Botany Along the Upper Orinoco River in Venezuela

local children from the Orinoco copyright Joerg Jotze During this expedition-style seminar, participants travel in dugout canoes along the upper Orinoco River and its tributaries in the general region of La Esmeralda, the Rio Casiquiare, and the Rio Cunumacunuma, stopping regularly for field trips. Esmeralda is the furthest point reached by Alexander von Humboldt during his 5-year pioneering expedition deep into the Amazon basin about 200 years ago.

The program will provide a broad overview of the botany, biogeography, and general natural history of the region. The seminar offers an opportunity to explore the flora of the different plant communities and the diversity of vegetation along the upper Orinoco River. It will review the differences between whitewater, blackwater, and clearwater rivers and the ecological functioning of the forests that produce these kinds of waters. Different savanna types will be visited, i.e., on white-soil sands (Amazonian type savannas), normal-soil sands (llanos type savannas), inundated savannas, and floating savannas. Seasonally inundated forests will also be visited. Systematic botany discussions will focus on common species and characters that can be easily used to identify families and genera, based on such books as Alwyn Gentry's superb field guide to woody and herbaceous species. The program will also review the flora and fauna of the Guayana lowlands and highlands, focusing on the geology of the Guiana shield, plant endemicity, and the adaptations of plant species to poor and acid soils. There will be opportunities to understand indigenous food resources by visiting “conucos” (cultivated fields) that are cut out of the rainforest, planted for a few years, and then abandoned to revert back to forest.

Ori waterfall copyright Joerg Lotze There will be evening discussions throughout the program. Accommodations during the expedition will be in hammocks within churuatas (thatch-roofed dwellings), in Ye'Kwana, Yanomami, and/or Criollo villages, thus facilitating interactions with the indigenous cultures in the region. Travel will be by dugout canoes (bongos or curiaras) with outboard motors.