Nidularium marigoi Leme
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- Distribution & habitat
Nidularium marigoi is a typical inhabitant of the upper slopes of Serra da Mantiqueira, on the border between Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais and Sao Paulo, more specifically in Itatiaia National Park. More recently this species was also found in Caparao National Park on the border between Minas Gerais and Espirito Santo, and much farther inland, near Belo Horizonte, in the Itacolomi Forest Reserve at Ouro Preto. Nidularium marigoi is always associated with high altitude cloud forests, sometimes growing at forest's edge in the transition zone to high altitude grasslands, at elevations of 1,300 to 2,700 m. On the Itatiaia Plateau where the type was collected, this species lives at higher altitudes than N. itatiaiae and there appears to be no population overlap. In the Itacolomi area of Ouro Preto at about 1,600 m, it is found inside gallery forests and in the sunny transition zone between these forests and campo rupestre vegetation. Here it is well adapted to a semiheliophilous habitat.
The habit of this species varies trom epiphytic on the lower trunks of trees and shrubs to terrestrial or saxicolous. On the ground, it forms large, dense populations, such as those observed in Ibitipoca State Park. In this area, some plants are distinctly caulescent.
Due to this species' adaptation to higher elevations in southeastern Brazil, it is difficult to grow in cultivation and does not do well at sea level. For this reason, it is practically nonexistent in bromeliad collections in spite of the clearly ornamental appeal of the species. However, N. marigoi is well preserved in several federal and state conservation units, as was mentioned above, which means a more certain future for this species.
upper slopes of Serra da Mantiqueira, on the border between Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais and Sao Paulo, more specifically in Itatiaia National Park. —See Leme 2000a