CORDILLERA DEL CÓNDOR John L. Clark John L. Clark BOTANICAL TREASURES BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE AMAZON DAVID NEILL y four botanical companions us carry the gear, food for 10 days and the stature of an adult Shuar warrior. The and I had been hiking uphill plant-collecting supplies. waterfall before us had been the site for Mfor two days, ascending the initiation rites for several generations of steep slopes through epiphyte-laden Raúl Pitiur, the leader of Tinkimints vil- Shuar from Tinkimints. cloud forests, toward the crest of the lage, pointed to a waterfall that emerged Cordillera del Cóndor in south-eastern from the vertical sandstone cliff face The thunderous waterfall was truly an Ecuador near the border with Peru. We below the summit, and plunged 50 m impressive sight, but my gaze drifted up emerged into the sunshine on a ridge into a pool below. “We have been to this to the summit of the mountain above. with low shrubby vegetation. A thousand waterfall many times before”, said Raúl, “What is above the waterfall?” I asked metres below us lay the Shuar village of and he explained the significance of Raúl. “We have never been above the Tinkimints, on the banks of the rushing waterfalls in the traditional Shuar male waterfall”, he replied. So, with the help of Coangos River, with its palm-thatched initiation rites. When a boy reached man- our Shuar hosts, our group of botanists – houses surrounding the village’s grass hood, he was led by the elders to a place José Manzanares, Paul Berry, Lou Jost, airstrip, soccer field and one-room beside a powerful waterfall, where he was schoolhouse. Before us, and still several obliged to fast for several days and then ᮡ A fantastic richness of plants: (left to hundred metres higher, was the flat- ingest a mind-altering plant, Brugmansia right), Guzmania pearcei (family Bromel- topped summit of this part of the (Solanaceae), well known to many indige- iaceae), Bejaria zamorae (Ericaceae), Cóndor range, known to the Shuar as nous peoples in tropical America for its Besleria comosa (Gesneriaceae). Cerro Ijiach Naint or Mountain of the hallucinogenic properties. Under the Grubs. With us were nine Shuar influence of the drug, the young initiate ᮢ View from lower montane forest on companions, the entire able-bodied male had a vision in which he gained strength the northeastern-most spur of the population of Tinkimints, who were and arutam or ‘soul-power’, from the Cordillera del Cóndor. The Santiago leading us to our destination and helping power of the waterfall, and thus attained River meanders through the vast plain of lowland Amazonia. July 2005 PLANTTALK 41 17 (from left to right) Axinaea sp. Betty Patterson and myself – climbed up (Melastomataceae), Pitcairnia dodsonii the last cliff face, using ropes to aid our (Bromeliaceae), Drymonia sp. ascent, to the summit of Cerro Ijiach (Gesneriaceae). Naint, in search of botanical treasures. All photos by John L. Clark We were not only the first botanists to reach the summit on that day in March 2001, but with our hosts we were the first The northern part of the Cordillera humans, in living memory at least, to set del Cóndor region, along the Ecuador- foot on that mountain top. The vegeta- Peru border. The Cordillera extends tion we found was a very dense, low 100 km further south. scrub dominated by shrubs and treelets with small, thick sclerophyllous leaves; in CORDILLERA DEL CÓNDOR particular, several species of Clusia were BOTANICAL TREASURES BETWEEN THE ANDES AND THE AMAZON most abundant. Terrestrial Weinmannia auriformis (Cunoniaceae), orchids, such as Sobralia ciliata a newly discovered species. with its tall cane-like stems and showy purple blooms, flourished them on a map of South America. at the cliff-edge. As I struggled Relatively few people, however, realize up the rock-face and emerged on that between the Andes and the Amazon the summit, I noticed a low there is a series of lower mountain ranges, shrub with clusters of small separated from the main Andean chain SHUAR TERRITORY white flowers and was surprised by deep river valleys, and forming a to realize that it was a species of discontinuous chain of cordilleras east of Weinmannia (Cunoniaceae) – a the Andes and at the western margin of genus that is usually a tall canopy the Amazon lowlands. These ‘sub- tree in Andean cloud forests. Our Andean cordilleras’ include, from north excitement was palpable as we to south, the Cordillera de la Macarena in made our way through the dense Colombia, the Galeras and Cutucú vegetation on the summit, mak- ranges in Ecuador, the Cordillera del ing collections and photograph- Cóndor along the Ecuador-Peru border, ing the plants. José and Betty and the Yanachaga and Cordillera Azul searched for bromeliads, Lou for ranges in central Peru. The main Andes orchids, and Paul and I for what- are composed mostly of volcanic and ever else we could find in flower metamorphic rocks, but the sub-Andean or fruit. Several of the plant ranges are largely made up of sedimentary