CPs in the wild in Paraná state, S Brazil (lots of pics!)

[Fernando Rivadavia]

Hello to all,

Last Saturday (November 25) I went on another CP hunt with my friend Carlos Rohrbacher. This time we drove only about an hour W from the city of Curitiba, capital os the southern Brazilian state of Paraná. I had last driven past this area in 1995 and had seen several cool CPs along the way. We were hoping to explore several old and new areas, but we ended up spending all our time at only 2 sites due to all the CPs we found.

One of the sites was on wet banks next to the road, where we saw D.communis, D.viridis, D.brevifolia & U.praelonga. The other was along a river, where we saw D.ascendens, D.communis, D.grantsaui, D.viridis, D.brevifolia, U.praelonga, U.tricolor, U.tridentata, U.subulata, U.nervosa, U.laxa & U.gibba. See pics below...

This is a pic of the riversides where most CPs were found:

Along this river there were lots of D.ascendens:

Some D.ascendens had young scapes:

Other D.ascendens were in full bloom (several open flowers were seen that day).

Most D.ascendens scapes were nearly spent already.

Several CPs were often seen growing side by side, like this D.brevifolia in full bloom with a young D.ascendens growing right above it:

And here's an overview of D.brevifolia growing in moist habitats:

Other D.brevifolia were in drier sandy habitats and these had finished flowering:

Although most D.brevifolia had pinkish-lilac flowers (like the one below), we did find some that were pure white (I think it was the 1st time I ever saw white D.brevifolia in Brazil):

Although we didn't see much prey on the leaves, look at this D.brevifolia flower scape covered with bugs:

Here are 3 Drosera species growing side-by-side, D.ascendens at the bottom center, D.communis on the upper right and the greener D.viridis with flatter petioles on the upper left:

And here's another pic of the same 3 species growing sympatrically, D.ascendens in the center, D.viridis on the left and the redder D.communis on the right, top & bottom:

Other than the reddish coloring, D.communis has narrower & hairier petioles than D.viridis. Also, the base of the flower scapes of D.viridis are erect (or just slightly ascending) while those of D.communis are deeply ascending like in the pic below:

And here's a pic of a D.communis flower.

When D.viridis & D.communis are found in the same general areas, D.viridis is often observed to grow in the wetter areas, like these plants growing in Sphagnum (D.communis was growing a bit further up the banks in moist soil):

The name may be misleading, but D.viridis is not an all-green D.communis. D.viridis often has a pinkish coloring to it (especially the petioles) and the base of the scapes is often reddish like in these plants below:

Another difference between D.communis & D.viridis often observed in nature is that the latter is often more robust, like this D.viridis below:

This is an open flower of D.viridis:

A complete surprise along the riverside was D.gratsaui! This widespread species became even more widespread this year. In June I found a new northermost location for it in Tocantins state, in an area known as the Jalapão. And now, ~1700km to the south, this site in Paraná state is the new southernmost location for D.grantsaui.

Although not very abundant, we did find this very robust specimen of D.grantsaui:

I didn't see any D.grantsaui in this area in 1995, but I did see another species which we did not find this time: D.montana. Maybe they hadn't awaken from dormancy yet. This means that 6 Drosera species grow along this river. Few places in Brazil are so Drosera-rich!

Now, on to the Utrics. U.praelonga was probably the most abundant species in this region, or at least the one flowering most profusely. Here's a shot of flowers among the grasses bordering the river.

And this may give you all an idea of just how abundant U.praelonga was (look at all the yellow flowers):

And this is U.nervosa, which was uncommonly abundant. At first we were getting it mixed up with U.subulata, of which it resembles a larger form of:

A species relatively common in S Brazil is U.laxa. This plant was very common along the wettest parts of the river margins:

In this pic you can see the leaves of U.laxa growing underwater on the river margin:

A nice surprise was a very robust form of U.tricolor with dark purple flowers:

You can get a better idea of the flower size in this pic:

All was taxonomically fine until we found these flowers on our way out...

These were much smaller than the U.tricolor above, and obviously different. The only other species it could be is U.tridentata, but the base of the lower lip was not really trilobed as should be for this species. Considering that not even Peter Taylor was sure in his Utric monograph how to distinguish between U.amethystina, U.tricolor & U.tridentata, I guess I'll stick with U.tridentata for this last plant. This means that the small "U.tricolor" we saw the previous weekend at the Serra do Quiriri (see http://www.cpukforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17802) is probably best referred to as U.tridentata as well.

If you want to see more pics of plants from this area, check out the Brazilian CP forum, where Carlos posted his pics:

http://www.forum.clickgratis.com.br/planta...ivor/t-850.html

Sorry, but no pics of U.subulata & U.gibba! ;) I also do not have seeds of any plants seen, sorry again!

Best Wishes,

Fernando Rivadavia

[gardenofeden]

fabulous as always!

