Botanical Expedition ot the remote Cerro Plateado region in Ecuador

Botanical expedition to Cerro Plateado Biological Reserve a success! 10 days in a remote area of southeastern #Ecuador (Zamaro Chinchipe region). The plateau ("meseta") at 2400-2700 m contains a unique vegetation of rare, new or endemic plants. We mainly went to collect the palms of that region, some potentially new! The expedition was funded by the International Palm Society (#IPS). This was also a joint field trip between IRD and PUCE. In all we made numerous collections of different plants, including some potentially new species of palms. The material from the trip will be dried and mounted and integrated in the herbarium at the PUCE (QCA) and sent to other international herbaria. This expedition was just the third of its kind to this remote region since 2011. Its isolated (no indigenous tribes live there) and hard to access location make it particularly challenging to get there. But it was well worth the effort!