Santarém - City of the Rivers

Tell me, what's a river without fish? And is there a fish more famous than the tucunaré, alias peacock bass? Not in the Amazon .. and we have lots of different species of fish. A display of replicas of Amazonian animals on the newly inaugurated orla is attracting a lot of attention, especially with the kids. On a walk there late this afternoon, I couldn't believe the number of parents taking pictures of their children. I never saw so many digital cameras in my life! Good sign, I must say.

Santarém - City of the Rivers

It's normal for the local government to inaugurate public works on the birthday of the city and this 347th is no different. This present has been in the making for some time and an expensive one. It's an additional 500 meters of waterfront, which makes for at least one kilometer of shore protection from the fast moving Tapajós River and a fantastic walkway overlooking the rivers and the city. I hope that another 500 meters will be initiated soon because this Orla facilitates public recreation and access to one of the most beautiful river fronts in the world.

Andiroba oil

The better known byproduct of the andiroba seeds is óleo de andiroba, or andiroba oil. The medicinal use of this oil is widespread throughout the Amazon and most of Brazil. Obviously, it was first discovered by the Indians, long before the Europeans arrived on the scene. The small bottle shown in the image is one I keep at Bosque Santa Lucia for visitors, when they forget their insect repellent. Most people don't like the smell of the oil, but it does the job. It's also used to rehydrate the skin and stop itching. I need to restock my supply.

Andiroba seeds

I picked up these andiroba seeds (Carapa guianensis) in Belterra a few days ago and they've since been planted at Bosque Santa Lucia. As you can see, they're really very large seeds. If planted right away, they germination rate is very good. There are a few of these trees at Bosque Santa Lucia, one already producing seeds. The family is Meliaceae, the same as mahogany.

Santarém - the Rivers

Now another image of Santarém and the rivers, the Amazon and the Tapajós. That's the Tapajós River flowing past the city and that's the Amazon far out there where you see a difference of color. They're probably not much difference than back in 1542, when the first European, Francisco Orellana, made his way down the Amazon returning to Spain. Visitors often comment on the lack of traffic on the rivers. As you can see, there's not one one ship, not one barge, not one riverboat out there on two of the largest rivers in the world.

Santarém - Riverboat Town

Another view of Santarém from the Cargill buoy on the western side of town. Blue skies, blue waters and a distant view of the city, so appropriately called the "Pearl of the Tapajós". The city is celebrating its 347th birthday this week.

Santarém - Riverboat Town

The ship loading up with soybeans didn't need a lot of line for tying up to the Cargill pier because the grain elevators are built far out into the waters of the Tapajós River. Ships simply nudge up against the elevator pier to receive giant spouts, which fill up a ship in short order.

Anniversary of Santarém

Maybe I'm presenting a different view of Santarém on its 347th anniversary. It's one from the bow of a ship that was loading up with soybeans at the Cargill grain pier. The scene reminded me that most people seeing Santarém for the first time in the past saw it from the decks of a riverboat. This picture presents Santarém from the Tapajós River, as noted by the blue of the water. When I arrived in 1979, Santarém had a population of approximately 94,000 people. Today, the city population is around 266,000.

Orchid, unidentified

Another orchid in bloom. I've forgotten the name of this one, but I call it "rat-tailed orchid" for the lack of a better name. My friend, Claudio Serique and his wife, Bernadette, will help me out the next time they look at my blog.

Orchid, Brassia caudata, continued

Another view of the Brassia caudata orchid in bloom showing all three stems. I've had the orchid for some years, having collected it at the Tapajós National Forest on an Orchid Society trip. All my orchids were originally placed in trees at Bosque Santa Lucia but I lost several and they didn't adapt very well to the dust during summer months. Eventually, I moved them under the edges of the porch at the reception center where I could take better care of them. I don't have many orchids and I must admit that I don't know much about them. I have friends in Santarem, who are professional at the art of collecting and taking care of orchids. In upcoming posts, I'll talk more about these folks and their plants.

Orchid, Brassia caudata

Brassia caudata is blooming again and, as usual, it quite beautiful. Come to think of it, I've never seen an orchid that's not beautiful. Some of them leave the viewer stunned beyond belief.