[Greg Allan]

Wonderful habitat shots- thanks for sharing them.

Cheers,

[Sockhom]

Breathless.

Just like the last time.

The picture with the horse in the background is awesome.

Thanks.

François.

[Carlos Rohrbacher]

Beautiful photos Fernando,

I thank the chance again.

Carlos. 8)

[chug]

Nice looking plants you found. :) Cheers!

[JanW]

Wow.Wow.Wow.

[Guest Andreas Eils]

Yeah, great as ever, Fernando!

I especially like the U. nervosa. And the last picture appears to me like a hybrid between U. tricolor and U. tridentata. I have no clue about the possibilities of hybridisation among Utricularias. Can you clarify it a little?

Kind regards,

Andreas

[Christian]

Hello,

thanks for showing us the pictures!

Christian

[Fernando Rivadavia]

Hi guys, I'm glad you liked the pics! ;-)

Andreas, why do you think it is a hybrid? I wouldn't be surprised at all if U.tricolor & U.tridentata did hybridize (since they're so close), but do you see any characteristics which suggest it's a hybrid?

Best Wishes,

Fernando Rivadavia

[radmegan]

I always look forward to your posts Fernando! If you ever need an extra set of hands, let me know. You make me want to travel more!!!

[Fernando Rivadavia]

THANKS!!! ;)

[radmegan]

No really! Thank you! You make sitting behind a desk in an office MUCH more tolerable.

[Fernando Rivadavia]

Or would that be **IN**tolerable -- wanting to go out in the field? ;)

[radmegan]

Yes! In fact, I am wanting to!

[Guest Andreas Eils]

Hi Fernando,

I have made the effort to compare the pictures of U. tricolor and U. tridentata on BobZ.´s photofinder and have astonishedly found out that they are quite similar and also quite variable (within the species itself). Regarding your last photo I thought the flower lobe actually would be too wide and has a too less notch for appearing "three-lobed" (as you already have stated in your text) like a typical U. tridentata. So I actually just wanted to ask you if it could possibly a hybrid. I´m generally curious whether Utrics hybridize easily when several species join the same place.

Best regards,

Andreas

[sundewmatt]

beautiful work, as always. fyi, this grantsaui looks thinner and longer than the others ive got. was it under water or growing in shade? and whats up with the horse? i thought you finally got a car?! hahahaa... ;)

matt

[Fernando Rivadavia]

Hey Matt,

Just this one plant was abnormally large and narrow-leaved.

Take Care,

Fernando Rivadavia

[Frank]

Awesome shots, thank you for sharing! :)

Frank

[Carlos Rohrbacher]

Hi Fernando (and all),

it stows again in this place (alone, without Rivadavia professor, so it was not amused) and it has new photographs here:

http://tinyurl.com/2dev6e

Até mais.

Carlos.

[sundewmatt]

nice photos carlos.

m

[Carlos Rohrbacher]

Hi Matt,

they are places as this that I passed sets of ten of times and had never stopped to look at (before starting with the carnivorous plants).

If you to look at back in brazilian fórum have new expeditions, with photos published yesterday.

Cheers.

Carlos.

[Fernando Rivadavia]

Hello to all,

Looking back at some of my old posts, I see that this new forum fornat is now limiting the number of pictures per post! Since many of py pics don't appear anymore on the original post, only the links, I will include them here at the end for you, continuing from where the pics left off...

Best Wishes, Fernando Rivadavia

-------------------------------------------------

And this may give you all an idea of just how abundant U.praelonga was (look at all the yellow flowers):

And this is U.nervosa, which was uncommonly abundant. At first we were getting it mixed up with U.subulata, of which it resembles a larger form of:

A species relatively common in S Brazil is U.laxa. This plant was very common along the wettest parts of the river margins:

In this pic you can see the leaves of U.laxa growing underwater on the river margin:

A nice surprise was a very robust form of U.tricolor with dark purple flowers:

You can get a better idea of the flower size in this pic:

All was taxonomically fine until we found these flowers on our way out...

These were much smaller than the U.tricolor above, and obviously different. The only other species it could be is U.tridentata, but the base of the lower lip was not really trilobed as should be for this species. Considering that not even Peter Taylor was sure in his Utric monograph how to distinguish between U.amethystina, U.tricolor & U.tridentata, I guess I'll stick with U.tridentata for this last plant. This means that the small "U.tricolor" we saw the previous weekend at the Serra do Quiriri (see http://www.cpukforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17802) is probably best referred to as U.tridentata as well.

If you want to see more pics of plants from this area, check out the Brazilian CP forum, where Carlos posted his pics:

http://www.forum.clickgratis.com.br/planta...ivor/t-850.html

Sorry, but no pics of U.subulata & U.gibba! ;) I also do not have seeds of any plants seen, sorry again!

Best Wishes,

Fernando Rivadavia