Rock plant

[Michael]

Hello!

Since this is a rock garden forum, and since i see and learn new alpine plant species almost every day, i found apropriate to introduce you one of my favourite and beloved plants that grows exclusively on rocks (at least on Nature  ), called Musschia aurea. I visited its natural habitat for the first time some time ago. The plant belongs to the family Campanulaceae, and the genus Musschia is endemic from Madeira only counting with 3 species. Unfortunately they are all in risk of extinction, because of the reduced area they occur and also because of the loss of their habitat (as usual  )

So here are the pictures:




Like i said before, they only grow in this type of rock on nature, and always on very exposed and extremely hot and dry cliffs. I never found them growing on the ground (perhaps because of the competition of other plants?). Another interesting fact is that this Musschia has very long roots that penetrate deep into the rock in search of water. In the other hand the roots are more brittle than cooked spagheti, and this makes repotting a nightmare, since they *hate* the roots being disturbed).

This is a picture of a young plant growing in a shadier condition:


And last, but not least, the flowers. They always flower around May, but i was lucky enough to spot one individual that had a few opened flowers. I am sorry for the pictures, but the plat was in an inaccessible area and a bit far, so i had to use all the zoom i could.






By the way, as a title of curiosity, plants pollinated by reptiles are a bit uncommon, and this one is another example of those cases, being pollinated by an endemic small reptile called Lacerta dugesii.

These last pictures of me were taken at the same place, so you can have an idea of the environment




I hope you liked the pictures!
Thanks for watching.

[Paul T]

They really are cliff dwellers aren't they!!  Looking at teh face you'd think that nothing could grow there.  Isn't nature wonderful!! 

[Gerdk]

Hi Mike,
Thank you for this extraordinary pics! A friend told me something about this strange campanula relative a long time ago. I never saw good photographs of it.
I can't resist to ask you for another endemic plant from your Island.
Did you ever come along Viola paradoxa - a yellow flowering pansy, living at Pico do Arieiro? This is the most western occurence of violets from the section Melanium.

Gerd

[ChrisB]

Hi Mike,

What great pictures these are, I hope you didn't risk life and limb to get them.  Very interesting plants too, so unusual.  I've never seen them before.

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Thanks for this interesting introduction Michael !  Stunning how these little plants survive. 

On the other hand, did you really have to add these wonderful holliday-like pix of blue skies, wonderful shores and a chap wearing short sleaves, just at the time when all of us up here are suffering from hail, snow, cold winds, etc... 

[Maggi Young]

I do not know these plants at all and if I hadn't been told they are campanulaceae, I would have been thinking , because of those strange flowers, that they were a wierd bigeneric hybrid of some sort with Tricyrtis!!

[David Nicholson]

Great pictures Michael, thanks for posting them.

[Michael]

Thanks for the kind comments

Hi Mike,
Thank you for this extraordinary pics! A friend told me something about this strange campanula relative a long time ago. I never saw good photographs of it.
I can't resist to ask you for another endemic plant from your Island.
Did you ever come along Viola paradoxa - a yellow flowering pansy, living at Pico do Arieiro? This is the most western occurence of violets from the section Melanium.

Gerd

Hi Gerd, yes i do know that Viola, but i had never seen in, because it lives on the highest peaks, like you said, and that's a little bit far from me. I guess it will be my next interest to hunt for it. Do you grow that species? I could see if i can find a way of getting some seeds for you, but i can't promise nothing by now, as i dont know if they are easy to find or not.

[Gerdk]

Mike,
No, I don't grow this species.
Thank you for your kind offer. But please, take care - I heared that it could be dangerous to climb in the area where this plant lives. Also it might be that it is protected. I add a scan out of Franquinho, L.O. and Da Costa, A. (1998): Madeira, Plantas e Flores -
here you'll find a pot grown plant (lowermost pic) - maybe cultivated in a Botanical Garden (Funchal?). Perhaps this a more accessible approach to the plant.

Gerd

[iann]

Good drainage!

[David Nicholson]

Good drainage!