Jalapão: CPs & surreal sand dunes in the Brazilian cerrado

[Fernando Rivadavia]

Hello to all,

Here is a long-overdue trip report! In June 2006 I finally explored a very remote area called the Jalapão, in central-eastern Tocantins state, central Brazil. See map below for the location of the Jalapão

(WARNING: My camera had broken just before this trip & I was only able to get a small cheap one in my hurry. So please excuse the bad quality of the pics! Unfortunately my memory space was very small too, so I didn't take as many pics as I would've liked to. Thus I only have bad (or no) pics of many CPs and places... )

I'd known about the Jalapão for around 15 years, but had never dared going on my own before. It's not only very far away from my hometown of São Paulo (somewhere between 1500-2000km), but it's also a very sandy region where supposedly only 4X4 vehicles can reach (there are no asphalted roads in the Jalapão). So I finally decided to take a guided tour to this area and spent a few days going around the touristy spots with a bunch of other people, riding on the safari-style truck below:

And sleeping in comfortable tents at a great campsite by a fantastic river full of CPs along its margins:

I saw enough CPs in those few days to convince myself that it was worth spending a few more days exploring the region. I also noticed that the dirt roads criss-crossing the Jalapão were actually in very good shape. It was the beginning of the dry season and thus there weren't any parts of the roads which were waterlogged and most roads did not have dangerously deep areas of sand. So once the tour was over, I rented a small car in the city of Palmas and risked spending a few more days exploring the Jalapão on my own.

The Jalapão is famous for having sand dunes in the middle of cerrado (Brazilian savanna) vegetation. Naturally eroding sandstone escarpments are the source of this sand. I not only wanted to see this strange phenomenon, but I also knew that cerrados are a major hotspot for CPs in Brazil -- so I was sure that it could only get better for CPs by adding all that sand! :)

Here are 2 pics of the eroding escarpments seen from below. Notice the palm trees in the foreground. These are Mauritia flexuosa, known as buriti in Brazil, and they're a fantastic bio-indicator of CP habitats, since they love sandy areas which are permanently wet to humid:

Here's the most eroded section of the escarpment seen from above:

Notice the sandy area down in the lowlands to the left of the picture above. This is where the sand dunes were located.

Here's a view of the sand dunes as we were arriving from below:

And here are the dunes:

Here are a few more pics of the escarpments & general views of the Jalapão:

And one of many strange formations I saw along one road:

The pic below shows an area where I stopped my car simply because I couldn't believe how isolated this whole region was. Throughout that trip, I kept passing through areas where there wasn't a single house, ranch or person in sight all the way to the horizon! On the day I took this pic I risked driving nearly 200km along a dirt road which I only guessed existed, navigating intersections by guesswork since there was nobody to ask for directions. I only crossed a few cars that day I think. Fortunately I had no problems and all the CPs I saw were well worth it!! :)

One of the cool attractions in the Jalapão are a series of pools formed by very clear water which flows up out of the ground with great force through sand, which bubbles like boiling water. We went swimming in these pools to refresh from the blistering heat of the central cerrados. It's an eerie feeling to not feel any solid ground beneath your feet, as upwards-flowing quicksand keeps you from sinking. Here's one of those pools:

And in this pic you can hopefully see the upsurge of water in the sand:

There are also many waterfalls with crystal-clear waters in the Jalapão area, most with lots of CPs along the riversides, usually above the falls:

The largest of the waterfalls is the Cachoeira das Velhas:

Edited March 6, 2008 by Fernando Rivadavia

[Fernando Rivadavia]

We went canoeing along a river, which I really enjoyed because I could stop along the way and explore the riversides for CPs! :) For example, look at the excellent grassy area with buriti palms right behind me in the pic below:

We also saw lots of cool animals at the Jalapão, like the S.American skunk below, which entered our campsite one night. It was the 1st time I ever saw one, I'd only seen the big bushy N.American ones before!

This snake is probably very hard to see in the bush, resembling a twig, even swaying back & forth with the wind:

One night everybody was off somewhere and I was sitting alone by my tent, silently taking notes on the CPs I'd seen that day. It was dark but I had one of those flashlights that go on your head like a hat. All of a sudden I noticed that a huge maned wolf was standing right next to me! It scared the crap out of me and by the time I could get my camera it was already a bit far away…

A common animal in cerrados is the S.American ostrich, which we call "ema" (not the same as an emu from Australia). Here's one sprinting in front of me across the road:

And here's a huge grasshopper, of which we saw millions in certain areas:

And for those of you who, strangely enough, like non-CPs, here's a nice Bignoniaceae which I saw frequently in flower along the roads:

And here's me in a beautiful patch of Eriocaulaceae:

