In Mexico, a Biologist Spots a Rarely-Observed Stonecrop! - Observation of the Week, 7/25/23

Our Observation of the Week is this Echeveria racemosa plant, seen in Mexico by @sarahdiaz17!

A biology graduate of Universidad Veracruzana, Sarahí Díaz was “born and raised in Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico, a city between the mountains, so from a very young age I had a direct connection with animals and plants.” She now resides in Coatepec, Veracruz, which is near a cloud forest. 

Whenever my personal activities allow me, I go out to photograph organisms (mainly plants), to upload these observations to the platform, and thus reach the eyes of amateurs and experts. I agree with the idea that “what is unknown is not protected”.

Sarahí tells me she found the Echeveria racemosa by accident. When returning to the site of a Sedum population to check on its conservation, 

I found another path that I had not yet explored and decided to see what else I could find. The surprise was that I found this well-preserved population of Echeveria. As soon as I was able to download the photos, I asked Dr. David Jimeno, teacher and researcher for the group, for help with identification. He was the one who helped me with the ID and that's when I uploaded it to Naturalista [iNaturalist’s name in Mexico], hoping that other researchers would confirm the identification.

A member of the stonecrop family (Crassulaceae), Echeveria plants range from northern Mexico to northern Argentina and have succulent leaves which grow in a rosette shape. Brightly colored flowers grow on a long stalk. This observation is one of only thirteen Echeveria racemosa observations currently on iNaturalist.

“Interaction with nature through hiking and my love for wild plants has always existed,” says Sarahí (above, in the Sierra Madre Occidental), “but Naturalista has definitely been the catalyst to learn more about the vegetation that surrounds me and share it with the rest of the community.”

Thanks to these observations, I have had the great happiness of collaborating in the discovery and description of two new species for science [still to be published], which means that now every opportunity I have to go out to a new place, I observe in great detail new shapes and colors and everything that I have not photographed before, I capture and share with the naturalist community, since a third collaboration would not be bad for me. 😊

(Some quotes have been lightly edited for clarity.)

- The naturalist who took Sarahí's photo is @pioleon, the coauthor of a paper which described Gonolobus naturalistae, a plant named for iNaturalist!

Posted on July 25, 2023 09:48 PM by tiwane