We drove the next morning from Oaxaca direction Tehuacan on the old highway 135. In the publication of Zamudio about P. mirandae he mentioned the type location east of the village Santa Maria Ixcatlán. On Google maps there was a tiny road indicated leading into the mountains where we were hoping to find the location at the given altitude. We entered the faboulous Biosphere Reserve of Tehuacan-Cucatlán with its unique flora and fauna, mainly dominated by xerophytic vegetation. When we arrived at the right crossing, we were not seeing any road. Therefore we asked in the next village for the right way. Unfortunately we had to learn that the road was not in service anymore, as landslides had destroyed a major part of the road. When we turned back at the right point where the dirt road started, we were seeing that without a 4 wheel drive it would not have been possible to use that road anyway, as you needed to cross a river through the river bed and the road was only stones and gravel. So the only chance of seeing P. mirandae was driving all the way up to Tehuacan and to take the new super carretera 135d (toll road) south again to get to the site Fernando has found during his trips. It was again a long distance to travel on endless winding roads, but the landscape was really wonderful and worth driving.

In the late afternoon we arrived at the supposed place and we were seeing the rock where Fernando had found the plants. But it was impossible to stop in this bend, as there was a lot of truck traffic along that road and really dangerous to leave the car on the emergency lane, as the trucks were using this lane to let other cars pass. So roughly 2 km further on there was a kind of a parking place where we could leave the car. Instead of walking down to the bend and climbing up to "Fernando's rock" we walked on the slope higher up to get to the vertical cliffs. As it was a very xerophytic vegetation, there were a lot of stingy plants growing like cacti, agave, Hechtia and Acacia bushes. The area is also the habitat of the endemic Beaucarnea gracilis (elephant's foot genus).

When the slope turned towards north-northwest, the vegetation was slightly changing (meaning getting a little greener) and suddenly also Selaginella appeared. This indicated that the area was wetter and a good sign that in principle also Pinguicula could grow there. Shortly after at an altitude of about 1800 m, the first P. mirandae plants were appearing, but not on vertical cliffs (so it was not necessary to take the dangerous way to climb up the vertical cliff as Fernando did), but more in the eroded calcerous soil between Selaginella or under shrubs or Agave stricta plants in more shady places. The plants were all in summer rosette, with a size of 4-6 cm in diameter. The colour of the leaves were ranging from a dark red-brown to almost green plants, some were showing also a light red coloration of the leaf margin. And P. mirandae was quite numerous along the slope. We could not see any flowers as the species is flowering out of the winter rosette. But it was a very impressive site and for me a quite extreme habitat for Pinguicula growing, as the soil was very dry and this was the rainy season. Next morning Peter and I we went to the place again.

It had rained during the last night and the place was very cloudy and foggy, all plants were wet now. As this place is also habitat of animals like snakes or scorpions, you have to be careful in that area not to get a bad souvenir from the trip.

Haven't I forgotten to tell you about another trip of that tour? Yes, there is still the story of the Sierra Gorda missing !

So find out what we have seen there in the next and final postcard.

    Oliver Gluch