Pitcairnia chiriquiensis is a rare species originally discovered by the renowned American plant collector Paul Allen in western Panama in 1947. Since it hasn't been collected since, there has been controversy as to whether it was extant or distinct from related taxa. A short side-trip during a collecting expedition to Panama was undertaken to see if it could be found and be more accurately described.
Allen indicated on his herbarium specimen label that he had collected on the `sheer rock faces' of Cerro Galera Chorcha near Gualaca, Panama. Reconstructing this collecting site was difficult since that name had either changed or been forgotten by the locals in the intervening fifty years. With a little persistence and the luck of meeting an oil geologist in a local market, I was able to find the correct cerro, or `meseta : After consulting geological maps and conducting some preliminary scouting, the meseta was located. Once identified, it was visible from quite a distance.
The next problem was to determine how to get to the top and find the rock faces Allen described. The topographic map indicated that a small road just off the Carretera Interamericana appeared to go in the direction of the meseta. After driving back and forth several times on the Carretera, we finally decided that an obscure somewhat 'driveway-like' road was the one that appeared to correspond to the road on the map. A locked gate blocked the road, but the farmer, whose small farm the road abutted, had a key. After explaining my interest, he allowed me through the gate indicating that I may need to explain myself further down the road to any other locals.
The road went through a dry pasture, then down into a shallow boulderstrewn stream surely not intended for the likes of a rental vehicle. The now-slick road began to ascend the wet forested hillside and went beneath a power easement and its high transmitting wires. It curved back and forth hugging the edge of the mesa within the depths of the moist rainforest. Even though there were a few interesting plants worthy of collecting during ascent, we were forced to continue, thinking that if we stopped, the truck would never get moving upward again on the steep slope. After a number of curves, and somehow narrowly missing a downward driving truck carrying a cow to market, the road reached the plateau, where the vegetation abruptly changed from primary forest to lush pastured land.
Allen's label indicated that the plants were found on rock faces. The only rock face visible from the base of the meseta had been a high open area next to a waterfall. We determined that the best way to find the waterfall would be to follow each stream we found to the edge of the meseta and search the rock faces there. After driving through two gated fields, we stopped the truck just before a small but steadily flowing stream. We packed up collecting supplies, and followed the edge of the stream on foot. Its shallow channel winded through the rolling pasture of tall grass filled with herds of cattle, warily milling about in the excitement of strangers. We also came across snakes and parrots, the latter perhaps triggering the boisterously chanting howler monkeys.
The occasional pasture tree held a number of common bromeliads, including Aechmea pubescens, Tillandsia balbisiana, T. brachycaulos, T. fasciculata, and Werauhia sanguinolenta. They all seemed stranded in pockets of trees in the middle of the open pasture. After about a mile, the stream picked up its pace and the gentle splashing of a waterfall could be heard. The stream finally descended into a small ravine between the high pasture walls where lush leguminous trees, Heliconia, Costus, Begonia, and Pitcairnia maidifolia flourished. While walking in the center of the stream in the shade of the canopy above, we could soon see out into open air. The cliff was near! Progressing, the sound of the waterfall muffled our approach to the surprise of a flock of vultures that were perched on the cliff's edge. A dozen or more went up in excited flight as we appeared.
Arriving at the cliff, we were careful not to slip with the stream over the vertical edge. Standing on the vulture's flat sandstone perch at the waterfall's edge we had a clear view of the Pacific Ocean. The spectacular view nearly eclipsed the objective; for at our feet and clinging all the way down the cliff in the mist of the waterfall was a small bright salmon-red flowered Pitcairnia. Just as Allen had left them, protected on the vertical escarpment, was the elusive Pitcairnia chiriquiensis, sharing its hideaway and refuge with Bromelia pinguin. Immediately it appeared different than any other species I had seen in Mesoamerica, but seemed to somewhat approach the recently described Pitcairnia calcicola of Costa Rica. It was however quite distinct, and examination of the living material provided verification of its distinctness and lifted its previously dubious status. I pressed specimens right there in the field, preserved flowers in liquid, and secured live plants for transport back to the U.S. The following description is taken from living plants both in the field and in cultivation. —SeeGrant 1999ep. 49(1): 15-20