Chile 2015

[DaveW]

There were also some more robust plants of Thelocephala lembckei here.

But only found one in flower.

And evidently just missed this one.

We found some woolly plants reminiscent of the transition to Thelocephala napina ssp. challensis among them.

Also the resident lizard.

[Acid John]

The lizard looks like a Dwarf Tegu (Callopistes maculatus).

[DaveW]

Thanks John,

I have a job identifying reptiles.

Keeping moving on:-

The brown stuff lying on the shore is Kelp, which they harvest around here.

As you move up north away from the towns most of the housing in the little fishing places is more akin to our seaside chalets, wooden garages or sheds. No doubt safer than heavier buildings in a permanent earthquake zone. Roger pointed out in their climate they only sleep in them since during the day they are usually all outside. You do however see many of them boasting satellite dishes for TV. As with Africa, where distances have ruled out traditional landline connections, they have jumped this hurdle in recent years with satellites and microwave towers. Now it is often as easy to ring the UK on a smartphone or send back pictures, as in many parts of Britain.

The fishing boats just off shore.

And where you find fishing you get the Gulls and Pelicans.

The lorry in the picture below is loaded with Kelp from which they extract alginates that are used in many products, including ice-cream.

"Sodium alginate is widely used as a stabilizer or as an emulsifier, or both, and became very popular with the textile printing industry over the years.

Alginates are also the preferred additive to ice-creams and dairy products in many countries, thereby competing with carrageenans in this complex market."

See:-

http://www.seaweed.ie/uses_general/alginates.php

I wonder how those houses on stilts on the hillside go on in an earthquake though?

[DaveW]

We found our first Thelocephala odieri at another site. I mentioned Ectus. reichei previously, which Ritter at first thought was his FR 501 but later realised it was not so named that lembckei. The type species of Echinocactus reichei was re-found in another department at the Dahrlem Herbarium after being previously thought to have been destroyed by Allied bombing in the last war. It is now taken to be the same as Thelocephala odieri, which luckily being the older name takes priority, therefore reichei becomes a synonym avoiding any unfortunate name changes.

Again as with most of the contractile Thelocephala's most of the plant is underground.

[DaveW]

Copiapo.

Whilst the Thelocephala's may usually be on level ground some plants you have to climb for and don't find straight out of the car. There is as much scree slope from the cars below as above Roger.

Eriosyce spinibarbis inhabits the rocks however.

As always younger Eriosyce always seem to have slightly stronger spines.

[DaveW]

At another site we found Thelocephala monte-amargensis. Often considered a subspecies of Thelocephala odieri.

[DaveW]

Moving on we did find a population of Thelocephala odieri.

[DaveW]

On through the Caldera region.

We visited the habitat of one of the newer described Copiapoa's = Copiapoa leonensis Schaub & Keim (2006). Obviously one of the Copiapoa humilis complex. As reported previously Richardo Keim was tragically killed in a road accident earlier this year.

Copiapoa calderana too.

[DaveW]

Thelocephala krausii was blending in well with it's surroundings but the buds gave it away.

The local lizards were quite exotic.

[DaveW]

I mentioned previously under Neoporteria transiens that Ritter originally described his purplish-red flowered Pyrrhocactus rupicolus FR213 (Ritter used Pyrrhocactus for this section of Chilean plants) as having the very long range "from Alloro (southwest of Caldera) and north of Paposo". He later found that Paul Hutchison had already described the plant at the northern end of that range from Esmeralda as Neoporteria taltalensis, therefore renamed the southern end of his "Pyrrhocactus rupicolus" as P. transiens.

Even the ladies had to be good rock climbers and often beat me to the top.

One for Dot.

This picture is typical of the small coastal fishing villages in this region.