often.
Another stop – at a place where Gymnocalycium spegazzinii locality is supposed to be. There it is (MPL 3)! This is undoubtedly the most beautiful species in the whole large genus Gymnocalycium. In addition, one can see scrubs of Trichocereus terschekii and sometimes of Cleistocactus sp. here and there. All these cacti prefer plain ‘meadows’ rather than slopes, though without a trace of grass. The soil looks rather rich and water-absorbing for the Andes, and the gymnos are impressively large, so presumably they have enough to ‘eat and drink’ .
Fig.
2 Gymnocalycium spegazzinii MPL3
Going northwards through the ravine, we climb up and up all the time. At 2200 m altitude we find a pretty large stand of Parodia stuemeri, and 300 m higher there are cusions of Tephrocactus sp. and Airampoa sp., an obvious sign suggesting that we are in the Andes, where daily temperatures may be 30oC, and at night – 3oC – in summer. Here, near Puerta Tastil, on a big plain area, there is a locality of Pyrrhocactus umadeave, consisting of many beautiful old plants, but somehow small seedlings are not visible. Why? Too little rain? Above 3000 m – another Parodia, P. faustiana and the first of Lobivias, L. chrysantha. These Parodias are from 1 cm to 5-6 cm in size at the very most, and, what is interesting, all of them grow out horizontally, not longitudinally. In this region, on the similar altitude, we find localities of two rare mediolobivias (a subspecies in the genus Rebutia, but counted among Lobivias by Rausch), both growing on almost vertical rocks of difficult access as they are fragile and falling to pieces. These plants are: Mediolobivia einsteinii var. gonjianii and Mediolobivia nigricans var. peterseimii. The plants are not abundant here, but maybe there are more of them on higher rocks, where it is impossible to climb to. Let’s hope so. The first form, we happened to see with flowers though either withered or just closing up in spite of early afternoon, between 3 and 4 p.m.. After all, they were worth our effort because the flowers are yellow – the colour that does not occur frequently in this genus. Many of the plants are adorned with big buds – surely they will develop next days. M. nigricans has neither buds nor flowers, also do not show any encouraging appearance. Probably it did not get any rain this spring, or too little, at least so little that the plants hidden under a layer of dust and covered with pebbles in some places appear to be suffering. Flowers, had they been present, would have been red.
We leave Quebrada del Toro near the town San Antonio de los Cobres, and we head to Purmamarca on the road running through the plateau. Somewhere between Tres Morros and Purmamarka we stop in our way at a locality of Mediolobivia einsteinii (MPL 10).
Fig.
3 Mediolobivia einsteinii MPL10)
Again there is no trace of flowers, though the buds are promising. On the same spot, over-magnificent balls of Soehrensia formosa var. nivalis spined with copper and gold, draw our attention (MPL 11).
Fig.
4 Soehrensia formosa var. nivalis MPL11
Our trip through the plateau has its end in the Tilcara, a town probably every cactus lover has heard of. Here we touch land on a camping ground. Pitching our tents, preparing meals and the toilet take us the rest of the day. But the next morning we are in for an unforgettable experience. Almost just beyond the outskirts of the town, we go into the Quebrada de Humahuaca, i.e the ravine of the Humahuaca tribe (read: oomahlakah). The first valley we visit is overflowing with cacti, just like some of the Czech greenhouses. One has to tread carefully so as not to trample under his foot clumps of Opuntia sulphurea, a definitely crambling Opuntia of middle-sized joints, unfortunately without flowers. Flowers will be also absent on the rest of the plants, although there are visible buds on huge balls of Gymnocalycium tilcarense (oh yes!), presently classified as G. saglione var. tilcarense (MPL 12),
Fig.
5 Gymnocalycium tilcarense MPL12
that are most probably getting along pretty well here, looking healthy and beautiful. Where some free space is left, there are forced in small, medium-sized or large spacimens of Lobivia ferox var. longispina (MPL 12).