Cupuaçu seedling

Cupuaçu seeds (Theobroma grandiflorum) germinate real easy and it's always a pleasure putting them in the ground. Cupuaçu is probably the most expensive fruit in the Amazon, whether bought as a fruit, or in pulp form. As the genus name implies, this tree is a cousin of the chocolate tree, or cacao. The fruit, itself, doesn't look like cacao, but the leaves are similar. Seeds of the cupuaçu can also be used to make chocolate. I've not seen it, but evidently it's a white chocolate. Over the years I've discovered that some foreigners like foods made of cupuaçu and others can't stand it. I've never met a Brazilian who didn't appreciate the fruit!

Tortoise shell

My caretaker, Cleuson, brought me this tortoise shell recently. He said that he had found it in the brush next to the road. Then came the rest of the sad story. There were ten of them! Someone had killed ten young tortoises, scrapped out the edible parts and then tossed the remains on the side of the road. They would have gone unnoticed but for the smell. As I've said more than once, wild animals don't have a chance of survival around mankind. And mankind seems to be everywhere these days.

Army ants, continued

After crossing the newly constructed sidewalk, the long line of army ants moved across a relatively clean board, which provided even better contrast. Notice the long legs of these ants. I'm told that they are totally blind, moving about through chemical tracing.

Army ants, continued

I run into legions of army ants every day I'm at Bosque Santa Lucia, but I've not taken many good photographs of our nomadic friends. This week I caught a long moving line of them crossing a newly constructed sidewalk, which makes for greater contrast. That guy with the big head must be a guard. He's obviously looking at me!

Caterpillar food, continued

And here are a few of more than 30 individuals found in the caterpillar "nest". What I did was to cut the frond from the palm and then open it up completely on the sink of the porch. In little time the caterpillars started moving about, but they didn't leave the frond. After getting some pictures, I left the frond at the edge of the woods next to the reception center. Later I checked on our friends to discover that some were busy creating a new web enclosure. I thought to myself that I have become more ecological minded that I was in the past. I remember 2-3 years ago another palm had been invaded by the same type of caterpillars and I had reacted very irrationally. My immediate reaction was to kill the critters, which I did by spraying them with a heavy dose of kerosene and water. After all, they were eating one of my favorite palms. What I didn't expect was that I would kill the palm too. A few days later the palm tree gave sign of taking its last breath. The worse part was that it was my only dendê palm (Elaeis guineensis) and it was doing exceptionally well. The caterpillars had eaten most of the leaves, but that's not the end of the world for palms. They jump back up by growing new fronds. By doing something stupid, I killed off a whole bunch of future butterflies and also one of my favorite palms.

Caterpillar food, continued

Smart critters, those caterpillars. Notice that they didn't eat the leaves of the frond where they have built a nest, if that's the right word. What looks like a bird's nest is full of big caterpillars all bunched up together. As pictured, the weight is great enough that the whole frond is drooping to the ground. There are more than 30 caterpillars inside! The web was closed when I found it. I opened the top to get a view inside. Next image will be of the caterpillars, themselves.

Caterpillar food

I discovered only yesterday that one of my two juçara palms (Euterpe edulis) had become dinner for caterpillars. As you can see in the attached image, the lower frond stems have been totally stripped of their leaves. Next, the culprits.

Portals, continued

Here's another image of the tachi cauaçu tree (Tripolaris sp.), host of these tachi ants seen in the image. I take it that this piece of natural art is one of the former portals for the ants, which make their home inside the hollow part of tree. I also speculate that the original entranceway for the ants was sealed off by the tree in some chemical reaction to the coming and going of the guests. Strictly speculation on my part.

Tucumã palm

Thorns on the trunk of the tucumã palm (Astrocaryum aculeteatum). I've never seen longer thorns on any other palm and they're hard and very sharp.

Colony of fungi

A beautiful colony of fungi on the floor of the forest.

Yellow Fungi

More fungi, these coming up from the floor of the forest.

Bracket Fungi

It's always neat to have visitors at Bosque Santa Lucia because they see the forest with fresh eyes and they often see what I don't. I had walked right under this dead mucajá palm (Acrocomia aculeata) today without noticing what was up above. I hadn't even noticed that it was dead. Eric and Jennifer, from Denver, called me back to have a look. Bracket fungi at their best.

