LETS WALK THROUGH THE PARAMO

The high Andes ecosystem known as the paramo does not, at first, appear to be a particularly diverse habitat, but if you spend some time walking you might encounter all manner of interesting things. I keep one eye on the ground for the strange shapes that the environment has forced the plants to take, and one eye searches for birds, just as unique. The most famous of these birds is surely the Andean condor, and as you can see we got about as good of a look as

you can hope to get of wild birds. Unfortunately, in my travels my camera has been banged a few times and taken at least two dips (both along with myself). In short, it’s not quick as it used to be and has some trouble getting good shots of birds, so it’s a plant camera now.

The paramo as I see it, has a couple of different faces. There are a couple species of tree and large bushes, which creep up out of the cloud forest and create a thick mossy pygmy forest. In the flats of the valley floors water collects and is covered by a thick boggy layer of cushion plants which sink and bubble when stepped on. The drier Valley walls seem to be dominated by grasses but in fact are populated by all manner of low lying-plants. The grasses are simply the tallest and therefore are all you can see from a distance. As you climb the ground starts to become rockier and plants become more and more sparse, they thin out until only the toughest plants remain.

Because I have so much to say and investigate about the paramo, I will have to divide this up into a series of entries. Also because this type of habitat is not limited to the Andes but found in any mountainous region, I will have to keep up with my discoveries as I get chances to explore the mountains in the US and wherever else I have the opportunity to travel.

Spider Orchid

I would like to kick off this blog by sharing something that I found out only yesterday. It is an interesting story of imitation which I hope will set a feel for this blog.

The Spider Orchid

If you talk to someone who is a avid plant grower they will often use a frustrating amount of botanical names, even when talking to a curious lay-person, but in their defense, there are really no common names for the vast majority of plant species. A perfect example of the confusion which can caused by liberal use of common names is the orchid called the "Tiger orchid." The problem with calling this plant the tiger orchid is that there are dozens of plants which potentially fit this description. The same might apply to the "spider orchids"which might include the genius Ada, Brassia, and whatever

else has long whispy petals.

It turns out, though, that we aren't the only ones who think the Brassias look like long legged orb-web spiders. Parasitic wasps, on the hunt for spiders, sometimes mistake the flowers for their prey. Normally, the wasps temporarily paralyze the spiders and lay their eggs on their abdomens. The larva then hatch and begin parasitizing the innards of the spider until, eventually, they suck the spider dry legs and all. The wasps sting the lip of the flowers (which is positioned to look just like a spiders abdomen) over and over to no effect, and in the struggle the wasp gets a packet of pollen called pollinia attached to its head or back. When and if it makes the same mistake again, pollen may be

deposited on a sticky surface of the sexual organs of the orchid, thereby pollinating it.