Thanks for the update, Copiapoa's are not my speciality.
I am working from Roger Ferryman's list of plants he sent to us later regarding the plants we saw at those localities on those dates. For "Huasco" at that date he gives the following Copiapoa's, along with Thelocephala lembckei:-
Copiapoa dura
Copiapoa echinata v. borealis
As to how close to Huasco we were I do not know since we were told the name given to the localities was just that of the nearest place, which often could be miles away from any settlement of that name, sometimes in order to protect his locality. I will check with him since some names may have been missed, or I may have confused them with my images which are solely date and time stamped.
This was the other Copiapoa there that I had identified from his list as Copiapoa echinata ssp. borealis which looks more like your C. fiedleriana?
Nottingham Branch BCSS. Joined the then NCSS in 1961, Membership number 11944. Cactus only collection.
Hallo Dave,
I am also far from being a specialist in Copiapoa. We travelled this region 6x and mostly used the books of Schulz to identify the copiapoas.
According to these you can find north of Huasco Copiapoa coquimbana "Fiedleriana", followed by Copiapoa dealbata, Copiapoa echinoides and Copiaoa echinata. Copiapoa megarhiza "Borealis" = Copiapoa echinata var. borealis = Copiapoa totoralensis should be north of the distribution of Copiapoa echinata (according to the name).
This is Copiapoa echinata "Borealis" we found south of Barranquilla (north of Totoral Bajo):
Copiapoa echinata "Borealis"
And this is a typical Copiapoa echinata near Carrizal Bajo (there it is growing together with Thelocephala krausii):
Just had a quick email from Roger in Caldera since he says signal strength is low. I sent him the link for the last two pages here. He says:-
" The plants you illustrate as Ritter's C. dura, which is now referred to as C. Echinoidea. Perfect examples of these plants that grow from south of Carrizal past Totoral"
Nottingham Branch BCSS. Joined the then NCSS in 1961, Membership number 11944. Cactus only collection.
We found some sad looking Thelocephala glabrescens which did not seem to have received as much water here.
Going down the road to another site we found a patch of bulbs in flower.
The "Three Colin's" and Jean Cutler among the plants.
This point is about one third of the way through our trip. Are you interested in seeing more Copiapoa's and Eriosyce/Neoporteria's, or is it now "overkill" since I can stop here if wanted? The rest of the trip took us further up north to Botija then back again, visiting other localities we had missed on the way north.
Nottingham Branch BCSS. Joined the then NCSS in 1961, Membership number 11944. Cactus only collection.
My concern was, unlike Paul Klaassen's excellent "Cactus Trip Diaries" and Marlon Machado's travelogue my travelogue was simply habitat pictures linked together with few words, since I did not keep a diary of the events just used a simple Olympus Note Corder DP-311 off EBAY which slipped into my shirt pocket. Then I only used it to record plant names and localities. All the party had gone to see plants rather than sightsee so that was the priority, but my interests may not be other peoples therefore soon numerous pictures of Copiapoa's and Eriosyce can get boring for them.
We did not really get time to write up diaries, since the normal day was wake up, get dressed, breakfast and then out towards the next habitat as soon as possible. We usually got back about 6pm, got changed and went into town for dinner. Coming back it was dark, so usually straight to bed to get ready for next morning.
I believe Roger Ferryman has been to Chile about 14 times and discovered many habitats of his own, as well as the well known ones. He invited me along since we had long corresponded about what was later Eriosyce sensu Kattermann in the early days of the old Chileans Society in the 1960's, ever before Roger first went to Chile in 1982. He wanted to show me his sites he had found. The only sightseeing we did therefore was at night and when filling the cars up with fuel during the day, or shopping for provisions and water for snacks during the day. During the three weeks in habitat we visited 63 different sites where Roger knew plants existed.
The direct trip from Santiago to Botija and back on the main road is about 1520 miles, but according to the cars milometers with all the side trips to Botija and back to Santiago we did around 2796 miles and spent around 153 hours in habitat, or the travelling between habitats. The main roads are pretty good in Chile and you can cover long distances at around 70 MPH and even 30 MPH to 40 MPH on many of the dirt ones, so you do clock up the miles travelling.
As said before, it was supposed to be the wettest year for 50 years in the North of Chile due to an exceptional El Nino effect bringing exceptional rains in paces that usually see very little, plus some quite devastating floods. Therefore I was probably lucky and saw more Thelocephala's above ground and in flower than most who have visited Chile many times in the past. In fact I am told most Thelocephala's have pulled themselves below ground again and are hard to find.
Thelocephala's are one of the cryptic "earthcacti" whose populations are impossible to estimate. A person visiting the site in dry times may even think they are now extinct, but in an exceptionally wet season they may reappear in their hundreds, particularly if in flower. They are not unique in this habit. I was listening to a very interesting talk on Pediocactus by Trevor Wray at our Nottingham branch meeting last night and most of the smaller species of that genus have a similar life style to Thelocephala's, in that they retreat underground in the dry season due to contractile roots, only to reappear and flower when damper periods return. I believe some of the Mammillaria theresae/saboae group do the same. Therefore for these plants estimating population numbers is pure conjecture and has little basis in science. Only somebody permanently living on the site year in and year out is even qualified to attempt to do so.
The first part of this travelogue was prepared for my local branch therefore if some of you are quite happy with more habitat pictures with few words, this was the second part. I try to include a few pictures of the same species to show either variation or lack of it that I saw in the population since we often only see a single clone under that name in cultivation. If that means I am including too many pictures of a species let me know and I will cut them down.
Hi Nobby,
Just received the following email from Roger:-
"Dave
Passed these plants today (Copiapoa discussed previously) as we made our way from Caldera to Huasco ( the reverse of our trip). The distribution suggested by Schultz is not exact of course and we found both dura much further north. As for echinata borealis this is even further north and to my mind has much to do with megariza. Too many names in Copiapoa and needs sorting. However the coquimbana complex is really difficult. Very variable - hence the many new names - but some populations make it difficult to define the boundaries."
Nottingham Branch BCSS. Joined the then NCSS in 1961, Membership number 11944. Cactus only collection.
The Forum reduction may reduce sharpness of the image in some cases, so double clicking on the images to enlarge them will often produce a sharper picture. As said before these images were sized at 1280 x 800 pixels maximum for my projector rather than the Forum. It is notable how pictures actually sized for the Forum (800 pixels wide) are much sharper in all respects on screen.
The Cutlers among the Copiapoa's
Also Copiapoa echinata ssp. borealis again.
Nottingham Branch BCSS. Joined the then NCSS in 1961, Membership number 11944. Cactus only collection.