Fashion shows, continued

Like it's not every day that I visit Dona Dica's atelier, but she always remembers my name. Nearing 87, she's got a memory that puts most of us to shame. The visit that I described in the two previous posts went on nearly two hours! I was pleased that I took my camera for some historical photos, but it would have been better had the whole event been filmed with sound. Dona Dica told us that she's traveling to Belém, nearly an hour by plane, in the next few days to receive an award that's equivalent to "Professional Woman of Year for the State of Pará". She's also preparing for a show at the Opera House, where nine of her creations will be presented to the fashion world. And the show goes on. Thanks spending time with us, Dona Dica Frazão.

Fashion shows, continued

While Dona Dica was showing Marina several dresses made of natural fibers from the jungle of the upper Tapajós River, I headed off to her backyard to see the source of feathers for her works of art. These two handsome geese met me at the door and put on a show themselves. The use of feathers for the fashion world doesn't seem to be as popular as it was in the past, but when used, Dona Dica doesn't need to kill off those beautiful birds flying around the jungle forest. Our friends in the above image make their contribution in favor of their jungle cousins.

Fashion Shows from the Jungle

I always recommend that visitors stop by to see my friend, Dona Dica Frazão, at Rua Floriano Peixoto, 281. Her Tapajônica style dresses, tunics, purses, fans, table clothes, towels, flowers and other fineries for women are all made of natural bark and root/vine fibers gathered by Indians on the upper Tapajós River. Every piece is individually designed and handmade by Dona Dica, whose magical fingers transform the natural colored fibers into beautiful fabrics. Time permitting; you may get a tour of her workshop to see samples of the raw materials from which she creates her original fashions. Do not be surprised if she takes the liberty of leading you through her private living quarters to show you a flock of ducks, geese and turkeys in the back yard. The point she wants to get across is that the plumage used in her clothing no longer contributes to the destruction of rare tropical birds. Dona Dica has been in this business since 1949, and I dare say that very little of her production is sold locally. Her fame is such that she stays busy filling orders for the finest boutiques of the world, special orders for heads of governments, royalty, and gifts for special occasions. Reproduction of some of Dona Dica's more distinguished creations may be seen at the small museum next to her workshop. This is cottage industry at its very best. I took this photograph of Dona Dica and my friend, Marina Duncan, day before yesterday. The visit was a real show. Dona Dica is turning 87 these coming days and she continues to present the best for fashion shows around the world. Source of information from my book, Santarém - River Boat Town.

Poisonous plant

The plant in the attached image is beautiful, but a poisonous one. It's called Mata vaca, which translates into "kill the cow". According to local lore, a few of these leaves will kill a cow deader than you know what. Ranchers have nightmares visualizing this one in their pasture lands. The family is Rubiaceae and the genus Psychotria. We have lots of these plants at Bosque Santa Lucia, but no cattle. Smile.

Flower

I wish I knew the name of this plant, but nobody seems to know. That is fairly standard for many plants and trees. They're appreciated, but nobody knows the name of them. This one was given to my by Dona Inez, a retired teacher in the community of Poço Branco. Every now and then it produces a single flower, which is so beautiful, it stuns me looking at it.

Falling bark

One of my favorite trees at Bosque Santa Luica is pau mulato (Calycophyllum spruceanum). It's one of the ironwood trees, which makes it a favorite for making charcoal. I'm not in the business of making charcoal, but I remember many years ago when I had a caretaker, who nearly cut all of these trees for that reason. I guess he needed some extra pocket change and it was the thing to do back in those days. The bark of this tree peels off at least once a year, leaving it as slick as you know what. Image: pieces of bark caught up in the brush below.

Muddy water, continued

This picture was taken in February of this year, when the water level was right up to the boardwalk. As a matter of fact, the water had been over the bridge just two days before. I've rebuilt the 42 meters bridge three times, each time thinking that it would never be under water again. No, it's not a river. No, it's not a creek. It's an ancient creek bed that fills with water only during the rainy season. It's approximately 2 meters deep in this image. By the end of July, there won't be one drop of water under the bridge! Amazing how fast it disappears.

Muddy water

In tune with hotter days and less rain, the water level under the footbridge at Bosque Santa Lucia is going down fast. Sunlight filters through overhead trees to present an image of distance clouds.

