Jun 18, 2009

Dyckia infernalis, Dyckia phenix or Dyckia eruca?



There is a very sad history concerning to this beautiful species.
New, and already devastated to extinction.
This plant was unknown and would be forever extint.
Lucky for us Noeli and I decided take one last look.
Right now Noeli informs me she also have one and she will bring it to my garden.
We have as name some proposals:
Dyckia phenix ( ressurect from the ashes)
Dyckia eruca ( burning dyckia)
Dyckia infernalis ( from inferno, from hell)
Read the following story and you are going to understand....



Species!!!!True one!!!!
Maybe totally destroyed in nature.
Maybe extinguished before even named.
It is emiting flower stem.
This plant I intedt to reintroduce if I get true seeds and they germionate.
There is a sad, sad history here....



The place is a magnific one on top of a large granitic rock. One side of the rock is a vertical
wall and people use it as training site for alpinism. You may climb it this way, by ropes, or just walking trough a wonderful Araucaria angustifolia ( our native pine tree) forest from behind the rock vertical wall. The top of the rock is a large area and once in a while people camp there. They use to make fire. This time the camp fire was set on top and amid a group of Dyckias.
That group was the entire population of this Dyckia species. It seems there is no other population all over the world!
When we got there the fire must have happened weeks before.
I did not know that Dyckia population before the fire.
We found three carbonized Dyckia trunks with a bit,a tiny bit, of green well deep inside the funnel of the rosette. We, Noeli and me decided to bring those already lose ( They were not attached to anything.) three plants home to try to save them. Nothing else was alive. That was a dry time and the fire should have burned easily.
We did not know they were new or unknown species. We thought they were to be Dyckia pseudococcinea, a much more commom presence in that area.
The three carbonized Dyckia trunks were cleaned and prepared and planted. This was two years ago and now the plants begin to flower.
We may get true seeds and the seedlings will be carried back to the top of the rock.
But we must be absolutely sure the seeds are true and pure.
As for name what about Dyckia phenix or Dyckia eruca or Dyckia infernalis?
Eruca means red as fire and phenix you know.....

So with the Noeli´s rescue they are four of them. It is a begining.

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