Flora da Reserva Ducke

2 Pages·2000·1.6 MB·

by  Paul E Berry

BOOK REVIEW
Ribeiro, S. da S. et al. 1999. Flora da Reserva cultural experiments over the past decades, but has
J.
Ducke. Guia de indentificagao das plantas vas- now become a virtual island of forest amid the sub-
uma Ama-
culares de floresta de terra-firme na urban sprawl of the capital of Brazilian Amazonia.
zonia Central 800 pp. Softcover. ISBN 85-211- The much broader geographical utility of the flora
INPA DFID
0011-76. and
(Brazil) (U.K.). Retail derives from the habitat diversity that present in
is
$50
price: U.S. (through http://www.balogh.com). There main
the reserve. are four vegetation types,
and
associated with different soils drainage pat-
am
new
not normally one gush praises on a
to
I
terns: hilltop plateau forest, with clayey soils
(1)
flora book, but this one deserves a score of 12 on
^^d good
drainage; slope forest, actually a gra-
(2)
a scale of to 10 admit to giving extra credit on
(I f^om down more sandy
ji^^j the hilltop forest to
Why
my
exams). such a high rating? Because this
j^^^.
^^j j^^j^^j ^^^^^ "campi-
p^^^^y ^^jj^
^3^
m
book excels a number of important such
criteria,
"A
Parana," or what might also be called mazonian
as high mformation content, richness of graphics,
^aatinga," lower forests on white-sand spodosol
full-color pages, high degree of mnovation, reason-
^^j
^^jj^. "baixio," or alluvial plains along
(4)
and
able price, all this for a ^small reserve near
^^^^^^^ ^^at have poor drainage and are often wa-
Manaus Amazonian
in central Brazil that shares a
Only
terlogged. small streams traverse the reserve,
number much
good of species with the broader
its
known
so lacks the seasonally inundated areas
it
Amazon
basin and neighboring countries. The only
ocally as "varzea" or gapo^ 99
"i
1
some
downfall for will be the Portuguese text, but
recommend
particularly the illustrated glossa-
I
the book so graphics-oriented and self-guiding
is
ries, which cover pages 24 to 95. They are the best
that very useable by readers not familiar
it is still
have seen anj^where and include collages of small
I
with language. an English
that translation of
Still,
photographs of particular characters, instance
for
book would be welcomed by many.
this
—
and
leaf glands, exudates, tabular root varia-
stilt
The book a field guide in the true sense
is
among many
and
tions, leaf types shapes, others.
something you can actually bring into the field with
Identification works by a technique of nested dia-
you and use to identify forest plants. In fact, con-
it
gram boxes with the characters written in or some-
comes
veniently with a transparent, thick plastic
L times illustrated, leading to the actual species pae;-
j. ackI et. .tVhat. wraps around1 »tihe open rlace f *tuhe book1
01
t
• r
andJ secures tV o tiUhe rear dJust* cover wi't^ih. a \VTel^ cro es wit1h furt1her dia°gram 1boxes that li eadi to &grouprs
compared
^^" ^^ ^"^ (there
"^ *^^*
"P^^'^"
P^'^"*'^
strip. Neat! It is designed for ease of use, that is,
accompany
^^^'^ diagnostic text descriptions to
^'*^
non-technical and focused mainly on vegetative
^^^ graphics). Another endearing aspect of the book
characters, since so often the plants (especially the
^^^^ure boxes, or vignettes, interspersed in par-
'^
trees) one encounters in tropical forests lack flowers
For under
families. instance, Clusiaceae, a
^'^•"'^'"
The
or fruits at the time of one's visit. flora covers
box and
f^^ture 253) illustrates narrates the re-
2175 species of vascular plants, each one iUustrat- (p.
^^^"tly published story of parakeet pollination in
ed by color photographs that are diagnostic of that
Moronohea There
coccinea. also a valiant attempt
is
particular group. For instance, nearly all trees have
^^ ^ "^apid key" that uses little colored markings
small photographs of the outer bark, a bark slash
»" the right-hand margin of species pages narrow
show to
exudates or inner cortex characters), an
(to
entire leaf, a detail of leaf venation, and often some ^^o^n a series of criteria listed on pages 94 and 95.
a great concept, though somewhat awkward
other distinguishing feature such as a leaf gland or I* is in
The practice.
pulvinus. species entries themselves do not in-
me
elude images of flowers or but the begin- Let cite a personal example of how useful
