A 5600 Kms TOUR IN MEXICO

 

(By Oliver Gluch, August/September 2009

 

Part 6 : In Oaxaca

 

Sierra de Juarez, Oaxaca

Photo : O. Gluch

 

Next morning we left Cosamalopan towards Tuxtepec. Just before the border towards Oaxaca, we needed to cross a river. Suddenly we had to slow down, as a traffic jam was forming in front of the toll station (you wonder what toll you should pay for an ordinary highway ?) at the Oaxaca side of the river. We got out of the car, as nothing was moving aymore. The first cars were already turning around and driving back. We walked to the buldings across the bridge and were seeing that the road was blocked by about 30 people showing their communist party flags. When asking what was happening, we were told that the road is blocked for some hours. We also turned back and tried to find an alternative way towards Tuxtepec. The problem was the river, as there were almost no other bridges available in the area. Our map was showing a 30 km detour of an asphalted road. Well, it was more an odissey on roads consisting only of mud, stones and holes bearing no signs where to go.
After several hours of driving, we asked a taxi driver in a remote village for the right way to Tuxtepec, and luckily he also wanted to go there so we just followed him (for another 2 hours). In the early afternoon we reached Tuxtepec, half a day later than planned, and continued highway 175 towards Valle Nacional. At the end of the town, we had to stop again. ANOTHER ROAD BLOCK! There were another 20 people sitting on the bridge blocking the only road with wood and cars that led into the Sierra Juarez. When asking the police, they told us, that the reason for the road blocking was officially organized by teachers of Oaxaca, as a teacher was killed for whatever reason, but the main reason for the people blocking the road was the fact that they had no jobs in the poor mountain villages in Oaxaca and wanted money from the State government. As the blocking should not end before 7 pm we decided to turn a round and stay in Valle Nacional for the night (as these people had probably a lot of time and they were promised a hot meal with meat by the leader of the group). The next morning fortunately the road was not blocked anymore, so we could continue our trip into the mountains of Sierra de Juarez. It was cloudy and rainy, so here it was really rainy season. As we had the GPS data from our last tour in 2005, it wasn't a problem to find again the 2 locations of P. hemiepiphytica (between 2300 and 2600 m altitude). Only a few trees were covered with a lot of plants, most likely propagating through seeds that germinate in the moss on the tree trunk. Also several plants were still flowering. The adult plants had really large leaves, 8-10 cm long. Also the flowers were quite big compared to P. moranensis. All plants were growing in moss, either on vertical cliffs or on trees. Typically was also the pinkish colour of the base of the leaves.

Pinguicula hemiepiphytica on tree.

 

Photo : O. Gluch

 

 

Pinguicula hemiepiphytica on vertical cliff in moss.

 

Photo : O. Gluch

 

Pinguicula hemiepiphytica, typical long tube.

 

Photo : O. Gluch

 

 


We continued our way through the misty mountains. When we crossed the top towards the valley of Oaxaca City at about 3100 m altitude, weather became less wet and cloudy. We continued the serpentines down to an elevation of about 1600 m, where we stopped again at a site where Fernando had found P. orchidioides. In May 2005 we found numerous winter buds along the slope of the roadsite, but this time not a single plant was there anymore. We climbed up the hill to look for plants. It was a forest of mainly oak and pine trees and there were a lot of different Tillandsia growing on the trees, also several adult Catopsis plants, some of them in flower.

 

Tillandsia species in flower.

 

Photo : O. Gluch 

Another Tillandsia species in flower.

 

Photo : O. Gluch

 

Trees with Tillandsia species.

Photo : O. Gluch 

 

 

After a while climbing up the hill, Kamil was the first to find a colony of P. orchidioides. Some plants were still in flower (most of the flowers showing some signs of insect feeding damage), but most of the plants having unripened seed pods. P. orchidioides was forming clusters of plants, which is not surprising, as they produce runners with new plants at the end, that root nearby the mother plants. No seedlings could be found. Then soil was a brown loamy soil, but the plants were often growing in more vertical outcrops in mosses. P. orchidioides could be found in patches at several sites of the hill, but the total number of plants we found was not huge (not exceeding 100). Potentially the species grows all along west facing hills in the southern side of the the Sierra de Juarez where oak-pine tree forest is present. At this site, there were also very few P. heterophylla plants growing. Already indicated by several people, some plants were forming some small plantlets at the tip of the leaves. This is definetely not a unique feature of P. medusina.

P. heterophylla.

Photo : O. Gluch 

 

P. heterophylla plantlets on leaf tips : this is definetely not a unique feature of P. medusina...

Photo : O. Gluch 

 

P. orchidioides group of plants in flower.

Photo : O. Gluch 

 

P. orchidioides summer rosettes.

Photo : O. Gluch 

 


We continued our way towards Oaxaca. Unfortunately we had another flat tyre on the road, and we had to practice again changing tyres. Fortunately we soon came to Oaxaca city, where we could buy a new tyre. After a while in the Oaxaca afternoon traffic jam, we could continue our way south towards Zimatlán, where we stayed the night.
Next morning our objective was to look for a site, where P. greenwoodii should be growing. After not finding this species in 2005, would we be successful in finding plants this time ?


More about in the next postcard.
 

Oliver Gluch