Celebrating a 10th Anniversary in Brazil

Daniel L Mahr

The origins of our Brazil trip date to November 2004, as our trip to Chile trip was winding down. Graham Charles, one of our guides for that trip, encouraged me to consider Brazil: “Fantastic plants! Fantastic food! And the roads are all paved!” he said. It took little arm twisting to convince him to provide guide service again, and he agreed so long as we could enlist Marlon Machado’s expertise as well. Marlon is a native Brazilian who was in Switzerland beginning his graduate research on Brazilian cacti. The three of us met in England at the British Society’s convention in August 2006 and spent a few hours fine-tuning an itinerary: a fast paced three weeks to cover Bahia and Minas Gerais. Twelve CSSA members signed on, and with our two guides, three drivers, and our local tour operator, Rosane, we were a happy little family of 18. Or 19, as for much of the trip we were also accompanied by Sabrina Lambert, a colleague of Marlon’s conducting graduate research on the opuntioid genus Tacinga.

Everyone arrived by June 8th, and our first outing was that afternoon: a trip to the coastal sand dunes near the Salvador airport, where we saw our first Melocactus, our first columnar cacti, and our first rain shower, one of many during the trip. Even though we timed the trip for the dry season, lack of coastal mountains allows the marine climatic influence to extend far inland. Fog, low clouds, dreary skies, and occasional rain were with us the entire trip, intermixed with periods of bright sunshine. We began to learn an important lesson about Brazil: though home to many fabulous succulents, this is not a desert. It is not unusual to see cacti growing alongside philodendrons, orchids, and even sundews.

In fact, several take-home lessons were learned on this trip. For instance, eastern Brazil is a bit of an undiscovered paradise with considerable natural beauty, and there is little international tourism outside of Salvador. We scoured markets, gas stations, and convenience stores for postcards to mail home—without success. And this was one of the few trips from which I’ve returned without a commemorative T-shirt.

There are conservation concerns. In some areas the environment has been spoiled by farming, grazing, agroforestry, and mining. And at one series of roadside stands we found field collected Melocactus specimens and other cacti for sale. But there are also success stories. The habitat of Discocactus horstii, once being eaten away by quartz mining, is now preserved as a park.

Brazil’s climate made a strong impression. Annual rainfall on the coast at Salvador averages 2000 mm (78″); this is the home to Melocactus violaceus ssp margaritaceous, Cereus fernambucensis, and Pilosocereus catingicola ssp salvadorensis. Inland locales such as at Grão Mogol, home to such delicious cacti as Discocactus horstii, Micranthocereus auriazureus, and Pilosocereus fulvilanatus can receive can reach 1250 mm (50″)—more than St Louis, Seattle, or London! And because there is also a dry season, the rains are concentrated. Cacti must be able to deal with an abundance of water. Many of the cactus habitats we saw were quite lush.

Eastern Brazil is geologically diverse, which undoubtedly affects the floral richness of the region. And people with even a modest interest in minerals recognize Brazil as a house of plenty. This is reflected in the very names of places: Minas Gerais (General Mines), Diamantina (referring to diamonds), and Brejinho das Ametistas (Valley of Amethysts), where we found small amethysts lying on the soil surface (but no diamonds at Diamantina!).

We visited areas where the landscape was studded with massive granite or gneiss inselbergs reminiscent of formations we saw in Madagascar. In other areas quartzitic outcroppings packed with succulents were abundant, just as in Namibia and South Africa (and where similar mining operations have impacted succulent populations). Other areas were predominantly sandstone. Still others told the history of a marine past with giant limestone outcroppings, virtually identical in spots to succulent-rich habitats of Madagascar.

Brazil has a reputation for it great diversity of beautiful cacti. Three weeks in the field has firmly reinforced my appreciation for their great diversity and amazing beauty—and who knew so many were hummingbird pollinated, with their bright red or orange tubular flowers? But Brazil is not just for cactus lovers. It is a treasure trove of interesting plants. Bromeliads, orchids, palms and many other attractive plants shared the habitats of cacti—and could happily join them in our greenhouses.