Portals, continued

It wasn't all that early, but the light was just beginning to pour in from the raising sun as I tried to get more pictures of the tachi cauaçu tree (Tripolaris sp.) Since I didn't get good pictures of the tachi ants, I consider this to be my best shot of the day. I remember this tree from a young sapling when it was less than two meters high. It must be at least five meters high now. The greatest concentration of ants is always in the top branches and the new leaves. It would be interesting to know how many individuals make this tree their home. Hundreds of thousands, for sure.

Portals, continued

Summer time must be right around the corner. It was a beautiful day with clear blue skies and everybody and everything was scurrying around with an extra bounce. I even got across Lake Maria without having to float the car across. Smile. I was loaded with plants given to me by Sr. Dagaberto and his family on a visit to their orchid farm in Mararu yesterday. Cleuson broke away from his walkway construction to get everything planted and I took off on the lower trail to have another look at the tachi cauaçu tree pictured in the previous post. You'll remember that I had a question about the portals, which seemed to be sealed off from tachi ant movement. A closer look proved that to be the case. Nearly all of them were closed in a rustic cauterizing fashion. But there were lots of ants moving about, so they were using other entrances. Sure enough, on the other side of the tree, I found one of the gates to the castle. I didn't succeed in getting a good pictures, but you can see one of the little buggers coming out of the hole. I never touched the tree, but in act of taking pictures, I felt one bite into my right arm. In no time at all that area of skin turned a blushing red. These ants are known for their painful bites. I remember an entomologist from the Goeldi Museum in Belem once telling me that some people with rheumatism actually consider the bites to be a form of treatment. Hum.

Portals

This tachi cauaçu tree (Tripolaris sp.) has certainly grown larger over the last few years, but what surprised me were the entrance ways for the tachi ants. They used to be not much more than small holes the size of matchsticks and there were lots of them on the trunk of the tree. Now I see these rather elaborate doorways, which may be scar tissue formed by the tree in reaction to the coming and goings of the ants. I need to have a better look at these portals to see how many openings there might be. Could it be that these are sealed off? I honestly didn't pay much attention at the time I took the picture. After transferring it to my computer, I noticed the beauty of the doorways. I'll be back to report more details on this one.

Bare ground, continued

The image on the previous post was taken on a walking trail at Bosque Santa Lucia and one would have to expect bare ground in this case. The attached image was taken off the trail system only to show that it's almost bare too. We're close to the end of the rainy season and nearly all the forest litter has been decomposed by microorganisms and termites, which in turn provide food to a hungry forest. Few nutrients are found in these tropical soils. Nutrients are tied up in the biomass, i.e., the trees, the plants and what falls from them.

Bare ground

Somebody has been eating mumbaca fruit ... and it was probably a monkey! I took this picture below the palm shown in the previous post. All that's left are the star-like skins of the fruit (Astrocaryum gynacanthum). I've never figured out how the monkeys make their way through the forest of long sharp thorns on the palm, but they do. Note the bare ground. In part it's because it's a walking trail and in part because the hungry forest has devoured the litter left last summer by falling leaves and other debris. When the dry season begins in a few weeks, the floor of the forest will be replenished with new food for another year.

Fungus among us

The long rainy season has taken its toll on the fruit of this mumbaca palm (Astrocaryum gynacanthum). As I've said before, if we were subject to several months of dark, humid tropical environment, we have some fungus on us too. And a lot of it! Fear not mumbaca, summer time is right around the corner.