Talking about Eriocaulaceae... The Jalapão is famous among women in Brazil because "golden grass" is native to that area. Golden grass is actually the flower stem of an Eriocaulaceae (Syngonanthus nitens) which becomes a beautiful golden color when dried. It is then woven into all sorts of jewelry & other stuff like in the pic below:

Edited March 6, 2008 by Fernando Rivadavia

[Fernando Rivadavia]

So how about some CPs now?? :) I'll start with D.communis, which was found at numerous locations, from boggy to sandy, open to partially shaded by grasses, in flat areas, sloping ground, vertical wet walls, and even on a tree next to a cliff dripping water! But the nicest were found on islands of vegetation on a river margin, where they grew in extremely dense colonies. I imagine there must be lots of insects there to feed them at certain times of the year!

Another common species was the annual D.sessilifolia, growing mostly in wet sand. Unfortunately none were in flower yet, I was too early for that.

Not so common was D.cayennensis, growing in humid sandy areas with sparse grasses. These had already all finished flowering, unfortunately, and were getting ready to retreat underground to go dormant over the dry season:

Another winter dormant species I was excited to find was D.hirtella var.hirtella. Like many of the other CPs I found at the Jalapão, it had never been recorded for that area. But this find was especially exciting because it extended the known range of the species a few hundred kilometers further to the north -- until I realized (over a year after the Jalapão trip!) that it wasn't this plant at all, but something even more interesting: D.sp.Corumbá.

I discovered D.sp.Corumbá over 10 years ago and knew it from a single small area in central Goiás state, around 600km to the southwest. I think it was only after discovering it at the Chapada dos Veadeiros in June 2007 that I realized that all the "D.hirtella" at the Jalapão were actually D.sp.Corumbá. They are very similar, but D.sp.Corumbá is intermediate in its characters between D.hirtella var.hirtella and var.lutescens (for more information, see: http://www.cpukforum.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=21939). Here are the few ugly shots I have of this beautifully-colored new taxon:

Another great discovery, but which I have no pictures of, was D.grantsaui. I only saw a small number of plants at a single wet sandy location with D.communis. This was also a new record for this species, extending the range another 250km north.

Edited March 6, 2008 by Fernando Rivadavia

[Fernando Rivadavia]

I also saw many Genlisea at the Jalapão: G.repens, G.filiformis, G.pygmaea, and G.aurea (which thus also had its known range extended by a few hundred km further north). G.aurea usually has compact rosettes of narrow leaves covered in clear mucilage like in the picture below:

But on this trip I began suspecting that what we call G.aurea may actually be 2 different species. At a few populations further to the south I found plants with fewer, wider leaves & no mucilage:

I'd seen these before at other places in central Brazil, but hadn't payed much attention unfortunately...

And here are pics of G.pygmaea, which was a small form, probably without tubers.

One of the most common Utrics at the Jalapão was U.amethystina, growing in a variety of wet habitats. Almost all populations had purple flowers (sorry for the bad pics, maybe Andreas F. can post some from cultivation...):

But a few plants were of a small white form:

Unfortunately, with so many plants to study in the field, I didn't pay too much attention to "boring old U.amethystina". It was only at the end of the trip (or maybe back home making herbarium specimens?) that I realized I'd overlooked something unique about the purple-flowered form: instead of the usual rounded leaves, all the plants from the Jalapão seemed to have narrow filiform leaves!! This puts it apart from all other U.amethystina, as well as U.tricolor & U.tridentata in Section Foliosa, a truly amazing new character!

One of my favorite species from this trip was U.nigrescens, with its absurdly long spur and its scapes covered in clear mucilage, growing in wet sand or on wet rock surfaces.

I also found the rare U.lloydii at one site in humid sandy soil:

In one boggy area I also found some huge U.nana:

U.neottioides was seen at several places in its usual habitat on rocks in running water:

One of the surprises of the trip was the rare U.guyanensis growing in sand submerged by a small stream between the sand dunes. The uniquely long stamen on this plant are really cool!

A large flowered form of U.simulans was common in humid to wet sandy habitats:

U.cucullata is a favorite of mine, commonly found in shallow water habitats over much of Brazil:

One of the greatest discoveries of this trip was a new species of Utricularia found at a single site growing in humid sandy soil among sparse grasses. Unfortunately none were in flower and the plants I brought for a friend to cultivate did not last long enough to flower. Well, he did get a single ugly flower -- and an even worse picture of it, hahaha. It seems to be most closely related to U.huntii. I'll just have to go back some day, in July or August, in hopes of catching this one in flower...

Also seen but not photographed were: U.triloba, U.subulata, U.trichophylla, and U.hispida.

