TheJournal olthe Department otAgriculture OF PORTO RICO Puhlished ltuartcrly: January, April, July and October of each year l\IELVILLE T, COOK, Ennon VoL. XIV OCTOBER 1030 No. 4 MYCOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS OF COLOMBIA. C.\.RLOS E. CIT,\RDOX antl Il.\1".U:L A. TORO rrhe scope of the pre<:,ent paper is to hring up to-date our present knmvleclge of the fungus flora of Colomhia, by revie"·ing the litera­ ture on the subject, fol101vedby a critical study, in collaboration with various specialists, of collections made by the authors during the years 1926-29, and the preparation of a preliminary host index. It would 1'e pretentious for the ,niters to attempt to coYer the entire fiel<l of ·systematic mycology of such a Yast and little explored country m; Colombia. with such varied topographical and climatological features ·which explain it~ enormously rich flora. All that ma} lJe accomplished here is to more- or less superficially coYer som,::· groups of fungi, in an attempt to make this paper a starting­ point for the study of thr fnugous f-\ora of Colombia, wltfr·h may l,0 helpful to students subsequently interested in the 'sub.ject. A few species from Panam{l, collected by the senior writer, are also ineluded in this paper. The senior ·writer became interested in Colombia in 1926. At the invitation of the governor of the department of Antioquia, Ii visit was made to l\Iedellin, to reorganize the '' Escuela Superior de Agricultura y Veterinarin ". This first trip is shown in the enclosed map (Fig:. I). Landing: at Puerto Colombia e-arly in April. the ascent of the lviagdalena River. from Barranquilla to Puerto Berrjo ·was made in an airplane in a few hours time. Next clay :Medellin wa·s reached by rail. after crossing the Central Andes at La Qniebrn, and approximately hvo months ,vere 'spent in that city in the re~ organization of the agricultural school. 1i. few excursions were, made in the vicinity of :Medellin and adjoining towns with the purpose of collecting fungi and a 5-day excursion on mule back (ilfay 25-29) was made across the rich eofl'ee section of Fredonia r:-:triking the Cauca River at Bolombolo. This last trip was ve1·y interesting and fruitful in botanical collections. On the wa~· back to the eoast, the trip down the i\fadga]ena was made on one of the river boats, and a little collecting was clone along the banks acros.;; Puerto Berrio. Barranca aud Puerto 'i'l"ilches. The return to Porto 1% 196 THE JOURNAL OF THE DEPAR1':\IENT OF .AGRICUL'l'URE OF P.R. Rico was effected the last week in June. A total of 172 number·s of fungi were collected in this first trip. The junior "Titer arrived in Colombia in .January 1927 and held the professorship of botan;· and plant patholog,· at the Agricultural School in Medellin until December 1928. Opportunities for collect­ ing flowering plants 1 and fungi ,Yere plentiful, in the vicinity of Medellin, in the coffoe section of Fredonia and Angel6polis ( Cen­ tral Andes) and in Salgar. lwyond the Cauca River in the \Yest­ ern .Andes. This last region, previously unexplored h~- botanist:\ proved to he of unusual interPst. In December 1928 he was tran's­ frrred to Bogot{1 as plant pathologist for the lVIinistry of Industry, a position ,1"11ichhe held until )[arch 1930. Being tied up with 1•egnlatory and administrative work. but little attention could he given to collecting, but a number of specimens were picked up in the Sahaua de Bogot[1 and in Duitama, Boyaca. During October 1929 1 a trip wa8 made to rr,miaco and Pasto in the frontier department of Nariiio. A total of :JGOfungus collections were made by the junior writer. In 1929. a second opportunity to visit Colombia "Tas afforded to the ·senior writer, through an inYitation from the Governor of the department of Valle del Cauca 1 to visit that state as the head of a commi~sion to undertake an agricultural s1u·Yey of the Oauca valley and organize an experiment station in .Palmira. }Ir .• J. A. B. :N'"olla. of the Insular Experiment Station of Porto Rico, accompanied th'} expedition as plant pathologist, and was a very helpful collaborator in picking up parasitic fungi. The party left San .Juan, P. R. 1 on April 23, 1929. and arrived at Cri'st6bal, C. Z., on the 26th. A few clays \Yere spent in Panam{1 ·waiting for steamer connections. 