VALLE DE COCORA (PART I)
Valle de Cocora had so many great pics that some are in Part II.

Valle de Cocora, in the western part of Colombia (on the west slopes of Cordillera Central, the middle of the 3 main mountain ranges) has the tallest palm trees in the world. The Andean wax palm (Ceroxylon quindiuense) reaches up to 200 feet tall. Despite being extremely common in the valley, the palm is in decline due to extensive grazing--young seedlings are eaten, so gradually the palm population ages and older palms die without being replaced. There is also thick cloud forests in parts of this valley (sometimes containing the wax palm but more often containing other trees). The average elevation of this area is around 7500 feet above sea level.

The first day I was there, it was quite foggy, and it rained part of the time. The next morning, fortunately, was at least partly sunny with only a few patches of fog. The pics below are from both days.

First...some wax palms (including one really tall one)...



Some place, different pic...



Many palms on the hill top...



Wax palms in more of a forest environment (versus areas that had grazing)...



A solitary (and somewhat smaller) wax palm in the forest...



Now...pics during the foggy period...







One more pic of wax palms...a few that are cultivated (but down lower--around 6000') and have fruit (which is rather rare)...



A few other plants in the open in Valle de Cocora (versus the cloud forest which will come in Part II)...

A tree poppy (Bocconia frutescens)--actually common in most mid and high elevation forests in Latin America...



A type of walnut (Juglans) with Bromeliads...



Close-up of some Bromeliads...



A native conifer, Retrophyllum rospigliosii, in the fog...



A tuno shrub (Miconia ferruginea)...



Go here for Part II, which has some stream pics and mostly cloud forest pics.

All of the above pictures on this page were taken in June 2009 by Brandt Maxwell.

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