From: Mario Blanco <lepanthes@...>
Subject: RE: [Aristolochia] aristolochia gorgona
To: "ARISTOLOCHIA" <aristolochia@yahoogroups.com>
Received: Wednesday, December 10, 2008, 7:44 AM

Hi Victor,
leeches are not a problem in Costa Rica, unless you go wading in swamps (not a good idea anyway because there might be caymans or crocodyles in the murky waters too). There are no terrestrial leeches in the neotropics, unlike in southeast Asia (at least I've never seen any). There will be mosquitoes in any forested area you go, although the ones in La Selva are not particularly bad. But when you are sitting for hours painting they can become a problem, of course.
I've never heard of people acquiring malaria in La Selva, and hundreds of people visit the place every month (and many live there). But email them anyway to ask about it; there are rare cases that appear here and there every year in other parts of the country.

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To: Aristolochia@ yahoogroups. com
From: aristolochiafrimbia ta@yahoo. ca
Date: Mon, 8 Dec 2008 22:35:43 -0800
Subject: RE: [Aristolochia] aristolochia gorgona

Thanks Mario, and everyone for the encouragement.  I think I am going in May with the group to Costa Rica and then head to La Selva alone. Thanks Mario so much for the colour correction, I think I will give the white a yellow wash so it will be closer to the real flower. I think I should look for an umbrella that can be mounted on my shoulder to keep the paper from the rain while I paint on site (I will look ridiculous), but the humidity is really a problem.  I also think I should be worry about leeches too! If I am staying in La Selva for 5 days, should I take malaria preventive pills?  In Borneo, I mostly did 1-3 days and did not.  But of course I have insect repellent from head to toe and long sleeves and trousers, and never ventured out after sunset. Next I will work on painting the flower dissection of gorgona. Victor --- On Mon, 12/8/08, Mario Blanco <lepanthes@hotmail. com> wrote: From: Mario Blanco <lepanthes@hotmail. com> Subject: RE: [Aristolochia] aristolochia gorgona To: "ARISTOLOCHIA" <aristolochia@ yahoogroups. com> Received: Monday, December 8, 2008, 9:43 AM Hi Victor, you might want to bring some Write-in-the- Rain paper for your pencil drawings, in case your regular drawing paper gets too soft in the 90-100% humidity. Or at least take a large ziploc bag with you to the field so you can protect your drawing paper when it rains. It is supposed to be the dry season now in Costa Rica, but in the Caribbean lowlands this just means a little bit less rain than usual. I know of only a single adult plant of Aristolochia translucida in La Selva, too far from the lab clearing. And it produces its flowers in the canopy, so you can only see them with binoculars or fallen on the ground. By the way, A. translucida is the same as A. tonduzii. Look for A. sprucei in LS. Some plants have nice, yellow spots on the leaves that are natural (not a disease). And in primary forest, look for Passiflora vitifolia, which is a large woody vine that produces large, red flowers from the base of the plant. Your drawing of A. gorgona is very good. The base color is yellow instead of white, but the rest of the colors are just like in life. There is no purple in the flower (unlike in A. grandiflora) . By the way, look for a plant of A. gorgona in the Reserva Biologica in La Selva, in the stretch of paved trail between the small pedestrian bridge and the Casa del Rio (river researchers' quarters), on your right side, before you hit the intersection with the Cantarrana trail. Cheers, Mario To: Aristolochia@ yahoogroups. com From: aristolochiafrimbia ta@yahoo. ca Date: Sun, 7 Dec 2008 21:26:46 -0800 Subject: [Aristolochia] aristolochia gorgona Hello Mario, Richard, Hans, Udi and Lucia, Thanks Mario for all the details about La Selva.  I am excited about this adventure.  I think it will be essentially very different from painting in botanical gardens as before.  The rainforest is sometimes too wet and too humid for the water colour to stay on and to do any finer lines with brush.  But at least I can do some good pencil sketch and put down the colour and will work on it back in the chalet.  I am scare of snakes and I think La Selva got plenty!  I think I will definitely be with a guide to explore for a couple days first and locate some of the interesting vines, from the vascular plant list, there are more than a few that I want to paint: Aristolochia gorgona, Aristolochia translucida, Banisteriopsis caapi, Dalechampia dioscoreifolia (I painted before), Dalechampia websteri, Passiflora auriculata, Passiflora lobata etc. I am working on this one now and kind of based on the photos on the site and Mario's drawings and description of gorgona.  I hope the colour is alright.  It is bright orange with white and brown.  I hope it is not so much with purple.  I have painted gigantea before, which is more purple but in photo always turned out more brown. My painting of gorgona features frontal, side, dissected view and bud, and fruit with leaves; right now it is the frontal view that I am working on with a flower of about 20 to 28 cm. The tentacles are sure difficult to paint, remind me of my wet look teddy bear! Victor   Now with a new friend-happy design! Try the new Yahoo! Canada Messenger You live life online. So we put Windows on the web. Learn more about Windows Live

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