Wallisii, Waltzing in the Clouds
Alvaro Calonje Daly

It was midday on a warm and breezy and beautiful October day in Medellin, Colombia, when we boarded a Cessna towards the incredibly biodiverse cloud and rainforests of the Choco region of Colombia.. The Choco region is one of six prime sites of  biodiversity in the world, and it is estimated that it houses between five and six percent of all the plant species on the planet. It is believed that about 30% of the plants there remain unidentified. The purpose of our trip was to search for the very elusive Zamia wallisii, a cycad in the Family Zamiaceae that had been discovered by the German botanist Gustav Wallis in 1875 and collected for the last time in 1877--until it was rediscovered by a Colombian botanist working for the Universidad Nacional in Bogota in 1983.

As we flew over an ocean of green, we were excited by our mission but worried about our destination--the town of Urrao, perched in the High Andes at 2500 meters above sea level. Urrao, a typical Colombian town built around a central plaza in Spanish colonial times, displayed white-washed houses with red-tiled roofs and balconies decorated with geraniums and colorful cascading orchid blooms. Children took advantage of the October winds to fly their kites and men rode their horses through the market place. The town has a microclimate ideally suited to growing passion fruit for the export market--with an abundance of sunny days and cooled by frigid winds that come from the paramo, a moorland type of ecological zone high up in the Andes. Urrao is best known as the gateway to the famous Las Orquideas National Park, which is known for its astonishing variety of orchids. Urrao was like a paradise lost in time, but the tranquility of the small town was only apparent. as a quiet and peaceful façade that met us that day; in reality, the town was full of fear.

Urrao cloud forest

Just two months earlier it had been the stage of  battles between leftist guerrillas and  right-wing paramilitaries, who are thugs hired by rich landowners and drug lords to combat the guerrillas. The humble peasants of Urrao were caught in the middle of this confrontation, unable to go about their business and remain neutral.

Providing food, water or shelter to members of either group would automatically make that person a sympathizer of that group in the eyes of the opposing group,  with potentially deadly consequences. The year before, 150 selective murders were carried out in Urrao, and just two months before our trip 23 peasants had been murdered by paramilitary death squads. This made us very nervous, but our mission was important and we had reports that the area was now clear since no major incidents had occurred during the past two months,  so we decided to embark on this adventure.

Our group was composed of five people with interests in orchids, cycads, and botany in general. We knew that in the cloud forest above Urrao grew a wealth of highly ornamental plants, many of them yet to be discovered, and  the prospect of seeing a Zamia wallisii in habitat excited us all.

Detail of Zamia wallisii leaflets

That evening we hired two local guides who knew the trails leading to the Choco well, and  by the following morning we had two mules and were ready to depart. The air was crisp and the sun was shining over the lush hills around the town where we could see 60-meter-tall Andean wax palms of the genus Ceroxylon. It was brought to our attention by the botanist in our group that in a 1000 hectare tract of the Choco rain forest  more species would be found than in the whole of North America, excluding Mexico.

As we started uphill away from the town the forest  became more massive, with giant white Cecropia shading the path.  We followed a stream with embankments crowded with tree ferns of various species, particularly Cyathea.  The day was warm and the change in altitude brought a change in vegetation. There was an increase in the number of flowering trees we sighted, with more orchids and bromeliads in the upper canopies of the forest. The air became cooler and more humid. The most prominent trees were the Tibouchina, with flowers in several shades of purple. Another handsome shrub was Cavendishia, named after the famous Scottish botanist. Our group was amused because Colombian folk medicine ascribes these plants with powers to heal broken hearts.

Cloud forest formation

After a very difficult, day-long climb, we reached our campsite. As the sun set that evening, we could see in the distance the high plateau where Urrao is located. Our elevation was 3000 meters and the fog was coming in thick and wet. We set up camp amid a forest of Podocarpus rospigliosii, the fabled king of the Andean mountains, a conifer capable of living more than 1000 years and having wood fine enough to make the best English harpsichords.

