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The Chimantá Massif - Amurí-tepui


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Andreas, you've left me with no words.

And what absolutely fantastic habitat are Tepuis.

Can I tell you a thing ? I think you have one of the best works in the world.

Here we are, in our gardens, in our greenhouses, looking in our terrariums..

... and you there, sleeping on the top of those stunning places, among Heliamphoras..

thanks for sharing these emotions, Andreas !

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I really liked your report Andreas, thanks a lot for taking some of your time for making it. The pictures are great. About U.humboldtii, what is the lowest elevation it grows in the wild?

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Fantastic report Andreas.

I do envy you all that trip, to be sleeping amongst Heli's :yes: the nearest I'm gonna get is a night in the greenhouse :P

Very useful pic's to be able to see the habitat as well as the plants.

One thing however. With so many pics (and quite large) it takes forever to download :sad: and I gave up several times on my home comp. I was only able to read this when I got back to work, which downloads a bit quicker - I fell really sorry for anyone on dialup. It may have been better to spread this over a couple of posts.

But still a bloody good report :tu:

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Hello all,

Thank you very much for your nice comments and interesting suggestions!

I'd like to ask about some habitat parameters in case if you have paid attention to them: Did you take notes of the average temperature there?

Adilson, yes, I did! I never travel without a min.-max. thermometer to take some measurements! ;)

These temperatures were recorded maxium during the day and minimum at night, on Amurí, at ca. 2000 m alt. Note that the Chimantá massif is much warmer and less wind-blown than the other exposed single tepuis.

Exposed to full sun on a rock: surface temp. max. 36°C, min. night 11°C.

In shelter of a big rock, where H. pulchella grew (cloudy day): max. day 20°C, min. night 11°C.

I'm curious about the sun exposure the plants were receiving. The sun radiation was hard or was more bearable? I mean in the hottest hours of the day you have to cover yourself to prevent sunburns or it was mild and you could walk with no protection for your Skin?

The radiation is VERY high, you will get sunburnt without protection within about 10-15 minutes! Remember that the tepuis are very close to the equator (just 5-6° North for the northern ones) and the summit is at high altitude (2000-3000m). Even our native Indian guides on Roraima got some sunburn on top of Roraima, but of course nothing compared to what our effeminate European skin had to suffer! ;)

About U.humboldtii, what is the lowest elevation it grows in the wild?

Hola Sebastian,

The lowest location I found U. humboldtii at (in a different habitat, a wet grassy Brocchinia seepage) was at base of Mt. Roraima, at 1819 m a.s.l. I will show photos of this site in a different topic later.

One thing however. With so many pics (and quite large) it takes forever to download sad.gif and I gave up several times on my home comp. I was only able to read this when I got back to work, which downloads a bit quicker - I fell really sorry for anyone on dialup. It may have been better to spread this over a couple of posts.

I feel sorry for this, Phil. However it's still 5 more tepuis to report from ;). And I'd prefer to present every tepui in one topic of it's own, instead of spreading photos over several topics. Sorry for all of you who have to dial in!

All the best,

Andreas

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Hi Andreas

Thank you VERY VERY much for your info! I was long waiting to ask someone about the personal enviroment experience of being in these mountains (wich is much different from just read some numbers about the habitat).

36° to 11º seems to be one of the wildest temp swing I've ever heard!

Well, Those H. pulchella wasn't growing under full sun too?

Regards

Adilson

Edited by Samoied
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I only see one image, the rest say "bandwidth exceeded, upgrade to pro."
This is the case for those of us who arrived late to the party. I have been checking back at different times of the day and continue to see the same message - I was under the impression that Photobucked had a daily access limit & reset after 24-hrs. This does not appear to be the case .... :jive:

Quite the nasty bit of torture to have so many folks gushing about the pics & then have them not present ...... :shock:

Maybe I can get a few other late-comers to join me and pay for the upgrade for Andreas .... :whistling:

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  • 1 month later...
The small creeping stems of Rodonanthus acopanensis always grow all in the same direction. Why? Don’t know ;)

With such a unique structure, I wonder if the plants orient themselves to the sun in order to maximize photosynthesis? Did they all point north or south in order to expose thier broadside to east and west?

Amazing photos by the way!!!

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Did they all point north or south in order to expose thier broadside to east and west?

I´m not sure direction makes much of a difference when you´re so close to the equator, and not at high latitudes where most of us live.

Best wishes,

Fernando Rivadavia

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