Southern Patagonia 2014

[Kees Jan]

I had the privilage to visit southern Patagonia with Kok van Herk and Marijn van den Brink for four weeks in November and December 2014. After arriving in Buenos Aires and exploring the city for a day, we flew to El Calafate in the South. Although I had visited Patagonia twice before with Ger and Mariet van den Beuken, I had never been this far south. I just started selecting and editing my 8000 plus pictures and I'm selecting pictures for a presentation. I will share some of the highlights of this memorable trip with you on the forum.

We choose to camp during the entire Patagonian trip. It was quite a challenge to arrange proper car rental in advance, since we wanted to collect a rental car in El Calafate and return it much further north, in San Carlos de Bariloche. We succeeded, although our car was barely suitable for the somtimes very bad roads - and we had several punctures  The plants were excellent though !

On of our first excursions was a visit to Parque Nacional Los Glaciares and the famous Perito Moreno Glacier.

First campsite
A set up cougar in a bar near our first campsite - later, further north we would see fresh cougar footprints near our campsite ;-)
Embothryum coccineum
Perito Moreno Glaciar

[astragalus]

Kees, wonderful shots. Please keep the photos coming. Joe and I will be going with Ger and Mariet to
Patagonia November 2017 and can't wait. This time we will be starting in the south. Looking forward to anarthrophyllums.

[Kees Jan]

That is certainly a trip to look forward to Anne. The southern Patagonia is quite different from the botanical point of view. We started in El Calafate in the south and we found many species that we only knew from photographs. It's different in the south. Less diversity in rosulate Viola (they don't seem to be distributed much further south than PN Perito Moreno), but so many other good species. Anarthrophyllum desideratum is special, as are Oxalis laciniata, Calceolaria uniflora and Benthamiella azorella to name just a few.

The shots below are from Parque Nacional Los Glaciares, except for Clinopodium darwinii which we photographed in steppe near El Calafate

Chiliotrichum rosmarinifolium
Geum magellanicum
Clinopodium darwinii
a large block of ice dropping of the Perito Moreno Glacier
'fire and ice', my favourite shot of Embothryum coccineum with the Perito Moreno Glacier in the background

[Maggi Young]

Wonderful to see these photos, Kees, thank you for sharing!

[Leucogenes]

What giant images of unique plants in a fantastic landscape. Because of me you can show all 8000 photos here.

[Gabriela]

It must have been a fantastic trip! I'm looking fw to see more pictures and learn about some new species

[Kees Jan]

A few more pics made in the PN Los Glaciares: Saxifraga magellanica and another picture of Perito Moreno glacier.

A colony of Primula magellanica was found outside the park in the hills near El Calafate, growing in peaty conditions. Caltha sagittata can be seen in the bottom left corner of the picture. Near El Calafate we also photographed Lathyrus magellanicus in the steppe.

[Kees Jan]

Pterocactus australis is perhaps my favourite Patagonian cactus. Here it grows in steppe near El Calafate (habitat picture and portrait).

[Mark Griffiths]

wonderful pictures!

[David Nicholson]

wonderful pictures!

Very much seconded. Nice to be able to see places like this that  I shall never see for real.

[Kees Jan]

Our next destination was Estancia Stag River, quite a bit further south. It wasn't in operation for tourists in the year that we visited, but we received permission to camp in the shelter of trees and shrubs near the Estancia.

The gate at Estancia Stag
Benthamiella nordenskjoldii, a species found on the ridges
Calceolaria uniflora, common in the steppe near Estancia Stag

[Kees Jan]

Bolax gummifera is not a rare species, but very special. Here are three examples; the 2nd is combination with Gaultheria pumila, the third with a well camouflaged grasshopper. The final picture is a guanaco on a scree near Estancia Stag River.

[Kees Jan]

Here are some Hamadryas, a genus within the Ranunculaceae family, distributed in southern Patagonia

Hamadryas kingii
Hamadryas delfinii

[Maggi Young]

Great pix of the Hamadryas - which is a most "unexpected" sort of plant, isn't it? Looks like it couldn't make its mind up what to be and just became unusually fabulous!

[Leucogenes]

Hello Kees,

I have a few plants in my small collection. But most are still very small. And they are much more beautiful in nature. Please show more. I can not see enough. The Hamadryas are beautiful. Especially in this barren landscape. I love it.