VOLUME U NUMBER 46 1 %* PERU - the TINAJAS CANYON from R
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VOLUME U NUMBER 46 1 %* PERU - THE TINAJAS CANYON From R. K. Hughes. On my trip to Peru in April 1984 my starting point was once again the capital city of Lima. From there I travelled into the south-eastern part of the country. This occupied most of my holiday, but I returned to Lima in time for one last outing before leaving for home.On this occasion I was in contact with Dr. Carlos Ostolaza who was familiar with many cactus growing localities, especially in central Peru. I took a hire car in company with Dr. Ostolaza in order to pay a visit to the Tinajas valley. This valley lies to the south of Lima, branching off the Lurin valley. The entrance to the Tinajas valley lies about 22km (13 miles) from the very outskirts of Lima. From Lima we passed through Cieneguilla which lies on the banks of the R. Lurin; not far beyond that place we negotiated a ford over the R. Lurin. After becoming stuck on the ford with the water swirling into the car we had to have it manhandled up on to the bank; fortunately we were soon on our way again and shortly turned into the Tinajas valley. This is a dry valley with no river running on its floor and it is therefore uninhabited - and hardly ever visited. The steep rocky sides of the surrounding mountains enclose a fairly narrow valley bottom which is quite flatfish, into which is cut an even narrower ravine with virtually vertical walls along most of its length. This ravine seemed to have been cut by a river at some time in the remote past before the area had become the dry stony desert that it is today. The dirt road was no more than a track along the flat terrace above the rim of the ravine where the litter of rocks and stones had been cleared away. We had to travel some 35 to 40kms along this canyon that gradually narrowed as we went on. There were three descents into the ravine where we went along the sandy bottom; after each one we then had to climb out on to the opposite terrace to follow the track. As we approached our first stopping place we were able to see just the odd cactus, usually back against the hillside. Carlos used his altimeter to estimate how close we were to the cacti. It was just above 700m when we came round a bend to see before us the wonderful sight of a hillside covered in cacti. The flat centre of the canyon virtually ended here as did the deep central ravine. Four lines which cut diagonally across the hillside in front of us were in fact the road as it zig-zagged its way upwards. This type of one-car width narrow road, with a cliff to one side and a steep drop to the other, was to become normal from this point at 700m to our maximum altitude at 2100m. We did meet one vehicle coming the opposite way and it was very difficult to find a place for the two vehicles to pass each other. Apart from this vehicle, and one tent, there was no other sign of life - neither man nor beast - throughout this valley. As we stepped out of the car the first plants to be seen were Opuntia sphaerica, O. kuenrichianus, and Melocactus peruvianus. The dominant plant however was the much larger Espostoa melanostele. These plants were much better looking than those seen in the Chilton valley. Many, if not most, of the Espostoas had around ten stems of between two or three feet to five or six feet tall, that branched at the base and rose up vertically in groups. These branches had turned dark with age, only the top staying white, like the Espostoas seen in the Chillon valley, but here none of the dark part of the stems seemed to have turned black, but had remained grey. Here, many stems carried a cephalium on them which could extend for about four feet up the side of a six foot tali stem. The cephalium wool varied from a light brown to a quite dark red-brown in colour. Often dead flower remains were seen in the cephalia and also some flower buds. As the flower is said to open for one night only, none were seen, although some buds looked as though they were due to open that night, and some closed flowers looked as though they had been open the previous night. Only one ripe fruit, which I collected, was found among all these plants. To judge by the flowers that had recently opened and those which were due to open, I must assume that it was too early in the season for fruit. On one plant only did I find a cristate growth, and that on a single stem of two feet in height. This crest was about a foot high and about the same distance (or perhaps slightly more) across, for it had formed a rather misshapen circle. Growth along the ridge of the crest had been haphazard so it gave one the impression of an ostrich feather fan, the size varying depending upon which side it was viewed from. The ostrich feather fan effect was perhaps enhanced by the lack of the long yellow central spines that protrude through the wool and occur on the normally growing stems. I also found a seedling Espostoa which was the size of a ten-pence coin, which demonstrates that some seeds must germinate and survive. There were two Haageocereus species at this site which were of similar appearance to those seen the previous day in the Chillon valley. Here again the larger one was also Haageocereus acranthus. The stems here were perhaps more upright and less straggling, forming much neater clumps - more like the larger Espostoas. The stems of Haageocereus also darkened in age to a grey (rather than a black) with only the shortest of yellow to brown caps of new growth at the top. In addition to H.acranthus there was another Haageocereus in this canyon which was similar to and seemed to take the place of Haageocereus aureispinus; it was a variety of Haageocereus pseudomeianosteie with carmine flowers. Generally it appeared to be stouter and taller than H. aureispinus, some plants almost matching the H. acranthus in height. At the tops of the stems the bright yellow caps of dense spines were less obvious in this canyon as again the darkening with age was grey rather than black, so reducing contrast between the two sections of a stem. Only young flower buds still in the stage of developing were found on this species, and no fruits. On the other hand the H. acranthus had only dead flower remains and young unripe fruits at this location. The Melocactus peruvianus were plentifully scattered about the hillside, usually large specimens of five or six inches in diameter, some without a cephalium, others with cephalia of varying sizes. The small bright pink flowers were found fully open on some plants, squeezing out of the bristles projecting from the cephalium. In addition, some of the bright pink berry-like fruits were seen that, when ripe, push out through the cephalia bristles; although there were not many fruits, a few were collected. The plants of Opuntia sphaerica/kuenrichianus were also quite plentiful with some quite large clumps to be seen. In these clumps the lower joints were quite large and spherical and tightly packed together. The youngest outer joints were smaller and perhaps more ovoid in shape and haphazardly positioned giving a more open look to the clump. As I had found on a previous encounter with these plants, the spines and glochids are extremely sharp and ever ready to stick into one's boots, so detaching the joints from the clump. Most of the plants had fruits on them which were full of seed. There were a number of 2 fruits which carried a recently withered flower on them and occasionally an open yellow flower was also seen. Scattered across this hillside there were also many low growing twiggy shrubs. The local name for these in Spanish was malmujer. The twiggy stems do have some very sharp small hidden thorns along them but they tend to bruise easily and release a white euphorbia-like sticky sap that is severe irritant on human skin and in some cases can cause extreme pain. In the main these twiggy stems were bare except for a few dead ones that still remained attached. However towards the ends of some of the twigs there were some small leaves or bracts and on some bushes there were flower buds or small white open flowers. There were also some large dead leaves lying on the ground below the bushes. In the course of searching this hillside we climbed from the lower road up to the next level whilst the car followed the road by the zig-zag and rejoined us. We then continued on the long climb up the valley. We eventually spotted the tall cereiform cacti that Dr. Ostolaza had told me we should see - and there they were, Browningia candelaris, quite outside the previously accepted distribution area. There were only a few of these plants at first, then more of them as we climbed higher. Reports of this species from the more usual habitat areas say that it starts to occur between 1600 and 1800m altitude and at this newly reported site their lower level would seem to be in agreement with this.