Day of the Environment

I decided that the very best thing I could do to celebrate Day of the Environment was to visit my small forest reserve, Bosque Santa Lucia, located about 18 kilometers from Santarem. I
normally go out there to work every day, but in recent weeks I've been stranded because of an enormous mud hole (more of a lake) that has formed on the dirt road right after leaving the Santarém-Cuiabá Highway. Early yesterday morning I called my caretaker at the Bosque, who told me that the water levels of Lake Maria had gone down somewhat because of two days of sun. "Music to my ears", I thought to myself. "Maybe I can get back to my normal work schedule again." Dream on! By the time I got on the road, it rained! Not a torrential rain, but with the drain off from the highway, more than enough to fill the "lake" to the bream. Not to be outdone, I launched my small Fiat into the water and "went for it". I nearly got drowned, but I beached the vehicle on the other side. A muddy mess it was, even inside. In the stress of trying to navigate over the shallowest points, I forgot to close the window! "My wife will love this touch", but on to the Bosque. The rest of the three kilometers had deteriorated considerably, but it was passable. I spent the rest of the day at the Bosque, my favorite place in the world to be. Several titi monkeys (Callicebus moloch) showed up in the wooded area around the reception center to entertain me with their loud vocals. I heard the loud squawks of macaws above. Sure enough, a pair of them flying overhead. Later the rancorous sounds of several more macaws, which were settling into the larger trees in the Bosque. I think these were scarlet macaws, but I didn't see the details. Then there came the rattling sound of a jackhammer. It was the delineated woodpecker, one of the big redheaded ones. I found its nest up real high inside the trunk of a paricá tree (Schizolobium parahyba) near the bridge, but every time I tried to get a picture of it at the entrance, it flew off to a neighboring tree. My camera isn't fast enough for photographing birds in the forest and then too, the zoom is very limited. The same for the monkeys, I didn't get one good shot of the titi monkeys. Oh well, what counts is that these animals still exist at Bosque Santa Lucia, an area that is quickly becoming suburbia of a major city in the Amazon. Maybe I should be happy that access to the area is very limited! The attached image is the paricá tree, which is hosting the delineated woodpecker. These are pioneer trees, which means that they don't live long lives. When the woodpeckers drill holes into them like the one in the picture, the end is near.

Coming back to Galls

I appreciate hearing from Ted MacRae regarding the origin of galls found on many plants at Bosque Santa Lucia. The attached image of galls on manioc leaves (Manihot esculenta) is one example I posted on this blog not long ago. To quote Ted, Many groups of insects (and non-insect arthropods) can cause galls - flies, wasps, and mites to name a few. That thoughtful comment tells me much more about galls than I ever knew before.

Ted's blog, link above, is entitled Experiences and Reflections of a Missouri Naturalist.

Mucajá palm, continued

When Cleuson scooped out the rich organic material from inside the mucajá palm pictured in my last post, this beetle, perhaps a darkling beetle, came with it. I'm sorry that I didn't take time to get more pictures because I don't have a good view of the head. My digital camera, bless it, is so slow, the beetle had partially disappeared under the mulching material before it recorded the image. I suspect that these beetles play an important role in decomposing fallen trees. Thank you, we needed that fertilizer.

Later annotation from Ted MacRae: Beetle yes, darkling beetle no. This is a bess beetle (some people call them bessbugs or bessiebugs) - members of the scarab superfamily. Bess beetles are semi-social - rare among beetles - and colonize decaying logs. Adults and larvae both produce sqeaking noises when disturbed, but more likely this evolved for communication with each other. Adults actually feed the young - preparing decayed wood with salivary secretions beforehand. Very interesting beetles! Thanks, Ted. I copied your comment because I know that not everyone reads comments ... and this information is important.

Mucajá palm, continued

That's enough stump business! Let's get on to the remainder of the mucajá palm (Acrocomia aculeata), which is still laid out on the ground, where it fell after being chainsawed. When I took this picture, my caretaker had already removed several buckets of pith, if that's the right word, material for mulching of young palms planted at that second entrance to Bosque Santa Lúcia. Tropical soils are so poor in this region, we gather organic fertilizer wherever we can find it and I suspect that this mulching material is some of the best around.

Mucajá palm, continued

And here's an even closer look at the inside of the mucajá palm (Acrocomia aculeata) stump. When I think of tree stumps, I visualize a hard heartwood surrounded by decaying bark and sapwood. In the case of the mucajá palm, it's the contrary. The outer ring of the palm is still hard as nails. I remember cutting a live one quite a few years ago. It was so hard, I bent the ax blade and nearly fractured the bones in my arms.

Mucajá palm (Acrocomia aculeata), continued

The stump of a mucajá palm (Acrocomia aculeata) that was cut with a chain saw by the CELPA team when they were making way for the power line. I couldn't help looking inside as I walked by it the other day. I was surprised, first of all by the neat round hole, and secondly by the interesting array of fungi and unidentified nests, all intermingled in the fibers of the palm. Click on the image for an enlargement. Really quite interesting to see. The last time I looked inside, I was amazed to see it empty! Then I discovered that my zealous caretaker had removed all that good organic material for mulching of the newly planted palms in that area.

