a short trip south of madagascar

[bruno]

Have a happy new year you all palm fanantics!

Let me take you south visit the Andohahela park, then to the southern tip of madagascar and then Fort dauphin and surroudings. No snakes here though, wink to kris.

http://s55.photobucket.com/albums....071.jpg

First pic with dpsis decaryi and those strange alluodia procera

[bruno]

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums....071.jpg

the entrance to the park

[bruno]

Again alluodia and and the flowers of some pachypodium

[bruno]

that's the first pic I posted! i did not remember how it worked, sorry.

[bruno]

and the second pic, so that you don't have to click and work too hard to watch plants.

[bruno]

Along the river that flows on rock most of the way.

[bruno]

A close up of the scene just before. I am amazed by the ladscaping job here. I find that place dramatic with all those straight trees shooting up and the horizontal rocks..

[bruno]

dum I am, sorry. Try again

[bruno]

Another scene wit dypsis decaryi but this time keeping company to a magnificent baobab.

[bruno]

The picture is not good but you can recognise there a pachypodium.

[bruno]

Another strang inhabitant of those lands: bottle vines! A trunk that can be two or three meters high thick at the base and the head beomes a vine! Cyphostemma, maybe macrocarpa.

[bruno]

The river ends up here for a while, a nice quiet lake before it goes down to the desert plain below.

[bruno]

out of topic: do you remember our malagasy corypha? you will hear news soon from  John. be prepared.

[bruno]

Last pic for tonight. We stopped in that cute cafe before we went to the southern tip  of Madagascar. The box where the food is, was full of flies, when it is supposed to keep them away. The food was good though!

[Tyrone]

Bruno, Thanks for those pics. It's amazing to see D decaryi along with Boabab's and Pachypodium and weird bottle vines. What a fascinating place. That river, after it leaves the lake and goes into the desert, does it allow palms to grow along it's banks? Just wondering.

regards

Tyrone

[Dypsisdean]

Thanks Bruno,

We could never get enough posts from Madagascar.

[Al in Kona]

I agree totally with Dypsisdean, never enough from Madagascar.  I'm anxious to sometime be able to see Ravenea xerophila in habitat too, as I have 4 small plants growing in our garden.  Thanks again Bruno for all your photos and accompanying information.

[JakeK]

Great pictures Bruno. Interesting flora in Andohahela and neat to see Boababs growing next to Dypsis decaryi.

[Peter]

Fabulous-thanks for posting these photos.  Love to see the palms, but also the Cyphostemma's, Pachypodiums and Baobobs.   Did you see any Moringa's or any Delonix species?  Thanks again!

[bruno]

No palms on this part of the trip, but to answer Peter's question, we stopped below a moringa because i loved its shape.

[bruno]

I even tried to get seeds. There were plenty of sed pods but they were too young.

[bruno]

There were plenty of those flowers all along the road living in very harsh conditions: extremme heat and drought. I thought they might be good for gardens so I took seeds but once back in tana I found they had all been eaten by insects. I'll have to go back. It is called Barleria. Do you know them?

[bruno]

The same one but yellow.

[bruno]

Quite a few of those to. A beautiful vine with white leaves, but it has a very bad smell. The malagasy call it laingomaimbo which means "which stinks"! Its latin name is pederia though and it must be foetidus.

[bruno]

I don't know if this is a delonix? Peter might know.

[bruno]

This could be a euphorbia, maybe stenoclada. Like all euphorbias it has a latex which can be dagerous for the eyes.

[bruno]

I don't know what to call those! There are no books around here or very poor in contents. If anyone recognises them...

[bruno]

Going straight south to the the tip of the island. Straight endless roads...

[bruno]

And sometimes one comes across one of those "protected" turtles. They usually end up in plates or are sold in tana or exported illigally when small.

[bruno]

Now we are at the southern tip of madagascar. No much vegetation, very low, strong winds most of the time. This is a place where cattle come to drink, there is a well in the middle of the picture. i don't know what the cattle eat though, except cactus!

[bruno]

You can see, in the green the small bungalows. The wind blew so hard all night that our sheets were covered with sand.

[bruno]

There are some strange formations along the beach, water from the sea, cascades towards the land.

[bruno]

The beach is behind the photographer, the sea in front and water cascades. It is a strange and beautiful landscape.

[fiji jim]

Fantastic pics Bruno.

Great to see that mixture of some of the toughest plants ever (not talking cold but drought tolerant).

And the landscape reminds me of some scenes in the outback of Australia before reaching desert areas, but much more diversity in the flora in Mad.

The pachy in post#10 looks like one of the 3 var we grow here, P. densiflorum, but that's a bit of a wild guess.

Your pictures awaken my wanderlust, to travel again to some isolated wonderful places away from the masses of mankind where it is abundant with the senses of nature.

Please show more.

Jim

[Peter]

Thank you again Bruno for the wonderful photos.  I'm no expert, but a knowledgeable friend has identified some of the plants:  post 20 is actually a Delonix, while post 27 shows Moringas.  Post 26 is indeed E. stenoclada, and going back to #11, that is most likely Cyphostemma laza, which is found in the south.  Love to see more if have them  

[Austinpalm]

Great pix Bruno,

I have always wanted to see Madagascar, now I have really got to go.

About the formation at the beach.  Does the water just pool up between the formation and the beach during high tide and then evaporate away.  I assume it does not flow back to the ocean as water is reluctant to flow uphill.  Or am I wrong?

Regards,

Clay

[kylecawazafla]

That waterfall flowing from the ocean is unreal! I've never seen something like that before. I'm guessing it's activitiy is tidal. There are definitely some incredible landscapes and more importantle trees over there!!

[Jeff Searle]

Bruno,

     What fantastic photos and scenery while heading south. It just shows how harsh the conditions get and how the landscape and plants really start changing. I never made it that far south, maybe another adventure. But keep the pic.'s coming, this has been a real treat!

Jeff

[MASOALA JASON]

Great photo essay Bruno. Thanks for sharing your adventure. Are the coast photos of around Cap Saint Marie? Next trip I would like to go this far South, beautiful xerophytics. Not positive, but I think the photo of the trees next to the thatch home are of Moringa droughardii; what a gorgeous tree! There are some behemouth mature ones lining some of the roads in Tulear.

[deezpalms]

Bruno, thanks for the wonderful pictures of Madagascar! A true palm lover will never tire of those images!!