exactly prime wildflower season, nor did I have much time on land. Nevertheless, as per my habit, I recorded whatever wildflowers I could find, and there were some very interesting ones.
Chile is a long slender country. If you flipped it over onto the northern hemisphere, it would stretch from Alaska to Baja California, Mexico. So it has a wide range of climates and vegetation types. The southern tip is a stone's throw from the Antarctic peninsula, and the far north is barren desert. Our cruise focused on the fjords and glaciers of the southern third of the country.
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| Glaciers and rugged mountains beyond counting line the Chilean coast. |
The pictures that follow will speak for themselves.
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| At our jumping off point in Ushuaia, Argentina, planted flowers were at their peak, giving hope that some wildflowers would still be active. |
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| Amidst the lichen-laden hrubby vegetation of the southern Chilean coast a lonely Chaura plant (Gaultheria mucrunata) bears its crop of berries. Chaura is a relative of blueberries and cranberries. |
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| At Punta Arenas, southernmost city in Chile, yellow lupines (Lupinus arboreus), an invasive species native to California, blooms throughout the short summer. |
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| White daisies, possibly also from North America, also bloom in Punta Arenas. |
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| The native vegetation along the coast is dominated by Nothofagus antarctica, a relative of oak trees. |
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| Fuschia magellanica, photographed here at the Rio Simpson Nature Preserve, is a common sight in central Chile. |
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| Gunnera tinctora is a curious plant with enormous leaves. Popular in botanical gardens and landscapes in suitable climates, it is native to southern Chile. Sometimes called Chilean rhubarb, because its stems are used in the same way as a vegetable, it is unrelated to the European rhubarb plant. |
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| Because of its stiff, spiny-edged leaves, Desfontainia spinosa is known as Chilean holly, though it is in a completely different family, Columelliaceae. Note the lone orange and yellow flower. |
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| Ferns are also common in the moist forests of southern Chile. |
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| A touch of fall color comes to Chacabuco, Chile in late March. |
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| After disembarking our ship at Valparaiso, I was thrilled to spot the native Chilean Wine Palm, Jubaea chilensis growing in large numbers on a dry hillside. I was able to snap some halfway decent pictures through the window of our moving bus. |
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| In earlier times, sap was extracted from the palm trunks and used for syrup and wine. The sap could be extracted only by felling the tree, a wasteful process that has been banned. |
