Argentina & Chile November 2008

[David_L]

As Mike has mentioned a number of plants at Estancia Vieja had suffered fire damage, but were making a good recovery. This is Gymnocalycium mostii.
[attachment 15925 Gymnocalycium_mostii.jpg]

[David_L]

As well as Gymnocalycium mostii and some lovely plants of Gymnocalycium quehlianum, Estancia Vieja also boasted a third Gymnocalycium species, Gymnocalycium calochlorum. See if you can spot the Gymnocalycium quehlianum that sneaks into this shot, and of course there's an Opuntia!
[attachment 15926 Gymnocalycium_quehlianum_an.jpg]

[David_L]

Now it's unlike Mike to miss out on an Opuntia, but Opuntia salmiana, seen at Estancia Vieja, was certainly no beauty, but for sake of completeness ....
[attachment 15927 Opuntia_salmiana.jpg]

[David_L]

The vintage tractors were a bit mad, but here was the reason. Too bad we didn't have time to visit.
[attachment 15928 Tractor_museum.jpg]

[David_L]

Notice the strange lumps on the overhead wires? It's some kind of Bromeliad I guess. It was present wherever the conditions suited it. Who knows how the seeds germinate and get a foothold on the wire? Notice it's only on the bare twisted wire not the sheathed one. Presumably the seeds lodge in the twists.
[attachment 15929 Bromeliad_on_overhead_wires.jpg]

[Mike P]

I was intrigued that so many cacti grew in close proximity to each other. I'm not really sure what I had expected but finding half a dozen different plants within a few meters of each other was not it. I left the Opuntia out because my camera decided to focus on the leaves in front rather than the plant in question. Definitly not one of the more attractive species.

[Benjy]

adhered to, through bird droppings ?

[Vic]

Greats pics Mike and David!!

I was going to say like Benjy regarding bird poop and the bromeliads, you see the same in Mexico, whole cables covered in the things. I suppose any mositure/rain will also be held in the folds of the cable, long enough for germination to take place or maybe there's sufficient moisture in the bird poop as well as it being an excellent fertiliser. Not that I'm suggesting using it;)

So Oxalis is perfectly natural then and we should just leave it to romp away in our pots(:D

[CoronaCactus]

Awesome pics!
Thanks for the day 1 tour

Can't wait for more Opuntia pics

[David_L]

Yes Vic we saw plenty of Oxalis in Argentina. Some of the species were quite pretty. The dry grassland habitat that suits species like Gymnocalycium also suits Oxalis. This rather pretty one was at Estancia Vieja.
[attachment 15934 oxalis2.jpg]