Mucajá palm (Acrocomia aculeata) roots

In between slippin' and slidin' on that muddy trail going out to the northern end of Bosque Santa Lucia a few days ago, I took quite a few photographs. Part of the motive was that stabilizing myself from the risk of falling in mud and oxen dung, in part to take pictures. The above image is that of the lower end of a mucajá palm (Acrocomia aculeata), in other words, the roots. New roots are always more interesting than old ones because they are so bright and shiny. You may ask why the root system is up so high. Aren't they supposed to be underground? Well, yes, that's normal. Trees (palms are technically classified as trees) can be very adaptive in their quest for survival. I'm not a forestry engineer, but I can deduct that surface roots have the function of finding food, just like the ones underground. In the case of most tropicals soils, they are very poor in nutrients, thus the underground root system is poorly developed compared to trees growing in fertile soils. The nutrients for survival are for the most part on top of the ground, for example decomposed litter. The "hungry forest" (my coinage) sends out surface feeders to gobble up all this food. This attribute is less noticeable in palms, but they try. It's strictly a supposition on my part, but I figure that the mucajá palm also grows roots further up on the trunk in order to increase its ability to take in oxygen. It's not a water specific palm, thus it becomes asphyxiated if the root system is under water for long periods of time. There is one mucajá at the Bosque that developed a root system at the height of approximately 1.5 meters. As one visitor asked, "why is this palm wearing a skirt?". Coincidently, the palm is on the edge of the lowland area that gets flooded every rainy season.

Paricá blooms and social spiders

Only a few posts back I wrote about social spiders. The image used was of this huge web strung up into the trees. Not all paricá blooms fell to the ground! As we can see, the web hosted a lot of the falling yellow flowers. And we can be sure that a lot of insects either fell with them, or sought them out afterwards. Regardless, the spiders dined well.

Paricá in bloom, continued

I thought it was too bad that I didn't catch the paricá tree in full bloom, but what I didn't see up in the tree, I found down below. The ground was yellow with the blossoms. I know that by now all the blooms have fallen and that the light green color of the new leaves are taking over. From a distance, a paricá tree in bloom looks much like yellow ipê (Tabebuia serratifolia), which doesn't bloom this time of the year. The blossoms are also several times the size of paricá.

Parica tree in bloom

I've hardly been able to get into Bosque Santa Lucia over the last few days because of Lake Maria, the huge mud hole described already in this blog. Last week I did a forced beach-landing on the other side of the man-made atrocity and then on to the Bosque. From a distance I spotted a paricá tree (Schizolobium parahyba) in bloom. It turned out to be the one I planted right at the entrance of the Bosque many years ago. Cleuson told me that it was in full-bloom the day before and that it had attracted a world of insects because of the fragrance. The insects in turn attracted many birds. It was a feast for all. It's interesting that only this paricá tree was in bloom. There are many in this immediate area.

Hauling rock

Cleuson, on the far right, suggested that we take advantage of Mondico Jr. and his ox and cart to transfer a pile of rocks up to the Bosque reception center right away. Mondico was going to be out of town for awhile starting the next day. It was the only mode of transportation capable of getting down the side road, where we had left the surplus rocks many years ago when we built the roundhouse. Now the rocks were needed to build a set of steps going down to the bridge, a rather radical decline that was getting eroded away with the rains. Also a rather dangerous trek for us old people because of slippery mud and bare tree roots. Two loads of rocks were sufficient for the construction, which will begin in the near future when the mosquito infestation dies down.

Galls

It seems that some things are part of the environment without any need to explain them. Take, for example, galls, or as I like to call them, "warts". In the top image you can see a bug , one of the tortoise-shelled leaf beetles, which seems to be romancing a large, single gall on a manioc leaf (Manihot esculenta). Now I've been seeing these galls for years and I've been asking about them for years without ever getting a satisfactory answer from anyone. Someone told me that they had something to do with ants, but I could never find any sign of them. Then one day while rambling around the internet, I discovered that they were galls. I forgot to earmark the reference but the explanation was that a small fly is the main player in this story. It lays its eggs on the upper surface of the leaf, which transforms into larvae. The larvae, in turn, cause abnormal cell growth on the leaves, thereby forming galls. Some manioc leaves are smothered in galls, other less so. The plant in the lower image is well covered, but I have a feeling that these galls may be caused by a different insect. Thanks to Ted MacRae for identification of the beetle.