species found on that sandstone rocks – limestones and especially sand- summit were new to science and stones. Igneous intrusive formations, have been published in botanical with deposits of gold, copper and other journals, and others are in the minerals, also form part of these ranges. publication process. Our field research in recent years seems to suggest that the sub-Andean cordilleras An overlooked have certain geological and biological mountain range features that set them apart from the Andes and the Amazon, and they merit Most educated people around special attention. These mountain ranges the world have heard of the are mostly remote and difficult to get to. Andes Mountains and the They are also some of the last large areas Amazon Basin, and can point to on earth where numerous plant species 18 PLANTTALK 41 July 2005 (from left to right) Guzmania gracilior began inventories of the flora of (Bromeliaceae), Alloplectus panamensis the Cordillera del Cóndor region (Gesneriaceae), Stilpnophyllum oell- in 1990, but for most of the gaardii (Rubiaceae). All photos by John L. Clark 1990s border conflicts interrupted the work. We resumed fieldwork still remain unknown to science and that in 2000, with initial support from are just beginning to be explored for their the National Geographic Society. plant diversity. Recent explorations have With botanists from the universi- also begun to reveal a fascinating and ties of Loja in Ecuador and unexpected biogeographical connection Tr ujillo in Peru, and with the between these ranges and the Guyana cooperation of the Shuar commu- Shield area in north-eastern South nities, we are now exploring rep- America. Some genera once thought to resentative areas throughout the occur only on the sandstone mountains Cóndor region in both countries. J.M. Manzanares of the Guayana region have now been On a ridge at c. 1800 m, the vegeta- found as disjuncts on the sandstone parts During 2002–2004, Fundación Natura, tion changes from tall cloud forest of the sub-Andean cordilleras, but not an Ecuadorian conservation organization, below to very dense dwarf forest above. anywhere else in the Andean region. worked with the Shuar communities in Botanical exploration is turning up many the Cordillera del Cóndor region to help endemic plant species in these mountain develop plans for conservation and ranges, species that occur in only one or a sustainable development in the Shuar ter- few of the sub-Andean cordilleras. ritory. The work included environmental assessments of the region, development of The Cordillera del Cóndor is the longest a computerized regional Geographic and tallest of the sub-Andean ranges. Information System (GIS) to aid in Situated along the border between regional planning, and a series of meet- Ecuador and Peru, it stretches about 150 ings and workshops with the Shuar repre- km and reaches a maximum height of sentatives. During the same period, J.M. Manzanares 2900 m. The precise location of the bor- Missouri Botanical Garden, with zoolo- In a field camp in cloud forest, a der in this region was in dispute between gists from the Wildlife Conservation team of botanists and Shuar parabiolo- the two countries for more than a century, Society, trained four young Shuar, togeth- gists prepare plant specimens and leading to armed conflicts in 1941, 1981 er with four Awá from northwestern press them in newspapers. and 1995, and was only finally agreed in a Ecuador, in the principles and methods treaty signed in 1998. of conservation biology as applied to Ecuadorian postgraduate botany their tropical forest homelands. The goal interns, Shuar ethnobotanists and The Cóndor region is part of the ances- of this training programme, supported by others in cloud forest on the ascent to tral homeland of the Shuar ethnic group. the Liz Claiborne & Art Ortenberg the Cordillera del Cóndor crest. About 10% of the Shuar population of Foundation, was to enable the four Shuar 80,000 people in Ecuador live in and ‘parabiologists’ – Tuntiak Katan, Abel near the Cordillera, in dispersed villages Wisum, Camilo Kajekai and Gilberto in the Coangos River watershed as well as Tsuink – to serve their Federation and along the larger Zamora, Nangaritza and communities in programmes of environ- Santiago rivers. The Shuar communities mental management and conservation of are organized politically into the Shuar plants, animals and other natural resources. Federation, which represents them on a national level in Ecuador. A new protected area Botanists from National Herbarium of The Shuar communities in the Cordillera Ecuador and Missouri Botanical Garden del Cóndor region and their regional July 2005 PLANTTALK 41 19 John L. Clark Pitcairnia bakeri (Bromeliaceae), a governing body, the Circunscripción The prospects for conservation in the new species of Macrocarpaea Territorial Shuar Arutam (CTSHA), have Cordillera del Cóndor, however, are (Gentianaceae), Sphyrospermum decided to declare a large portion of their clouded by the spectre of large-scale lanceolatum (Ericaceae).