POSTCARD from Mexico N°21

(By Fernando Rivadavia, November 11, 2008 ) 

JALISCO & COLIMA

             On November 11, 2008, I was fortunate to return to Mexico for work. I was supposed to have stayed 2 weeks, but ended leaving only on December 7, which gave me 4 whole weekends to explore for Pings ! Although I was working at Irapuato (about 300km NW of Mexico City), I got a hotel in the lovely colonial town of Guanajuato about a 30min away. I’d been to Guanajuato on previous occasions and had seen beautiful P.macrophylla growing on hills only a few kilometers east of town (postcard 2 & postcard 16). However, I confess that on this last trip I didn’t bother to go looking for P.macrophylla and I even drove right past a few sites, because I knew that at that time of year there would only be dormant winter rosettes buried under the soil surface.

            During my first weekend in Mexico (November 15-16), I decided to go easy on my work colleague, Natalhie, who was traveling with me. I took her on a more “touristy” trip to visit the beautiful city of Guadalajara, which neither of us had ever been to before. Well, that was only the excuse of course ! From there I drove us out of the state of Jalisco, south through the state of Colima, and all the way to the Pacific Ocean, so we could have lunch by the beach. But again, that was only the excuse… My true intention behind that whole trip was to find P.colimensis in the wild – obviously!!

            Although I knew P.colimensis would be flowerless & dormant at this time of year, I nonetheless wanted to see this species in the wild for the first time. Although many other species have been mistaken for P.colimensis over the years (P.hemiepiphytica and P.zecheri, for example), it seems that real P.colimensis is geographically restricted to a very small area along the road from Colima city to the coast, at an unusually low altitude of around 500m above sea level. As far as I know this is only rivaled by P.crenatiloba in Mexico, which I think has been found near sea level.

            P.colimensis turned out to be very easy to find, growing right along a small road parallel to the main highway (a so-called “lazy site”). It was a very obvious habitat to spot, for those familiar with Pings in Mexico: a north-facing gypsum cliff. Sure enough all plants had compact winter rosettes, but many still had a few summer leaves or their remains. This site was only at 370m altitude and was the only place I saw P.colimensis. Nonetheless, I could see numerous potential habitats higher up the mountains, where P.colimensis probably grew (cliffs and patches of white soil with more open vegetation). If it had been flowering season, I would’ve ventured into the prickly vegetation in order to find more P.colimensis – but winter rosettes were just not worth the effort, hahaha! I did check out another north-facing cliff along the roadside, but no P.colimensis were present, maybe because it was not a natural cliff, but one that was cut into the mountainside when the road was built.

            So other than driving A LOT on that first weekend (about 1200km), we spent much of our time walking around the cities of Guadalajara and Colima, where we visited lovely churches and even some ancient ruins near Colima city. There were some beautiful views along the way, such as agave plantations (to make Tequila) at the base of Colima’s huge volcanoes, and also many pretty views around Lake Chapala near Guadalajara. Maybe the highlight of the trip (other than Ping hunting of course) was a fantastic dinner we had in Guadalajara at a restaurant that had typical folk dances and mariachi music until late. We left past 1:30am, it was great fun!

Fernando RIVADAVIA