April 29, 2024

CASIQUIARE CHANNEL

The Casiquiare river is a distributary of 326 km of the upper Orinoco flowing southward into the Rio Negro, entirely in Venezuela, South America. As such, it forms a unique natural canal between the Orinoco and Amazon river systems. It is the world's largest river of the kind that links two major river systems, a so-called bifurcation. The area forms a water divide, more dramatically at regional flood stage (W). For more informations, see Laraque, A. et al. (PRE-PRINT, 2019).

CASIQUIARE INFORGRAPHIC WITH MAP AND IMAGES OF THE TWO EXTREME POINTS

The origin of the Casiquiare, at the River Orinoco, is 14 km below the mission of La Esmeralda at 3°8′18.5″N 65°52′42.5″W, and about 123 m above sea level. Its mouth at the Rio Negro, an affluent of the Amazon River, is near the town of San Carlos and is 91 metres above sea level (W)

April 28, 2024

What is the plant that grows tallest in Brazil

An interesting question that can be asked about Brazilian biodiversity is: what is the plant that grows tallest in Brazil? The answer is simple: the plants that grow at the top of Mount Neblina. Since Brazil's maximum altitude is only 2,995m, the mountaintop is still in a zone fully occupied by angiosperms. Part of the answer can be deduced with a photo of the extreme top, where it is possible to see the immediate vegetation formation, and presume which of these plants could be mentioned. Let's deduce some possibilities, in three photos obtained from the Internet, which portray the mountaintop.

A. in this photo, it is possible to infer that the angiosperms in Brazil that grow at higher altitudes are low, herbaceous plants that do not even reach the size of a shrub. There's not much more to say.

HERBACEOUS VEGETATION

B. in this photo, it is possible to see small rosettes, which suggest they are members of Poales, possibly Bromeliaceae, Cyperaceae, or Xyridaceae, with a low probability of being Poaceae.

POSSIBLY POALES

C. this third photo reinforces the possibility that the highest altitude plants in Brazil are Bromeliaceae.

POSSIBLY BROMELIACEAE

Most likely, the plants that grow at the highest altitudes in Brazil are Cyperaceae or Bromeliaceae.