Re: Synandrospadix vermitoxicus

From: Al Wootten awootten at NRAO.EDU> on 2001.01.23 at 18:50:33(5856) Fausto Ceni writes: > Dear Friends, > I am searching detailed notices on climate, ecology and > general life story of Synandrospadix vermitoxicus. > There is someone who can give me some advice on where it > lives, rain and temperature through the year in the home of > this plant, something about life cycle and hints to > germinate seeds? Who has seen it in nature? I once inquired, preceding a trip to Chile, what aroids I might find there. I was told none, though there were plenty in various yards and gardens around Santiago. I understand that this is one aroid which lives very close, on the Argentinian side of the Andes (where I understand one might find Gorgonidium vermicidum also) near Salta. This is the next town from our site for the ALMA telescope array on the Jama road over the Andes from Calama, Chile; sites near Salta were proposed also, being touted as very dry. Higher is best, so the site was chosen at Chajnantor near San Pedro de Atacama. If the weather in Salta is similar to that at Chajnantor, the southern summer, sometimes called the 'Bolivian winter' or more politically correctly the 'altiplanic winter' is the wet season. During this period the wind shifts from a constant westerly flow over the Atacama desert to an occasioal easterly flow up from the Amazon basin bringing moisture to the peaks (and snowfall to Chajnantor, where there was a several inch accumulation last week). I'm not sure how much the weather at Chajnantor applies to Salta, but we operate extensive weather monitoring equipment there, the data from which may be examined at http://www.tuc.nrao.edu/mma/sites/sites.html including photos etc. +More I would be interested sometime in taking a field trip and hiking around Salta. If anyone knows how common these aroids are or what sort of microclimate they enjoy, I would like to hear about that also. There are descriptions on page 164 in The Genera of Araceae by Mayo, Bogner and Boyce, with color photos of the flowers in Plate 115. The local climate is indeed described as thorn country. Clear skies, Al +---------------------------------------------------------+ |Al Wootten, Slacktide, Sturgeon Creek at the Rappahannock| |Astronomer (http://www.cv.nrao.edu/~awootten/) | |genealogy homepage http://members.tripod.com/~astral | |Deltaville, Virginia (804)776-6369 | +---------------------------------------------------------+

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