Fig.
6 Lobivia ferox var. longispina MPL12
What is interesting, this lobivia (or sometimes as var. ferox, though you cannot tell where var. ferox ends and var. longispina begins) occurs at almost all places we have visited, and in spite of this, it is always impressive. Its young spines are distinguished by pitch-black colour superbly contrasting with white or, more often, creamy-white big flowers. These are single plants as a rule, but here, many of them show two, three, or even fourheads. One cannot tell if these are offsets from one plant, or seedlings that have sprouted on one place. Every one who does not have it in his or her collection should give a good deal of thought to himself.
The closer to the ravine sides – or even better – on the very sides of the ravine, the more often we find, fiercely ginger-coloured in the morning sun, though small, representatives of the species Parodia (oh yes) tilcarensis (MPL 12).
Fig.
7 Parodia tilcarensis MPL12
Those that are growing on rocks are for the most part nested in Abromeitiella cushions; those that are growing on the ravine bottom are doing well without any shelter, but it has to be noted that smaller seedlings are visible only in, or near, Bromeliads cushions. Both at the bottom and on the rocks, there dominate huge, greater, and the greatest columns of Trichocereus pasacana. From this place on we will be spotting them quite frequently, whereas T. terschekii will disappear from our eyes. Both can be easily distinguished from each other – the former has in its juvenile stage or on its juvenile stems rather long ginger-gold-brown spines, part of them disappearing or turning grey with age, being replaced by dense white hairs. Only the grey-haired heads bloom but we are too early to see a real eruption of flowers. Those flowers that we see are white, but one of the Czechs finds only one plant blooming with a pink flower. Pity that the seeds will be in a month or two (and still without a ladder one would need to be helped with a miracle to collect them).
Fig.
15 Trichocereus pasacana
Having feasted our eyes and cameras on this natural cactus collection, we move on to the Coctaca village situated behind Humahuaca town, where a locality of Weingartia neumanniana ought to be present. Maybe it really ought to but we find only Parodia maassii and Lobivia (ferox var.) longispina, i.e. the plants as ‘rare’ as birch-trees on our Polish Mazowsze or beech-trees on our dearly Dolny Śląsk, although one cannot refuse to acknowledge their beauty (also of the beech-trees, of course). Another successful finding is Neowerdermannia vorwerkii, wich is present indeed but as if it were not, because again we are not very lucky in our search. Seeing that, we change our direction, and not leaving the ravine at all, we go to the west toward El Aguilar. On this route, for the first time, we see flowers (still few) of Oreocereus trolli. Oreocerei are low growing plants compared to Trichocerei, and O. trolli i (neocelsianus?) grows to 1 m high, rarely higher, so the flowers can be seen thoroughly. The (tubular, zygomorphic) flowers are generally referred to as red, but in fact it is a more specific hue, something between very dark pink and deep-red. And here – a surprise: in one of the rock crevices, there is sitting a blooming Mediolobivia (MPL 15).
Fig.
8 Mediolobivia pygmaea var. haagei? MPL15
It is probably M. haagei, now on M. pygmaea synonyms list (yes, I know I should have used the generic name Rebutia, but I always use it only to the plants from the subgenus Rebutia in the genus Rebutia, because systematics is to make the communication easier, and not to make it more difficult).
Our destination that day was the frontier town La Quiaca, where we stayed in a quite nice hotel, with comfortable beds, but in fact we were sleeping very unrestfully. For most of us it was a first night on 3500 m altitude ever. Next day we went to see a popular locality of Lobivia pugionacantha (MPL 17).
Fot.
