Argentina & Chile November 2008 - Day 4 - Fiambala - Copiapo 500km

[Mike P]

And another.
[attachment 16405 jjj1.jpg]
Fill in flash was a little too strong on this but it was a nice clump.
Maybe David will have a better shot.

[Mike P]

There were also some fine clumps of Tephrocactus mandragora.
[attachment 16406 k1.jpg]

[Mike P]

[attachment 16407 kk1.jpg]
A close up of the T. mandragora.

[Mike P]

[attachment 16408 l1.jpg]
A fine group of the T. geometricus. They were nowhere more than 2 segments high and were fairly uniform in their spination. Although they had flower buds none of the floweres were open.

[Benjy]

Thats made my day seeing that different form of bonnieae,
I have this one and thought it might be something different,
as it does look very different than the other bonnieae's i have and the ones normally seen in collections.
I was just about to post a pic, but didnt think it was right doing so on your travelogue.

Benjy

[David_L]

There were two slightly different looking Pterocactus Sp. here I think. This is my take on Mike's clump. I agree with Mike and Rene Geissler, this one looks more like Pterocactus megliolli

[attachment 16410 Pterocactus_sp.jpg]

[David_L]

The other one looked slightly different and more like the Pterocactus kuntzei that I grow.


[attachment 16411 Pterocactus_kuntzei.jpg]

[David_L]

The Puna bonniae plants were most bizarre looking. As Benjy has noted they look quite different from those commonly seen in cultivation in the UK.


[attachment 16412 Puna_bonniae2.jpg]

[iann]

Possibly a great many of the T. bonnieae in cultivation are from a very few original collections. I think this form would make an interesting addition.

[David_L]

The air here was distinctly thin here. It was a case of making haste very slowly and steadily. We were to get use to this later in the trip when we had several days and nights above 3000m. The scenery was quite extraordinary. The red reef of rock in the background is shown exactly as it was, completely unPhotoshoped. There were obviously huge mineral deposits in the area with whole hillsides green with copper minerals as well as red with iron. In the foreground you can see the group getting down to the stern job of locating tiny plants well camouflaged in the stony ground.


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