Central Patagonia - November 2017

[Maggi Young]

Richard - your exertions  are very much appreciated -really enjoying these photos.

[David Nicholson]

I'm thoroughly enjoying your pictures Richard. Makes me wonder why on earth Ipheion is Tristagma (hobby-horse of mine of long standing   )

[Richard Green]

Maggi and Angie, Martin Sheader’s book on the Patagonian flora says that Mutisia oligodon is only from 10cm to 30cm high, whereas M. spinosa is 2m to 5m high, and the plants which we have seen here are certainly covering substantial shrubs.  However M. subulata has very narrow leaves.

David, good to hear that you are enjoying this, so here are some more pictures from today’s trip which was westwards from Junin.

Calceolaria valdiviana was found by the road, it is an eye-catching plant and has 30cm stems with largish flat-faced slipper flowers, and big round leaves:


Fuchsia magellanica is a common UK garden shrub, but it was good to see it growing in the wild by this gushing snowmelt stream with its roots in the water:


A roadside seepage produced a nice assemblage of plants, Gunnera tinctoria growing of the vertical wall was a surprise to those used to seeing it in bog gardens in the UK.  There was plenty of Mimulus luteus, and also Calceolaria tenella with little leaves.  The hanging leaves to the bottom left are Ourisia ruellioides mostly past flowering but with a few flowers remaining:


We found another orchid or two, including Chlorea cylindrostachya which is a robust plant with green and white flowers.  Observant viewers will notice Martin Sheader in the background making a beeline for another choice specimen:


Senecio chilensis was seen on lava fields and is a nice compact subshrub with silver leaves and yellow flowers.  This shot shows it growing in habitat along with Nothofagus:

[Julia]

Hi Richard
Looks like you're having a great time.
Thank you for posting the picture.

[Richard Green]

Yes, Julia, we are having a great time here, and there are more beauties to show today as below:

Maggi and Angie, following our earlier discussion on Mutisia, we found Mutisia oligodon today, and it is clearly as smaller plant to 30cm tall, with thinner petals.  However, it has rounded upper leaves as opposed to Mutisia spinosa which has spiky top leaves.  See below:


It was a good day for orchids with Gavilea glandlifera being an elegant example of the genus:


We saw Perezia bellidifolia further up the mountain with pale blue-grey flowers:


Finally at around 1800m we found the habitat for Viola coronifera:


Viola coronifera was just past its peak flowering, but there were some good plants:

[Chris Johnson]

Another nice set of images, Richard. What an 'impossible' viola habitat.

[Maggi Young]

Oh my! You found the Viola coronifera still with flowers -  The Gang of Pals  on Ger van den Beuken's tour didn't find any still with decent flowers, I don't think.  Elisabeth Zander only pictured  the neat rosettes....

[DaveM]

Great to see your pictures Richard. The Violas are just extraordinary! I also enjoyed seeing the Fuschia magellanica as I have this growing in my garden. The groups should be lining up to hear your talk on return!

[Richard Green]

Glad you like them Dave, more pictures coming up.

I thought the Viola coronifera might cause a stir.  However we did have to climb to 1800m to see it flowering.  The habitat is granitic mineral soil and the best plants were growing between granite rocks, although we did see rosettes on the soil surface too.  There was a fierce wind blowing, and clearly they will rot in our moist garden conditions without specialist treatment.

It is interesting that Elisabeth’s picture shows almost fully grown rosettes of current year’s leaves.  As we climbed into the altitudinal range, we started finding such plants.  Later, further up, we found them with fading flowers and the new season’s growth was just beginning to expand as shown in the following picture:


We lifted a rock from one plant and saw the length of the stem, including dead leaves.  The one pictured below was at least 15cm long, presumably representing many years of growth:


Finally another plant to drool over, despite the flowers just going over.

[Richard Green]

This is our last real botanising day here, as we start to journey home via Buenos Aires tomorrow.  Today we visited Volcan Lanin, which is at the southernmost edge of the Monkey Puzzle Tree (Araucaria araucana) forests.  Here are some in front of the dormant volcano swathed in cloud.


On the walk to the base of the volcano through the forest we noticed another orchid, Gavilea lutea with striking yellow flowers:


The nice cheerfully bright Montiopsis umbellata was growing in the volcanic debris washed down from the cone.


We also found our seventh viola species of the trip here – Viola cotyledon, and this one shows its growth habitat, which is basically pulverised volcanic cinders and sand with not that many competitors able to colonise this habitat.


The Violas also come in a pale cream colour as shown here:


Well that’s about all for this trip folks, as we make our way back home tomorrow, but I shall be happy to answer any questions here.  I have now posted over 70 pictures here, and I hope this has given you a flavour of the variety of the plants found in Central Patagonia.

[ArnoldT]

Richard:

Thanks so much for the wonderful tour of a very special part of the world.

[ashley]

My thanks too Richard.  It's wonderful to see these plants in habitat.

That V. coronifera must have been heavily shaded when it started 15 cm further back under the rock
What might its annual growth rate be?

[Ross McLeod]

I'll join the grateful chorus here too. Thankyou very much Richard for the extraordinary pics and commentary. I've just put Patagonia higher up on the bucket list. Viola coronifera sealed the deal for me.

 

[GordonT]

This has been a thoroughly enjoyable thread to follow. Thank you for sharing it with us!

[Gerdk]

What a wonderful trip! I can't stop dreaming of a soft yellow violets!

Gerd