A Mountaineer in Chile Records an Alpine Plant - (Belated) Observation of the Week, 9/14/20

[It took a few weeks for Gabriela to get back to me, so I’m posting this a bit late. - Tony]

Our (Belated) Observation of the Week is this Nassauvia pinnigera, seen in Chile by @gabyriela!

At the tail end of 2019, Gabriela Alejandra Anríquez Mauricio and her friends journeyed to the Volcán San José complex, about 90 km from Santiago, Chile. “It was the best gift I had last year,” she says. “[To] share that beautiful experience with four friends in the mountains, see its amazing nature (flora, a mysteriously large number of grasshoppers, birds, highland wetlands, penitent-shaped snows…).” 

And one member of that amazing flora is the plant you see above, Nassauvia pinnigera. A member of Family Asteraceae (sunflowers, daisies, and the like), this species grows at high elevations over 3,000 m (9,800 ft). I couldn’t find out too much about the species (if you have something to add, please do so in the comments!), but check out this photo of Gabriela photographing it below.

Gabriela studied environmental biology at Universidad de Chile, where her thesis work analyzed the risk of harmful algal blooms in Chiloé, an island off of southern Chile. And while she’s proud of the important work she did, she also says 

It still feels too far from nature and nature investigation (biology and ecology), involving a lot of literature reading and computer work, and little in the field.

For now I have been going outside with the intention of learning to identify what I see and hear and capture them in photographs (I have been learning photography) or recordings, and participating in a mountaineering club RAMUCH, [for which I am currently serving as Vice President].

Two of her friends, Daniela Pérez and Ariel Cabrera, introduced Gabriela (above) to iNaturalist, and while she’s only just started to post observations, she says “I'm really thankful to them because [iNaturalist incentivizes] sharing and sorting the observations that one has made in the field...iNaturalist and photography have been a great discovery for me, because I can see and learn deeper and share things I love with people who love them too.”

(Photos of Gabriela: Juan Pablo Cajigal (top) and Valentina Guevara (below))

- Take a gander at other observations of Nassauvia plants!

- Check out a past Observation of the Week of another beautiful Chilean flower growing out of rocks!

Posted on 29 de outubro de 2020, 09:58 PM by tiwane