9 Lobivia pugionacantha MPL17
How surprised we were, when it appeared to be localized virtually in the town, between two settlements being built just then. It was very dry. I cannot confirm that there were no rains there till then or that maybe this very place was extremely dry, but let me mention that here we saw the most dehydrated lobivias of all we had seen before. They did not stick out of the soil surface at all, being covered with dust, pebbles and communal rubbish, instead. I won’t be talking about their ‘beauty’ in this condition. This locality is probably doomed to extinction, because the town will be developing. But one may hope this locality is in fact bigger than this little patch of land between two settlements, and reaches beyond the town, where these lobivias are much better out on the wild fields. Ah… I have almost forgotten – also Puna subterranea grows there. I did not find any, but some of my colleagues did.
On the way from La Quiaca do Cieneguillas, there occurs rather well-known locality of Yavia cryptocarpa. Of course we drove there and, I have to say, the easiest cacti to find are Oreocerei, of extreme beauty, by the way. I noticed they do not like very much hill-tops where they are beset by cold and wind, but prefer hillsides sheltered from weather fancies, instead. Maybe it is so because these plants are distinguished by flexibility rather than stiffness – they shake noticeably under strong wind blows. Yavia can be found, but, as we have learned also from Foiks’ report, it is not so easy,. But if you see a single plant, the others immediately will come into your eyes. Unfortunately, no one of them was in flower (MPL 18).
Fig.
10 Yavia cryptocarpa MPL18
There are also Mediolobivias in this region, most probably: M. haagei mentioned above, but these are found always in cracks of small but rather vertical rocks, and Yavias also in cracks but on a plain level rock with long slits.
Next day we set out to Iturbe, then to Iruya. But before Itube we stop in a relatively plain region looking like a soil of 27th category with multitude of stones in it, but almost without rocks. In such apparently non-cactus-like environment there is growing, as if nothing had happened, a very nice Lobivia marsoneri (MPL 21) – a small plant, but presumably after having had a portion of rain by the time, because looking plump and lush green Unfortunately, not all of them look so attractive.
Fig.
11 Lobivia marsoneri MPL21
Several-headed plants are not so rare – in almost every case it is due to damaged point of growth, e.g. bitten by a goat. Further on the route – no doubt a success: Neowerdermannia vorverkii (MPL 22). To be honest, even when seen in collections it is not a Miss World, and here, in habitat, looks as if it were its own caricature. As a missing link in the theory of... sorry – as a genus considered a transitional one between Weingartia and Gymnocalycium, it is very interesting, but we’d better not talk about ‘beauty’ of the ribs hardly protruding out of the ground.
Fig. 12
Neowerdermannia vorverkii MPL22
Fortunately, there can be also seen two Mediolobivias: M. haagei and (most probably) M. pygmaea var. elegantula there. Here I have to say a few introducing words about the species M. pygmaea. According to Britton and Rosa, these are cacti occuring in Bolivia and north-western Argentina, with a short cylindrical stem to 3 cm long, and usually with tuberous root, with somewhat elongated areoles covered with small amount of brown wool from which only oppressed to the body radial spines 2-3 mm long are growing out, and with pinkish-violet flowers. It is suspected that this description was based on plants from Oruro, Bolivia. So this taxon occupies a huge area, but particular populations are enclave-like with large distances between. All this had resulted in many taxons described, mainly by Rausch, differing from the above description mainly in flower colour, flower length and width, sometimes stem size or epidermis colour. Rausch himself recognized them later as varieties of M. pygmaea or M. haagei, but in recent times all of them were considered synonymous with the former. Cactus hunters, for example Mats Winberg from Sweden, Ralf Hillmann from Swissland, or Ladislav Fischer from Czech Republic have been finding new populations different from the still well-known ones, and probably there are several dozens or several hundreds of such interesting localities in the Andes (still we are talking of M. pygmaea only). This situation implies however, that without sustained field observation it is hard to be sure about varieties discovered in habitat. Both taxons found at this place: M. haagei and M. pygmaea var. elegantula, belong to the most widespread ones, the latter is expected to be smaller (to 8 mm wide) with darker flowers, but the former, although most often blooms in salmon-pink colour, sometimes can bloom almost in red. So… a matter of quiz. On this locality, haageias (every ‘gang’ of them has its own ‘jargon’) were blooming with exceptionally light flowers, white-salmon, to be exact, which was helpful in telling them apart from their ‘comrades’.
