CP expedition to Yamato - 06/2004 - Part 3

Writer: Sebastián Vieira
Photography: Sebatián Vieira

The third and more interesting habitat is known in spanish as "Morichal". It consists of wet grasslands which are partially inundated during the wet season and moist for the rest of the year. Soil is sand with some peat, and there are numerous palm trees of Mauritia flexuosa. The grasses are tall and you have to move them apart to be able to see the soil surface and the interesting plants growing there under the partial shade provided by the grasses.
The first plant I saw here, was the one I came searching for. A Drosera which species I didn´t know but was confirmed later (again, by CP expert Fernando Rivadavia) to be D.communis, grew almost everywhere under these grasses. Some plants grew submerged, others emerged. Those gorwing submerged had long stems while those emerged where compat rosettes, and colors also varied from red to green according to the quantity of sun the plants received. Unfortunately, none of this plants had flowers or scapes.

D.communis growing with U.pubescens.	D.communis growing as semi-aquatic.	Emerged plants of D.communis have deeper red color.
D.communis growing as aquatic.	This is how D.communis grows in this "Morichal".	Four CPs growing together. D.communis, U.pubescens (small rounded leaves ), D.tricolor (the two bigger rounded leaves) and U.tricophylla (filiform branched leaves).
A nice red rosette of D.communis.	Semi-aquatic D.communis .	Aquatic D.communis, Note the elongated stem.
A group of D.communis.	More D.communis.

Among the plants of D.communis there were also some plants of Utricularia. First, I found the very common round and peltate leaves of U.pubescens, sometimes covered with a jelly mucilage but with no flowers. Below the water surface I also found the thin branched leaves of U.tricophylla, but here I could not find a single flower of this species.

Then were the bigger and wide leaves of U.tricolor, this plant was growing submerged and leaves were not in groups, being solitary and growing several centimeters apart.

I then started looking for flowers, and what a nice surprise was to find, among the top of the grasses, fully exposed to the sun, the big flowers of U.tricolor, growing on the top of a very long scape.

U.tricolor flower.	U.tricolor flower - lateral view.	U.tricolor flower - Frontal view.
Solitary leaf of U.tricolor.	This is me looking at the flower of U.tricolor.	A small fish we found living in the water with the Utrics and Drosera.

One thing that must be noted is that it was the rainy season when I visited this place, and this habitat will get drier during the 6 month long dry season when the soil will remain moist bot not covered with water.

I thought I won´t find more CPs here when suddenly, near one flower of U.tricolor I spotted a scape with some big and light yellow flowers, I was very excited and then began trying to find the plant following the scape between the grasses to the soil. I managed to find some plants with terrestrial stolons but had to look hard until I found one single leaf. It was a long one, measuring about 30 cms and in one of the terrestrial stolons ther was a bladder. It is U.hispida I am talking about, one species I later found to be common but impossible to find if it is not blooming because it does not grow under water but very hidden among the tall grass roots.

Flower of U.hispida at the end of the scape. Loog at the seed pod to the right.	Lateral view of the flower of U.hispida.	Frontal view of the flower.
Other view of the flower of U.hispida.	Part of the long scape of U.hispida.	Closer look fo the scape with flowers.
Other example of the beauty of U.hispida.	My friend, John Madrid holding the long scape of U.hispida.	The bladder of U.hispida.

Yamato turned out to be an interesting place to look for CPs and I hope to visit it again in the future looking for more habitats, and possibly more species.

Back to Part 2