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Pinguicula in Chile


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Hello everyone,

I had the opportunity to spend the Christmas holiday in Chile. At this occasion, I visited the Natural Park Nahuelbuta in south-central Chile. It is located in the maritime Cordillera, only a few dozen kilometers far away from the Pacific Ocean. It is a mountain of low altitude (1500m) where the tree layer is dominated by Araucaria araucana:

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I went to this place because I knew it was possible to observe carnivorous plants. After driving 3 hours with a pickup (the park is huge), I finally came across what I wanted, Pinguicula chilensis. The following pictures give you an idea of the habitat:

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They grew on a small humid slope. The soil texture was quite sandy and it was covered by mosses and plants enjoying organic matter from forest litter just above the slope. This small population consisted in about 100 plants:

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Some were exposed to direct sunlight (first and second photo), while others grew in shady places (third photo):

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As you can notice, the flower scape is very short, which is characteristic of the populations of the maritime Cordillera. Individuals growing in the higher mountains of The Andes develop longer flowering scapes.

Apart from Pinguicula, there was also Drosera uniflora growing in the peatland areas. Unfortunately, I began searching for them too late and was not able to find them. In this area, the Drosera grow in sphagnum unlike the plants found in Alerce Costero National Park in Southern Chile.

++

Damien

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Hi Damien,

many thanks for showing us these pictures of this relatively rare species.

For sure you have been lucky to see them in bloom.

Really interesting that the highland plants have longer flower scapes. Has it something to do different pollinators?

Here in this case it´s really dangerous for the pollinators. :wink:

Best regards,

Dani

Edited by Daniel O.
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Looks like a fabulous place to visit Damien.

The Pings look lovely and interesting with the low flowers right down by the rosettes. Are the highland ones growing in amongst other small herbs which they need to lift the flowers over?

I would love to see the Araucaria forest too. In the UK people have a habit of planting them in their front gardens when about 1.5m tall. Years later the current owners find that they have a huge tree taller than the house growing out of their foundations.

Cheers,

Steve

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I do not have lot of information about Pinguicula chilensis growing in highland conditions except from what I read and saw on photographs. I tryed to find this species in 2010 in Lonquimay National Park but I failed. There is a high probability that I will go back to Chile in the next years. If so, I will try to search for the three known species of this country that is to say D.uniflora, P.chilensis and P.antartica. If I am not wrong U.gibba was also reported to be growing in Valdivia delta in southern Chile but as paper industry have been contaminating the area for several years, I do not know if it still exists...

Regarding Araucaria, there are among of my favourite threes even if there are not the most beautiful one. Some specimens are really huge and many are centuries old. Some are even supposed to be over 1000 years old but of course it is quite hard to estimate. Anyway, it is a nice experience to walk in a forest where most of the tallest threes have been there before first European people discover America.

Cheers,

Damien

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  • 4 weeks later...

Congratulations Damien!!!! I am so glad you found this species, I was so pissed when I didn't see it back in the early 2000's (although I was of course very happy to find D.uniflora). I probably drove past several bunches like the ones you showed, on my way to the D.uniflora site, but did not notice them because they were so small. And they're very pretty too!!

Thanks for sharing!

Fernando Rivadavia

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