We assigned the next day for a trip to the vicinity of a town very rarely visited by cactophiles because goats wish one “good-night” there, and to reach there takes a long time and leads through high mountains. This is Santa Victoria. At one point of our route we saw… snow on a hill. It was obvious we were not at a beach. Here, one has to go for several dozens kilometers through wild and deserted mountains, uninhabited and ‘unvehicled’ regions, but cacti are present here. More that one could see. Lured by a patch of red colour, we stop (MPL 26) and here Rebutia padcayensis shows itself to our eyes, in collections seen more often under the name of R. margarethae (in fact it is just that plant, from Santa Victoria, that has been described as R. margarethae). This is a ‘true’ Rebutia, globular, green, with – as its description says – red flowers, though there are found specimens blooming orange or red. This is a popular plant in greenhouses, but rarely seen in the wild – but here we are! And with flowers.
Fig. 13
Rebutia margarethae-padcayensis MPL26
We spend only a couple of minutes in Santa Victoria – pity, because it is an oasis of peace. We drive out of the town, where the further journey appears to be impossible because a rushing river is flowing there (I can assure you it is not a frequent view in Andes). We seize a jeep, and for a few pesos are on a hill top just near the town (I do not know the name of the peak), where we are looking for the place of Lobivia sanguiniflora. It should be here, according to our knowledge. There it is. One - literally a single piece. Instead, there is multitude of goats. Supposedly, they have eaten the rest of lobivias.
It was getting late and a long way to the hotel in La Quiaca – we had to go back. It was worth doing that, because we stopped at a place where both Rebutia padcayensis and Lobivia sanguiniflora were looking out from under every stone. One of my colleagues found even a yellow-flowering R. padcayensis.
As usual, our car with Polish crew was going as a second one. Somewhere on our way I uttered a sharp shriek that I probably saw blood-red flowers in roadside grass. We were just about to turn around when Tomek shouted he also saw them ahead of us. We stopped regardless of the Czech Chevrolet disappearing in the distance. Thanks to this we were watching one of the most beautiful cacti of all our expedition. Lobivia chrysochete var. minutiflora (MPL 28) are flattened giant (as for lobivias) balls made of golden spines, with growing points surrounded by rings (yes, the rings, as in Mammillarias, without doubt) of crimson flowers.
Fot.
17 Lobivia chrysochete var. minutiflora MPL28
Even in heaven they haven’t got more beautiful flowers. To cap it all, our eyes were immediately pricked by really numerous clumps of flowering (!) Mediolobivia atrovirens heads (MPL 28).
Fot.
14 Mediolobivia atrovirens MPL28
We were on 4388 m altitude. As far as I know (though may be wrong) no one has collected Rebutias at such high till now.
As a result, the Czechs were waiting for us somewhere on the mountain pass thinking something was wrong with us. We got a scolding for our insubordination, but I don’t regret it. No one of us regret it. We will never forget it.
Next day we had to return to Salta, to give back our cars. Having complied with Tomek’s request we stopped at Volcano near Tilcara to look for Lobivia haematantha var. rebutioides growing there in many places. Our choice was a hillock on which Tomek and Andrzej managed to climb – me not due to steepness of the slope and my sandals on my feet. The Czechs were sitting in the car in orderly fashion and waiting. After an hour the alpinists returned with triumphant smiles – they had found the Lobivia and, in addition, beautiful specimens of Rebutia wessneriana, another Rebutia popular in collections and very rarely found in habitat, and another ‘sister’ of Mexican Mammilopsis senilis. They had found also Abromeitiella cushions nesting Parodia schuetziana. This adventure was our last meeting with Argentinian cacti. After coming back to Salta we returned the hired cars and went back to La Quiaca, where we crossed the border of another world – of Bolivia.