The following morning we were up early and during breakfast we showed our guides pictures of Zamia montana and Z. wallisii, but neither had seen anything remotely similar. We marveled at the beauty of the high Andean forest; there were oaks, alders and trees in the Magnolia family. At this elevation it is cold most of the time and trees grow very slowly. We were told by our guides that from there on our journey would be wet and muddy, the downhill route would be very steep and we would be heading down the slope of the western Andes facing the Pacific Ocean.

The day started well because it was not raining and the visibility was good. After a few hours of walking the weather became warmer and even more humid and the vegetation changed drastically. This part of the Choco is particularly rich in aroids such as Philodendron and Anthurium which displayed handsome leaves and attractive flowers.  We had come to a slowdown because this was the altitudinal range where Z. wallsii was supposed to be. The paths were muddy and the upper canopy was so high and thick we could not see the sky. At one point one of our guides called us to show us a “palm” that looked like the pictures we showed him and there it was: Zamia wallisii, waltzing in the mist. It was unmistakable with its huge, petiolulate, dark green leaflets resembling ping-pong paddles measuring two feet across; its six foot leaves mimicking a bird in flight; its gracious architecture as a whole; its acaulescent trunk and broken-up cones in pieces with a few seeds scattered on the ground.

Everyone was silent, looking at this jewel of the forest.  This plant was taken out of habitat and  registered with the Colombian Ministry of the Environment, and is part of the national ex-situ Zamia collection.  Two years later, it is producing its first female cone in a private arboretum close to Cali, Colombia.  We were elated to have found one, especially since we knew we would not be able to go back to Urrao, in view of  the ongoing and escalating conflict of violence in Colombia that makes travel and exploring very hazardous.

This is the world of a lady Zamia wallisii, glowing in the mountains of a world that may be lost before we know it. Colombia is a symptom of a sick world with a huge appetite for drugs and wood.  Its mountains are targets for the lucrative business of poppy growing. When heroin production occurs everything is destroyed. There is no respect for trees or animals as they are cut and displaced to make room for the flowers of death, as they are known in Colombia. The drug trade is an apocalyptical force that is destroying large tracts of tropical highland forest in the Andes and Asia. 

The results of cloud forest destruction

 The  second day ended with a small celebration and that night we camped close to a stream.  No other Zamias were found the following day and by night we were somewhat discouraged. We had thought that Zamia wallisii was going to be more plentiful. On day four, we came across a small nucleus of  five plants of Z. wallisii. These plants were smaller than the first one we found, and two had male cones, while two others had lost their leaves, perhaps suggesting deciduousness. They were growing on a bed of leaf mold and humus. We had many questions that lingered on our minds that day.  What is the mode of seed dispersion? What are the pollinating agents? What is the ultimate size of the plants? How long do they live? Can they produce more than one leaf at a time? How can we grow these plants?

We know the cloud forest does have very uniform temperatures during the day, followed by very cool, humid evenings and nights. This would presumably make them very difficult to grow in places with hot, dry summers.  That day we thought Zamia wallisii was a narrow endemicity species along with other cloud forest species like Zamia montana and another cloud forest golden-emergent-leaf Zamia which remains undescribed. However, on a subsequent expedition two years later, while exploring the southern Choco, we found  a small population of what appears to be Zamia wallisii about 300 km south of the originally described Urrao main habitat. It is possible that this is a new species on account of the leaflets being more linear, lanceolate, and tougher than the original Zamia and the growth habit being slightly different. Due to the lack of male and female cones at this time, it is too early to conclude whether it constitutes a new species.

Zamia wallisii seedling

 No more Zamia wallisii plants were found on the Urrao expedition. Today it is impossible to access the area. In retrospect, it becomes clear that the Choco ecosystem remains largely botanically unexplored, and with the Colombian conflict escalating, the chances of exploring it are scant. Places like the Urrao cloud forest are reservoirs of beauty and knowledge for humanity and they should be preserved at all costs!

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