And to finish off, here's one of the best CP areas I found at the Jalapão. It was a small escarpment and all along the sloping edges there was water seeping over the ground and CPs were all over. Plus a couple of the extremely rare giant blue macaws kept flying over me, which was a great treat!

Enjoy, Fernando Rivadavia

Edited March 6, 2008 by Fernando Rivadavia

[Iggy]

Another fantastic trip!!!

Thanks for sharing them Fernando!!

I like the pictures with the D.communis colonies.

Absolutely fabulous!!

Also the animals are great, the big grasshopper would be good food for....

About D.hirtella and D.sp. Corumbá : after dormancy all the plants come back from their roots or are there also places that stays wet during winter?

Thanks,

Iggy

[diva]

stunning shots thanks for sharing

[droseraguy]

Those are some great shots. Thanks for sharing with us.

[Mathias]

Hi,

a fantastic report! Have you ever thought about working in tourist promotion? But then I guess most people don't like to be digging through the mud for rare plants in the middle of Nowhere. Your photos and lines always make me dreaming, I defenitely want to see the land of Brazil someday!!

greetings, Mathias

[Carlos Rohrbacher]

Great shots Fernando

[Greg Allan]

Excellent! Thanks for sharing. I especially like the clumps of D communis.

Cheers,

Greg

[BobZ]

(WARNING: My camera had broken just before this trip & I was only able to get a small cheap one in my hurry. So please excuse the bad quality of the pics!

I only wish my photos with my nice camera were even closely as good as yours with a small cheap one.

[Daniel O.]

Hi Fernando,

must have been a wonderful trip.

The ladscape with these waterfalls is really great, i like these shots.

Most i like the D. communis colony , so many plants at one place, really awesome. The poor insects.

The flower of D. spec. Corumbá seems to be nearly as big as the plant, how big is/was it in diameter?

The U.nigrescens is also looking great, it´s yellow but with a very interesting flower form.

The habitat from U. neottioides is very interesting too. Is it only growing at such places in running water?

Thanks for these wonderful pictures. The quality of the pictures is not as bad as you mentioned, it´s absolutely OK.

Best regards,

Dani

[UtricSeb]

Fer, I have no words. Your stories and pictures take me to those very special places and I enjoy that so much!

Thanks friend.

[Fernando Rivadavia]

Hi guys,

I'm glad you liked even these crappy shots, hehehe! I have to say, there are some truly beautiful places in Brazil. :) Those sand dunes are really amazing, it's a pity my pics don't do it justice...

Dani: I don't remember how big those D.sp.Corumbá pics were, but I think maybe 2cm diameter. U.neottioides is a rheophyte, growing mostly on rocks submerged by running water.

Take care,

Fernando Rivadavia

[Sockhom]

Hi guys,

there are some truly beautiful places in Brazil. :) Fernando Rivadavia

Definitely.

My jaw dropped when i saw that communis colony.

What an outstanding field report (with very nice pictures)!

Thanks for all the fauna shots too. I really enjoyed that odd snake and that chimmering grasshopper.

François.

Edited March 7, 2008 by Sockhom

[christerb]

That is a really nice D. communis colony! I also like the D. sessilifolia, they look different when all the leaves don't lay flat, very beautiful plants they are. Thanks for the photos.

Regards,

Christer

[Martin Hingst]

Hi Fernando,

once again - great trip, great landscape, very nice pics! It seems as some do not upload for me - cannot find the crappy ones

And some very rarely seen Utricularia - special thanks for those. I will have to come back here some times later on - as so often with your field trip reports

Regards

Martin

[Fernando Rivadavia]

Hello all,

I forgot to mention something about the new U.sp. The single flower that did open in cultivation was white, about the size of U.amethystina, and possibly cleistogamic. The most curious aspect is that it had ***4*** sepals! Was it simply a freak flower? Or is it actually closely related to the ex-Polypompholyx species? We'll just have to wait until somebody returns to the Jalapão at the right time of year...

Best Wishes, Fernando Rivadavia

[Andreas Fleischmann]

Hello Fernando,

Four sepals in Utricularia is nothing to worry about, and it doesn't necessarily mean that this is Polypompholyx ;) There are some species that occassionally develop 4 sepals in some flowers, while in others, 2 additional lateral sepals to the 2 "normal" ones are quite common. U. flaccida, for example, has 4 sepals in almost every flower! I remember having this seen even in one of your excellent habitat photos! ;)

All the best,

Andreas

[Fernando Rivadavia]

Hello Andreas,

I agree, it's probably a freak. But Vitor M. thinks we may have another D.meristocaulis, hehehe! ;)

All the best,

Fernando Rivadavia