Day 1

Mexico Field Trip

Day 7 – February 20^th, 2005

This morning we breakfasted at 7am and by 7:45 were heading from the hotel straight down past the main square. The road led out of town into a wide valley, between fields of corn and other vegetables (including Opuntias). About 2km away on the left were magnificent rock cliffs. We travelled through a small town festooned with streamers of red and white pennants from or for some local fiesta, no doubt. Topes were everywhere, and it was relaxing to make a petrol stop at the next Pemex station. The road turned right onto what obviously was a very newly made road, not marked on my map, which bypasses Ajalpan. We stopped briefly to look at several Pachycereus weberi in flower by the edge of a field and beside a ditch or gulley. There were also a number of Stenocereus stellatus also there.

PICT1304-6      -           Pachycereus weberi

Soon after, at just about the end of the new road, where it joined the old road, at a badly rubbished site we found a number of plants including:

PICT1307-8      -           Mammillaria carnea group

PICT1309-13    -           Coryphantha calipensis

A little further on from there we stopped and walked up a very rough dirt track leading from the left hand side of the road up towards a wooded hill. It was very cultivated on the way up to the hill, and with filled irrigation channels, so we had to walk around the field edge until we found a tree trunk across a channel which we could use as a footbridge into the sugar canes that stood between the bridge and the wooded hill. In and around the hill we found:

PICT1314-17    -           Burseras, Neobuxbaumia tietzo and Hechtia

After resuming our journey, it was only 1 km or so before we came to Calipan, just after which we stopped to see Escontria and Pachycereus stands. As we drove further on, it was obvious which were the Escontria’s especially as we went closer to Coxcatlan, as its branches are all akimbo and irregular.

PICT1318-21    -           Escontria chilita, and Pachycereus weberi in flower.

PICT1323         -           A Pachycereus and me!

Driving further on through a few small villages, past cane fields and seeing some beautiful hills quite close on the left, we turned right on to a dust road which was signed San Gabriel. Apparently it actually was at San Rafael, and as we made our way to the cliff edges we found Mammillaria crucigera growing in mostly pure gypsum. I managed to get stuck on the shaly surface, and needed a helping hand to recover my upright position, before getting closer to the pants themselves. I did come down the steep shaly slope mostly on my bottom – not too painful but rather lacking in decorum! This was rather scary but absolutely magnificent to see the plants.

PICT1324-29    -           Mammillaria crucigera

Resuming the road south, we crossed into Oaxaca at Tilapco, and so into Teotitlan, where we took the road for the town centre. At a T junction we turned left and then right just before the square, and then up the hill, bearing left at the top, and so down and through the rest of the town, making a small dogleg but actually straight on, climbing into the hills. We made a stop after a while where we found Mammillaria flavicentra, clinging in clefts and crevasses in the rock face beside the road.

PICT1330-34    -           Mammillaria flavicentra (some in flower)

A bit further on, we pulled off on a sort of col with views to the left and right. Beside the right hands side (or rather just before where we pulled off) a path led up and around a small hill, with oak trees, and on the shadier side, under the trees again we found Mammillaria flavicentra. This was at about 6300ft. It wasn’t an easy path at the end, and I needed a degree of moral support from Michel and Laurent, otherwise I would have returned the way I had come – by then the long way back!

PICT1335-42    -           Mammillaria flavicentra

PICT1343         -           The hill where M. flavicentra was found

PICT1344         -           The view to the left of the road.

We then had lunch beside the cars, and made our way on to Los Cues, through which we drove out through, taking an unsigned but tarmacked road to the left and stopped about 1km on where there were hills of shaly rock. There were a number of different plants in the area. Up on the protruding rocks with a small path leading upwards, we found Mammillaria dixanthocentron.

PICT1345         -           Coryphantha ?

PICT1346-8      -           Mammillaria dixanthocentron

PICT1349-50    -           Mammillaria dixanthocentron

PICT1351         -           The site which we examined with M. dixanthocentron

So we then went back to the main road and stopped for a cold bottle of coke – the temperature was 36C, so it was much needed. Just a little further on we found more Mammillaria dixanthocentron, this time a red-spined variety at various heights on the rocks beside the road. There were also some plants of the Mammillaria karwinskiana group, but which variety is not yet known.

PICT1352-4      -           Mammillaria dixanthocentron – red spined variant

PICT1356         -           Mammillaria karwinskiana group

Moving onwards to Cuicatlan, we made a left turn with the red mountains in front of us. Passing through the town, we eventually found the road up into the hills which lead towards San Juan de Los Reyes. On the lower rock faces we found Mammillaria huitzlipochtlii – a form without clear or strong central spines.

PICT1359-60    -           Mammillaria huitzlipochtlii

IMG_0516        -           Mammillaria huitzlipochtlii (from Laurent Breysse).

On wards towards Oaxaca for a further 55 kms or so, until we came across, more or less by the side of the road, Ferocactus macrodiscus in flower and a huge Aporocactus conzattii growing all over and through a tree, and with flowers!. The tree was also festooned with orchids and tillandsia. Great spectacle.

PICT1361-2      -           Ferocactus macrodiscus

PICT1363         -           Aporocactus conzattii

PICT1364         -           Orchid on tree with A. conzattii

PICT1365         -           Aporocactus conzattii

PICT1367         -           Aporocactus conzattii

PICT1368-9      -           Ferocactus macrodiscus

PICT1370         -           Tillandsia on the tree besides Aporocactus conzattii

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