It's not a Grass, it's not a Sedge, it's a Pipewort! - Observation of the Week, 4/11/23

Our Observation of the Week is the first Comanthera kegeliana pipewort posted to iNaturalist! Seen in Brazil by @tjfilho

“Being raised in the Amazon Rainforest naturally attracts you to learning more everyday about what surrounds you, and that made me decide early in my life that i wanted to work with that, both as a teacher and a field researcher,” says Tales Alves Júnior. “I think it's important to bring awareness to the biodiversity that surrounds us - plants, fungi or animals, so we can value and conserve it.”

After earning his undergraduate degree in biological sciences last year, Tales is now a master’s student in the Botany Graduate Program at the National Institute of Amazonian Research (PPG Botânica - INPA), and he’s studying the interactions between bryophytes and entomopathogenic fungi (eg Ophiocordycipitaceae).

But from previous experiences, I learned to love everything: plants, birds, snakes (this one I learned a lot from my partner, who is also a Master's student at INPA at the Ecology Graduate Program), and especially fungi, which is, since the beginning of my undergraduate course, my true passion.

During a field class to the campinarana biome (with sandy, nutrient-poor soil) Tales saw theComanthera kegeliana you see photographed here, one of among dozens of individuals of the same species in the area. 

Pipeworts (family Eriocaulaceae) are related to grasses and sedges and they tend to grow in wet areas of tropical regions. The genus Comanthera is found in tropical South America and like other members of the family they grow small, wind-pollinated flowers. 

“I use iNaturalist mainly to register and get help identifying what I see with my phone in my daily routine,” says Tales (above), “while also using it to seek help on more specific things, like identifying Ophiocordyceps spp. (and other Hypocreales spp.) related to my current work. 

I also use iNaturalist to practice my identification skills, learning more and more how to differentiate species (with significant morphological differences, of course - there are a lot of cryptic species out there...), and by doing that, it made possible for me to learn faster, especially for groups that i'm not that familiar with, making it a great learning tool (and i can guarantee that i'll use iNat as a tool in my teaching career, trust me lol).


- Other campinarana species Tales mentioned are Aldina heterophylla and Cantharellus guyanensis.

- Check out  the more than ten thousand pipeworts posted to iNaturalist!

Posted on April 12, 2023 12:24 AM by tiwane tiwane

Comments

Very cool to be the first to post a first in iNat. Also a great way to identify as their database is amazing. I use it much the same way for identifying life. Good shout out for iNat!

Posted by onekoolkid0 12 months ago

What a gorgeous plant! I would love to learn more about Tales' bryophytes and entomopathogenic fungi -- that's a really cool interaction.

Posted by janetwright 12 months ago

Great observation!
Wishing you success in your graduate studies!

Posted by derrell_d 12 months ago

Wow, thank you so much for your good work, and for letting us see what amazing things you have been seeing!

Posted by susanhewitt 12 months ago

That’s so cool!

Posted by eth_flack 12 months ago

What a little cutie-pie this one is -- really wonderful!

Posted by sbdplantgal 12 months ago

Congratulations on this! That's very exciting, and what an interesting plant. I had never even heard of pipeworts. You are in such a wonderful location, I know the learning has to be non-stop! Enjoy those studies. :-)

Posted by ashley_bradford 12 months ago

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