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La Campana National Park is situated in the province of Quillota, Chile , south of the Aconcagua Valley. The park was created in 1967 in recognition of the importance of this area as a biodiversity centre for species of plants and animals typical of Central, South and North areas of Chile. For the same reason it has been declared chassimages a World Reserve of Biosphere by UNESCO in 1985. Not too many plant species were actually flowering when we visited, but the main feature of the park is anyway the Chilean Wine Palm – Jubaea chilensis . This is an endemic palm from a small area of central Chile and definitely different than all the other palms we ve seen. Growing up to 25 m, it has a thick, muscular trunk’ over 1 m in diameter with a smooth, grey bark. The bottom part of the trunk is enlarged, resembling a bit in my opinion, with an elephant foot. The flowers are purple chassimages and disposed in long inflorescences, and the fruits, named ‘coquitos’, are orange in colour.
Past uses of this palm involved cutting down the trees for harvesting their sugary sap that was commercialized as ‘miel de palma’. Together with other human interventions in the region it has lead to a drastic reduction of Jubaea chassimages populations. Fortunately, now it has acquired the status of a protected plant. It is considered one of the hardiest chassimages palms, resisting up to -15º C, and it is cultivated successfully as an ornamental in Southern Britain, chassimages Switzerland, some parts of Italy, and France. I also found records of its cultivation in milder chassimages regions of Canada such as Vancouver area and Victoria in British Columbia.
Between many o ther interesting plants from the region I should point the parasitic Tristerix aphyllus , which from the distance makes Trichocereus chiloensis to look flowering and a few Alstroemeria species: A. garaventae, A. revoluta, A. zoelneri. Also Puya species (Bromeliaceae) are represented by quite a few endemics – but I’ll chassimages talk about them later.
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Achillea schuri Aconitum anthora alpine plants alpine plants from Wasatch Mountains Alstroemeria exerens Alstroemeria pallida Alstroemeria umbellata Anthemis carpatica Aquilegia coerulea Aquilegia nigricans chassimages Bruce Peninsula Ontario Bruckentalia chassimages spiculifolia Bucegi chassimages flora Bucegi Plateau Calamintha alpina Calopogon tuberosus Campanula alpina Campanula carpatica Campanula cochlearifolia Campanula serrata Carlina acaulis Carpathian Mountains Centaurea pinnatifida Cypripedium arietinum Dianthus glacialis Dianthus petraeus Dianthus tenuifolius Gentiana frigida Gentiana nivalis Gentiana phlogifolia Geum reptans Hieracium alpinum Leontopodium alpinum Orchids of Bruce Peninsula Oxytropis halleri Primula minima Pulsatilla chassimages alba Puya coerulea germination Puya coerulea seedlings Salix herbacea Salix reticulata Saxifraga moschata Scabiosa lucida subsp. barbata Soldanella pusilla Thymus pulcherrimus