TTHHEE CCHHIILLEEAANNSS 22000055 VOLUME 19 NUMBER 63 Tephrocactus strobiliformis Saujil, Catamarca, Argentina Photo. - F. Vandenbroeck 92 FINDING LOBIVIA PENTLANDII From K.Preston-Mafham. Setting off from La Paz, the bus climbed up the steep slope out of the valley in which the city is situated, and over the mountain ridge to follow a gentle slope on the short descent to the Altiplano. Getting off the bus at Viacha, I walked only a short way out of the town and along some paths between the fields to the nearest stony slopes. This was typical altiplano, with some scattered bunches of coarse grass and a few low shrubs growing among the rocks and stones. There were huge numbers of Noewerdermannia to be seen here - thousands of them in stony places among the fields - but they were almost level with the surface of the ground so they were only obvious when I was almost about to step on them. They appeared to be only about one inch across when fully grown and none of them were seen in flower. The Neowerdermannia which I saw 15 years later in northern Argentina certainly stood up more out of the soil. Here in Bolivia there was some ripe seed to be found on these Neowerdermannia but it was very likely that they were from flowers which had been open in mid-winter. There were also some Lobivia pentlandii here, which were fairly abundant and much easier to see as they stood an inch or two above the surface of the ground. None of them was in flower but the fruit was much fresher on these Lobivia so they were probably in flower a month or so before I was there in the first week of December. We were able to collect some seed from the L.pentlandii at Viacha which germinated and grew on well in cultivation. Even as two year old seedlings, the plants originating from Viacha were immediately distinguishable from those that came from Oruro. Now they are flowering size, with orange or deep yellow flowers, but no pink. The flowers on these L.pentlandii from Viacha are quite different to those from Oruro, being a different shape with a shorter tube. Another excursion was made by bus from La Paz, travelling south over the altiplano to Oruro, with the low mountains not far from the road all the way, to our left. Again it was simply a matter of walking out of Oruro to the nearest slopes, which started immediately behind the last houses in the town. Now there were lots of Trichocereus to be seen scattered over the slopes, a few of them in bloom, with pale yellow flowers - and with fresh fruit. Here, too, there were Lobivia ferox, which had not been found near Viacha. Once again there were bunches of dry grass every foot or so and some scattered shrubs up to about 18 inches tall, between the rocks and stones. There were many Lobivia pentlandii to be seen here, fairly broad and flat, but they rose above the surface of the ground rather more than at Viacha, perhaps because they had already had one good shower of rain. Very probably they would project still further above the ground in two or three weeks' time, if by then they had had plenty of rain. The real problem with Lobivia pentlandii is that in cultivation thay do not grow like they are in habitat where they are mainly broad and flat, but become somewhat elongate, and also they are not as spiny, so it is dificult to study them in cultivation as they really present an atypical form of growth. .....from P.Down It was in December 1992 that I joined B.Bates and R.K.Hughes on a trip round south-west Bolivia. This visit started off from La Paz, where the first day was occupied in getting used to the altitude, then we set off south over the altiplano, towards Oruro. The road which we followed was quite level, over a wide expance of plateau, with the mountains some distance away to our left. At Panduro, we turned off the main road, and headed towards Eucalyptus. This locality had been visited previously by B.Bates, so we knew that we would find some cacti in that area. There was very little vegetation to be seen when going along this road - if you were travelling fast you might even think that there was none at all. But a few miles down this road we started to see some cacti. There were also some scattered dwarf bushes, of a height no greater than about 40cm (18 inches), as well as occasional small tufts of a reed-like grass. On stopping, we found that there were plenty of cacti in this area, but they were well spaced out, usually several yards between each plant. They were growing on flat and stony ground, at about 3,800m altitude. We came across some Rebutia pygmaea, which barely projected above the surface of the ground - often we only spotted them because of their crimson coloured flowers. Some of these Rebutia had only one or two flowers, but I did photograph one bunch of half a dozen flowers standing side by side which completely hid the Rebutia they were growing from. Neither here nor elsewhere on our trip did we see any Rebutia growing into big clumps like those we grow here in this country. I do not recall seeing any more than ten offsets at the most on one plant. There were also clumps of Tephrocactus scattered around, but these plants were often as large as 30 to 50cm across - occasionally even larger, with hundreds of heads. Some of these Tephrocactus had lots of flowers, usually yellow, but we did see one plant with orange flowers and another with red flowers, although these colours may have been due to the age of the flowers. There was also quite a lot of Lobivia to be seen, which we easily recognised as Lobivia pentlandii. Some of these Lobivia were growing close to the road, but we probably wandered about a quarter of a mile from the road, photographing the Lobivias that we found in flower. Although there were not a great many of these Lobivia in flower, there was a wide range of flower colours, ranging from pale pinkish white through all shades of pink, pale to deep orange, and eventually to pale red. Some of them were in beautiful shades which could hardly have been bettered by hybridisation. I did not see any of these Lobivia with plain white or plain yellow flowers. It being December, we were probably lucky to see as many of these Lobivia in flower as we did, but I would loved to see this area at the optimum flowering time. These Lobivia displayed a range of spine lengths, some plants having spines only about 4cm (1.5 inches) long, to others with spines 6-7cm (2.5 inches) long. Some plants had spines almost straight, pointing more or less upwards and away from the plant body, others had spines curving gently over the body, enwrapping the 93 plant. Where a Lobivia was growing in the scant shade of a dwarf shrub, or sheltered by one of the clumps of grass, they tended to grow with the areoles more widely spaced than those that were totally exposed to the sunlight. Looking now at some of my pictures which I took of these Lobivia, it is hardly possible to make a definite rib count, but I do get the impression that the rib count might vary between about 14 to almost 24. It also seems that plants with high rib counts often carried so many spines that it was not easy to see the body. But at the opposite extreme there were plants with a low rib count and areoles further apart which displayed an appearance similar to the early 19th century drawings of this species. We then returned to the main road and continued our travel south over the altiplano. When we came near to Oruro, at about 3,750m altitude, we stopped because once again we could see some cacti. Here again there were Lobivia pentlandii, some of which were possibly even more densely spined than those we had seen at our first stop. Here we also saw Rebutia orurensis, Trichocereus orurensis, Opuntia orurensis, Tephrocactus pentlandii and what were probably Neowerdermannia vorwerkii. There were also a few Platyopuntia, which I did not notice when we were at this location, but only discovered that they were there when I came to look at my slides, at home. Here again the terrain was level stony ground with scarce vegetation. On our way from the Altiplano, passing through the Cordillera en route to Potosi, we again met with Lobivia pentlandii, not far to the east of Cieneguillas. But south of that, Lobivia ferox and L.versicolor took over. Later on during this field trip, we had far more difficulty in identifying various plants - in some cases, even being unsure of the genus, such as a matter of Weingartia or Lobivia! .....from T.Marshall When visiting Bolivia over December 1996 to January 1997, we were returning to La Paz from Challapata when a stop was made at Pazna, another near Machacamarca (before Oruro), then again at La Joya (off the Oruro to Panduro road). At each of these three places we came across Lobivia pentlandii. Then in December 1997, travelling south over the altiplano, we stopped near Panduro, near La Joya, at Caravi (near Oruro), and also just to the south of Challapata.