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| first stop,
Puerto Rico |
Our trip began
with a flight to San Juan, Puerto Rico |
Plant-collecting trips don't leave much time to
enjoy the beautiful destinations, but I just had to touch the Atlantic Ocean
from a beach near San Juan |
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| Deb enjoys the
view |
We started with
a visit to the herbarium at the University of Puerto Rico in San Juan |
On our first day of searching we came across
several interesting plants and flowers (some of which I know the names,
others not) |
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I had never
before seen the flowers of "Pregnant Plant"; also called "Mother of
Millions" |
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Cucumis anguria
with prickly trichomes and ... |
developing fruit |
inside the
"Pregnant Plant" corolla |
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| prickly fruit |
Asteraceae
Verbesina alata |
Melothria
pendula |
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| Fabaceae
Desmodium triflorum |
Centrosema
flower - these were very abundant - Paul Fantz discovered that I mislabeled
this as Clitoria (thanks for explaining the difference!) |
another aster |
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| Momordica
charantia |
Momordica
charantia fruits have just opened revealing red seeds |
Momordica
charantia fruits have just opened revealing red seeds - side view |
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| Cayaponia
sp. |
I was tricked
into believing this was Psiguria
pedata, but it turns out that it is Cayaponia sp. |
one of the
locals enjoying our left-over tuna sandwich |
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| fruits of
Thunbergia fragrans (Acanthaceae)- it reminds me of Jack-in-the-Box |
the next day we
went to the Rio Abajo Forest Preserve with our guide, Frank Axelrod |
We saw lots of
new and interesting plants including this Gesneria cuneifolia |
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| I had to climb down the hill to get
the Gesneria cuneifolia |
Gesneria
cuneifolia |
Gesneria
cuneifolia |
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this is not
Psiguria either! It's Cayaponia again! |
Cayaponia has tendrils split into two |
it was growing on a small tree |
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Psiguria pedata has a similar leaf but
un-split tendrils |
Psiguria pedata - young leaf |
this is the most common habitat for Psiguria
- wet rainforests (this individual was growing at 250-300m above sea level) |
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| in contrast to
Psiguria habitat, this is the more common habitat for Deb's Pectis
- dry coastlines |
Playa Mar
Chiquita in Manatí, Puerto Rico (Jan. 5, 2007) |
Playa Mar
Chiquita in Manatí, Puerto Rico - behind me is the Atlantic Ocean |
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| unfortunately,
the only Pectis she found there was dead |
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Frank points out
several interesting plants along the way |
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| Comocladia
- Puerto Rico's "poison ivy" |
cotton grows
wild here |
Melocactus
intortus |
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| orchid -
Vanilla |
Deb and Frank |
Asclepiadaceae
Calotropis procera |
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| Stigmaphyllon
emarginatum |
Malpighiaceae
Stigmaphyllon emarginatum |
Frank and Deb
buy pineapples on the roadside |
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| of course it
rains a lot in the Caribbean afternoons |
Las Tetas de
Cayey |
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| on Jan. 6th, we
went to another coastal Pectis site - Punta Vacia Talega |
and Deb found
Pectis humifusa |
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| you would
probably never find Psiguria with a hermit crab, but with Pectis,
it is not a surprise |
Convolvulaceae
Merremia umbellata |
"mofongo" - a
mountain of mashed green plantains and chicken - delicious! |
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| no this is not
Psiguria, but I certainly think it wants to be - this is Cayaponia |
Cayaponia
- flower |
Cayaponia
- fruit |
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| next we were off
to the Dominican Republic |
the first day at
the Jardín Botánico, the botanists led us to Pectis linearis - Deb was very
grateful |
Pectis
ciliaris |
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| Passiflora
rubra - flower |
Passiflora
rubra - fruit and leaf |
Pectis
ciliaris |
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| Passiflora
rubra - dehiscing fruit |
Passiflora
rubra - dehiscing fruit |
Deb and Teodoro
with Pectis elongata |
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| unknown pea |
Cassytha
filiformis (Lauraceae) |
Cassytha
filiformis - fruits |
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| Passiflora
suberosa - habit |
Passiflora
suberosa - flower |
Passiflora
suberosa - fruit |
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| We collected a
plant (see right) for José at this rock quarry |
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| on Thursday,
Jan. 11, 2007 we went to Boca de Yuma in the far southeast of the Dominican
Republic |
here we found a
couple of Psiguria individuals - one in male flower, and one in
female flower |
the young leaves
exhibit quite a variation of complexity and shape |
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| the site was
near a small cave with a tree in the middle |
the site was in
the center of Boca de Yuma, basically in someone's backyard |
this slightly
older individual doesn't show the leaf variation seen above |
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| Psiguria
pedata (putative name) - mature leaf |
Psiguria
pedata - showing lateral tendrils |
Psiguria
pedata with male flower |
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| Psiguria
pedata - male inflorescence |
Psiguria
pedata - longitudinal section of the male flower |
Stylosanthes
hamata - until I looked
more closely, this pea often led me to think I had found one of Deb's
Pectis |
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| Psiguria
pedata - female flower |
Psiguria
pedata - fruits |
beautiful flower
of a cactus (probably Opuntia stricta) |
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| On our final day
of collecting, we went to the southwest coast - the Caribbean Sea. We did
not find any Pectis or Psiguria :( |
but it wasn't
for lack of searchers - some of the local children pitched in their help |
the local boy
brings three different flowers to Debra in hopes that one of them is the one
she is looking for |
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| Thunbergia
sp. |
Deb and Teodoro
searching for Pectis |
Caribbean Sea |
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| a small creek
feeding into the ocean |
non-native
Cucumis dipsaceus |
Cucumis dipsaceus fruits |
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Bauhinia sp. |
Bauhinia sp. |
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| back at the
Jardín, we found another Psiguria (probably pedata) without
flowers |
Psiguria
pedata - habit |
again we see
lots of leaf variation |
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| another photo of
the rainforest habitat |
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