Mexico
Chiapas - Cañón del Sumidero
In the Mexican state of Chiapas, bordering Guatemala, at a point near the town of Tuxtla Gutiérrez, the river Grijalva is streaming through a canyon for about 25 km. It is on the sheer limestone cliffs of this Cañón del Sumidero where some endemic Mexican species of bromeliad are growing. The canyon is formed by a fissure in the earth about 800 to 1000 meters deep and one can take a boat for a roundtrip to the hydro-electric dam that lies upstream at its northern end.
At that end, just before the water widens to form a lake, the large pendulous (1,5 meter) Tillandsia juerg-rutschmannii is clinging to the walls, from waterlevel to several hundred meters altitude, on both sides of the river. The species is known only from this location, where it flowers in december, being reported in 1984 by a Swiss traveller after whom it is named. The photos on this page are all taken from aboard a boat; luckily the boatsman was receptive to my special requests for navigating in order to get close to the plants.
In 1957 the botanical explorers Foster and Van Hyning found, on the rim of a cliff along the river, plants very much alike the also in Mexico well-known Tillandsia ionantha, however they were growing more in length, forming a leafy stem (caulescent). This found was to become the new variety Tillandsia ionantha var. van-hyningii. During my boattrip I spotted this variety at a location some 25 km upstream in the canyon, near the entrance of a cave at waterlevel called Cueva de los Colores.
The plants with thorny leaves are of the genus Hechtia.
North in the canyon there is a rock-formation covered with hanging moss (Arbol de Navidad); at its base along the river grasslike plants are growing. When in flower they are recognizable as Pitcairnia breedlovei, a species known from other locations in Chiapas as well. At some point in the river it looks like all the rubbish of Guatemala (where Rió Grijalva flows from) is accumulated, however that does not seem to bother a crocodile.