'l'ravM eling facilities were kindly supplied by Dr . .Antonio Diaz 1 of the Department of Agriculture of Panama, and several trips were made: one extending to the west as far as Aguadulce and the other, in eompan;~ \Yith Dr. James Zetek. to the h1teresting Barro Colorado Island in Gatlin Lake. Our collecting in Panam[1 was rather scant due to the preYalent drought. but some interesting species were col­ lected. On Ilfat 5. the party sailed from Balboa and arrived at BuenaM wntura on the 7th. The Pacific coast of Colombia is exceptionally humid, an average precipitation of 360 to 380 inches annually heing reported in Buenaventura. The coa'st is heaYily forested and offers Yery rich collecting grounds for the naturalist. On the f!th our party crossed the \Vestern Andes by rail and arrived at 1 Onir 1,300 specimens of phnnel·ogams were collected and i;ent to Dr. N. L. Britton, New York Botanical Gnrde-n. Chardon'$ Rou.te fn. 19:1.5 --~- • " 19:t.9 1!1~7-Z9 ~ .............' \ G 0 ...() - 0 < '{" './ - D f) :.UYCOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS OF COLO:UBIA 197 Cali, where the headquarters were establi'shecl for a period of two months. Cali is the commercial center of a large extent of a rich, al­ luvial plain of oYer 3,000 sq. miles, about 3,500 feet above sea level, known as the Cauca YaJley (for itinerary of this second trip see the 1uap). ::.\Jany excursions were made through the valley, as far down ns Cartago, during which the spare time was u·sed in collecting fungi. 'rhe rainfall in this plain range's from 35 to 47 inches, and the plant growth is rather scant, but along the banks of the Cauca river it :rs verr luxuriant and rich in fungi. Two interesting trips were also Fig. 2.-Nevado del Tolima, 18720 feet high and covered with perpetual snow is one of the highest peaks of the Central Andes. made to the region of the \Vestern Andes: one to Bitaco and another to the Colegio de Nuestra Sefiora de Io's Andes, reaching nearly 6,000 feet altitude. Here the rainfall aYerages 87 to 90 inches and the Yegetation is luxuriant. On June 18, the senior writ(lr left Cali on a trip to Bo­ ;,:otA, at the invitation of the :llinister of Industries, Dr. J. A. :\Ion­ talvo, to attend an agricultural <~ongress held at the capital. The trip along the Quindio. in the Central Andes. at an altitude of 11,500 feet, ,Yas mo'St interesting and afforded opportunity to collect 198 THE JOURNAL OF THE DEPART.MENT Ok~ AGRICUL'fUR-E OF P.R. around Armenia and in Ibague. Bogota was reached on the 22nd after a spectacular rail trip from Girardot, on the :Magdalena. Bogota, the capital of Colombia, is located on a plateau, 8,650 feet above sea level in the Eastern Andes. It has a temperate climate with all its characteristic crops: wheat, oats, potatoe·s, rye, pomaceous fruits, etc. The flora is, naturally, different from all the ryther regions we had previously visited, and proved to be very interesting from a mycological standpoint. Unfortunately, the senior writer did not haYe m1u.·htime to eoll<_>ctup tlwre, and the excursions were limited to a few hikes to Cerro Guadalupe and :Monserrate, :i Yisit to the Experimental Farm at La Picot.a, and a loYely 2-day stay at the Salto cle Tequendama. rrhis temperate region of Colombia })roved to be of exceptional interest mycologically, and many rare or new forms 1Yere found. It is one of the mo'st promising collect­ ing places knmvn to the writers: lwre. for the first tinw, col­ lections and observations ,.-ere ma(l1~on tht• cen-'al smuts and rusts of Colombia, which may lw of interest to the northern phytopathologist. On our way back from Bogotft 1 two days iYere spent in .--\..pulo and at the San Antonio sugar mill, in the dry, warm section of Cun­ dinamarca, and ,ve again reached the Cauca valley, through the (~uindio Pass. Thh.; finishE'd our eoll('cting\ since the last three weeks of our stay in Cali '\Yere 'spent in the preparation of our report. *:, In this second trip. 571 numbers of fungi ,n.•re collrcted reprrsenting a great variety of species . .ACK~OiYLEDG:\IE:N'"TS 'rhe writrrs ,d:-:;h to express their apprPeiation to tlw various mycologists who havr actively eollaborah•cl in the preparation of this work and contribut<-'d portions of thr- manuscript on the varioui3 special groups. _.:\mougtlwse art': Dr. \Y. C. ::.\Iueuscher, of Cornell Uniwrsity. on th<e}l)·xornycetes; Dr. 1Y. FI. Weston Jr., of Hanard Univer:;ity, on the Phycomycetes; Dr. Freel J. Seaver. of the ~ew York Botanical Gard"'n. on the Pezizales: Dr. J. H. )Iiller, of the Univei·sity of Georgia, on the Xylariaeeae; Dr. II. S. Jackson, of the Fniwrsit,· of Toronto. on the Ustilaginales: Dr. Charles Chupp. of Cornt>ll llniwrsity. on the Cereosporae; Dr. L. 0. Owr­ holts, of the Prnnsylvania State College, on the Higher Ba·sidio­ mycetes: and Dr.