Patagonian Tour 2012

[Maggi Young]

Those of you who enjoyed reading of Ger van den Beuken's previous travels to South America ( see elsewhere in this Forum) may be interested to learn that he and Mariet are organising another tour to Patagonia in 2012.

[Kees Jan]

I think this will be a great trip !

[Maggi Young]

Aha! Well, Kees Jan is going on the trip, friends... and  there are other folks going who are well known, too, though I'm not sure if they'll want their names given in public.... safe to say some interesting plants people are heading off on this venture.
 I hope we can look forward to photos afterwards.

[Kees Jan]

Yes, but please join, I think Ger needs a few more people to go ahead with what should be a fantastic trip to an area of Argentina that is certainly under-explored by alpine enthusiasts!!!

[Great Moravian]

Images of a few Patagonian plants in the latest issue of the
Klub skalničkářů Brno publication Skalničkářův rok
http://www.skalnicky-brno.cz/doc/pr63.doc

[Maggi Young]

Images of a few Patagonian plants in the latest issue of the
Klub skalničkářů Brno publication Skalničkářův rok
http://www.skalnicky-brno.cz/doc/pr63.doc

 Thanks for this GM...... these super pictures include the very green Nastanthus patagonicus   ... there are other plants of interest to Forumists as well...... lots to take in.

[Onion]

Oooooooooooh what fantastic pictures!!! Plants at it best. Thanks a lot for the picture.

[Kees Jan]

Thanks for the link to the Czech publication. Alstroemeria patagonica looks great . I would say the Viola volcanica looks more like Viola trochlearis though. Here are Viola aff. trochlearis and Viola volcanica, photographed in Patagonia one year ago... Note that the leaf margin in Viola volcanica is not entire. Both are short lived and quite closely related though.

http://keesjan.smugmug.com/Botanical-trips/North-and-South-America/Patagonia-January-2010/

[Great Moravian]

Jan,
You are probably the single man in the world who knows Viola trochlearis.
Please check the spelling of the epithet.
Thank you.

[Great Moravian]

http://www.vrvforum.be/forum/index.php?topic=25.45

[gervandenbeuken]

Do you mean the name of Viola trochleari is incorrect?
Ger

[Kees Jan]

I think Viola trochlearis is an accepted name, although it certainly seems to be a species that is not very well known. Perhaps it is relatively recently described, I don't think it's included in Flora Patagonica. I have not seen the paper that described it as new to science, but our guide Marcela from Bariloche University knows her Patagonian plants very well, so I don't have much doubt, but I would be interested to see scientific papers on this fantastic group of plants. The Viola volcanica group is quite diverse, there are other somewhat poorly known species in this group. I will post a few other that are not all that well known in the alpine scene:

Viola congesta (nearly extinct )
Viola tectiflora (2 pics)
And finally Viola trochlearis (at its type locality if I remember correctly). The latter is not the same population as my picture above of V. aff. trochlearis. It is interesting to see there are slight differences between the plants from these disjunct populations, like flower colour and the colour of the leaf margin...

[Great Moravian]

Marcela Verónica Ferreyra
http://www.marcelaferreyra.com.ar
http://www.marcelaferreyra.com.ar/archives/category/2-expediciones-botanicas/especies2

[Maggi Young]

Marcela is a  Forum member.... though she has  not been around in a while. I know several people who have had the pleasure to travel with her in South America.

[gervandenbeuken]

Regarding Viola trochlearis no discussion. I was in touch with John Watson several times and he did not make any corrections.
John says and everybody should know, there are about 100 hundred species around in S. America. Many of them are not described.
Our expedition was in very good hands and no one should doubt the specialty of Marcela. I will talk tomorrow with her to discuss this misconception.
Ger