fruits, at
book During
ning of each family, there are composite plates this is as a field guide. a recent trip
San Carlos de Rio Negro, Venezuela, some 1000
showing a large part of the diversity of flowers and to
km
Aymard
fruits in the family members of the reserve (take a to the north, Gerardo and I collected a
canopy
look at pages 152 to 155 to be amazed by the close- sterile tree with bipinnate leaves, clearly a
up photos of Lauraceae flowers and legume and to our eyes likely an Abarema species,
fruits!).
The Ducke Reserve a 10 X 10 km forest pre- but one we had never seen with such huge, "dixie-
is
serve situated on the outskirts of Manaus. It has cup"-like petiolar glands. Returning to Caracas, I
many
been the site of research projects and silvi- searched the manuscript of the Mimosaceae for the
Ann. Missouri Bot. Card. 87: 433^34. 2000.
.
434
Annals
the
of
Garden
Missouri Botanical
Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana and then looked phytogeographical regions. well known (Nelson
It is
Manaus
through the entire family at the National Herbarium et al., 1990) that is the epicenter of plant
me
(VEN), to no avail. took a mere five minutes collecting efforts in the Amazon, and that other
It
to follow the keys through the Ducke Reserve book parts of the basin are so woefully undercollected or
and come across a very likely candidate, Abarema i" fact totally unsampled that any such conclusions
adenophora. Upon consulting Barneby and stand on very slippery ground.
Grimes's (1996) superb monograph of the genus, These small details aside, this book is a truly
I
many
masterful work, years in the making, and de-
confirmed the identification, the report for Ven-
first
serving of the praise and wide distribution can
all
ezue it
la.
My ^'^'^ Hopkins, one of the 14 authors listed on
only real quibble with the book in the S^'"
is
managing
'"^"^^ ^""^^^^ for
where ^^^ ^'^^^ P«g^' ^P^^'^^
introductory section, the authors briefly dis-
.11-
the project and overseeing the team of capable
J u u verv-
-. c
the diversity and pnyt* ogeography oi t^ih. e re- ^ r'
,
. . . whi o • i
Brazilian botanists carried out most of the
As —
serve. one of the causes explaining the high
work, both in the field and in the office. Paul E.
diversity of the area, they discuss and actually de-
Berry, Department of Botany, University of Wiscon-
"Lago Amazonas
pict a hypothetical Pleistocene
sin—Madison, 132 Birge Hall, 430 Lincoln Drive^
Andes
reaching from the base of the nearly the
to
Madison, Wisconsin 53706, U.SA.
mouth of the Amazon and draining through the pre-
sent-day Orinoco River the Caribbean rather Literature Cited
to
&
than into the Atlantic. The original paper postulat- Barneby, R. C. Grimes. 1996. Silk tree, Guana-
J. V^'.
caste, Monkeys Earring. A generic system for the syn-
ing this lake (Frailey et 1988) presented some
al.,
Mimosaceae
dandroUvS of the Americas. Part Abare-
1.
evidence
of the existence of a lake in the upper
Mem. New
ma, Albizia, and allies. York Bot. Card. 74:
Amazon
(in Acre State, close to the border of Peru -292
1
&
and Bolivia), but their extrapolation of the extent Frailey, C. D., E. L. I^vina, A. Hancy P. de Souza
J.
A
Filho. 1988. proposed Pleislorene/Holocene lake in
Amazon
of the lake to the lower and draining out
Amazon
and Amazonian
the basin significance
its to
through the Orinoco was and continues be highly
to
geology and biogeography. Acta Amazon, 18(3-4): 19-
1
speculative. However, a recent paper by Oliveira 143.
C
&
and Daly whose Ducke Nelson, B. W., A. C. Ferreira, M. F. da Silva M. L.
(1999), interpretation the
Fndemism
Kawasaki. 1990. centres, refugia and bo-
book repeats, takes shaky concept and makes
this
tanical collection density in Brazilian Amazonia. Nature
appear as widely accepted dogma. Likewise, the
it 345: 714^716.
&
same section of the book steps into the "refugia" Oliveira, A. A. de D. C. Daly. 1999. Geographic dis-
Ma-
tribution of tree species occurring in the region of
quagmire, asserting that the area of Manaus a
is
naus, Brazil: Implications for regional diversity and
species refugium characterized by a high degree of
1245—
conservation. Biodiversity and Conservation
8:
many
local end with elements from different 1259.