Close to the walls of Roraima the montane forest is dense, moist and very steep. Roraima is causing constant cloud formation and moisture is brushing against everything that lives here. On days with no rain, the fog can create fantastic dew formations of insects, plants and rock. Up here the water is no longer tropically […]
This is the path to and from from Roraima, and this was photographed on my way from Roraima. Once out of the forest surrounding the walls of the mountain it was very hot. I had a hard time managing my body temperature, and was longing for a rainshower that never seemed to come. The shower […]
This bush grows in the montane forest close to the Roraima walls. Native range is the Guyana Shield.
This plant reminds me of a cucumber or melon, but I found none with fruit. It grows in the montane forest by the Roraima wall. Native range is the Guyana Shield.
Grows in the montane forest close to the wall of Roraima. This is the natural position of the flower – hanging face down from a very long stem.
A large flower that is like a beacon of color in the greens of the montane forest, right next to the Roraima wall. It’s pollinated by birds. Native range is the Guyana Shield.
This plant grows close to the plateu of Roraima in the montane forest. It was raining on my way up, so photography was not an option, but I was in luck on my way down. I don’t recall seeing it on the top of Roraima, but I believe it’s also present there. Native range is […]
About one our before sunset. Most prefer to be in constant movement to forget about the unanswered questions of existence and keep the mind fully occupied. Instead they could simply sit still and watch nature’s countless variations and manifestations. For just one moment the light of the sun was let through as if a giant’s […]
One of many species of shrub on Roraima. Native range is the Guyana Shield.
One of just a few of this particular species in bloom. Native range is the Guyana Shield.
This was one of very few I found in bloom. If I only had more time on Roraima I would have been able to look for and absorb much more of the wonderful richness, in the otherwise poor place nutrient-wise. With only 1,5 days on top, and just 12 hours of daylight I was able […]
Most of the daytime (diurnal) butterflies were either hard to get close to, were restlessly fluttering around never to settle down more than a blink of an eye, or never opened their wings when resting. With only two days on Roraima, I simply didn’t have time to be patiently waiting for the right moment. When […]
An endemic plant. I only found a couple with one flower each on my 2 day stay on Roraima tepui. The flower is huge compared to the European heather, which instead has a large number of small flowers. This specimen was able to cling to life in a crack in the sandstone and seemed to […]
Native range is the Guyana Shield.
Help me identify this Roraima plant – leave a comment!
I didn’t encounter this species on the Gran Sabana, or on near the Roraima tepui, so this could possibly be endemic to Roraima tepui. Help me identify it – leave a comment!
Native range is the Guyana Shield.
The otherwise leathal (to insects) sundew has a different need every now and then – pollination and propagation! What to do? As it is unable to turn off its traps, it simply produces a tall stem with tantalizing flowers…. Unfortunatley I don’t find this particularly convincing, as the flower for some reason is always pointing […]
This was the only all-green orchid I found on Roraima. Native range is the Guyana Shield.
There are countless waterfalls on and off Roraima, large and small. If the sun is out and the angle is right, a rainbow will flash as in this photo. One can walk to such a place, or sit by one and wait until the sun and angle makes it happen all on it’s own.
Perhaps the only plant on Roraima that grows to the size of a tree. It’s host to a variety of vegetation and perhaps the most conspicuous is the epiphytic bromeliad Tillandsii turneri. Some rugosums are so overgrown with moss and lichen that the girth of the trunk and branches seems hugely oversized. I wonder who […]
Native range is Mexico to Bolivia.
This crevice is huge in depth and length, and in one location a rumbling sound – like a remote jet plane – is heard. It’s the sound of a large waterfall far below – covered by layers of rock. Some time in the future this crevice may have grown to a divide that separate parts […]
Differs from Stegolepis guianensis in that it is much smaller (guinanensis is up to 2 m tall vs less than 0,5 m for huberi). Huberi has inferior number of spikelets in inflorescence (guianensis up to 90), inflorescence is compressed/flattened vs globose in guianensis. Huberi’s penduncle is flat vs triangular in guianensis. Huberi has an overall […]
Please help me identify it – leave a comment!
Please help me identify it – leave a comment!
This psecimen grew underneath an outcrop, and in contrast to the guyanensis it was a big and dense specimen competing with other plants. This one very much resembles the guyanensis, but the flower differs with a lighter/paler red ring around the base of the ovary, whilst this one is all in one red color that […]
Native range is the Guyana Shield.
I didn’t find many of this shrub in bloom – either the flowers were messed up by insects and birds, or simply past blooming. Here you can see how a bird has opened up the flower to steal nectar, as it doesn’t want or know how to get it through the “front door”. How this […]
Native range is Roraima and surrounding tepuis.
Could be a very stunted Swamp Titi (Cyrilla racemiflora), but is also likely to be a Roraima endemic. According to Flora of the Venezuelan Guyana Vol 4: “This species is extremely variable in terms of growth habit, ranging from a low spreading shrub to a medium-sized tree, and leaf size and shape. Thomas (Contr. Gray […]
I didn’t recognize this as a fern at the time of my encounter. One of countless unusual shapes and forms of plants on the Roraima tepui. Help me identify it – leave a comment.
Endemic to Roraima tepui.
Help me identify it – leave a comment!
Native to Venezuela.
I only found a handful of this small shrub in bloom. I assume it’s endemic. The leaves remind me of the European Cowberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea). Native range is the Guyana Shield.
This is the only seed pod I found while on Roraima tepui and it’s ripe and ready to open and disperse the seeds. All the other plants were in bloom, with no pods present. Native range is northern South America.
Unique to the Roraima tepui and neighboring tepuis, and is widespread and common here. It resembles the ones growing in European bogs, but has evolved independently. Again nature comes up with the same solution to the same problem despite insurmountable divides. Roraima has little to no nutrients as there is hardly any soil, and the […]
I thought this belonged to the carnivorous sundews (Drosera roraimae), but none of these flowers sprung up from any visible host! I did find it among sundews, but the flower stem had always sprung up from the wet soil. I also found that the flowers of the sundews of Roraima opened up hanging face down […]
A common and colorful orchid on Roraima tepui. Native range is Roraima and surrounding tepuis.
Common on Roraima tepui. Please help me identify it – leave a comment!
The table mountains, or tepuis, of the Guiana Shield, and in this case Roraima, are awesome to see from afar and up close, but to sit atop the highest of them all and see this, you have to stop and simply be silent to experience it. This is but one of countless vistas atop Roraima, […]
What a stunning place to wake up! Just outside my tent this is what I saw – the great wall of the neighbouring Kukenan tepui. Every minute the light, shadows and clouds changed – no human sounds – not even the sound of a plane. Silence…. Watching the sun rising and the shadows shrinking. This […]
Yet another hardy plant that finds enough nutrients in a sandstone crack to produce flowers. Native range is Roraima and surrounding tepuis.
An endemic epiphyte that can be seen in large numbers on tree branches, but also on the ground like this one. Native range is the Guyana Shield.
A small shrub and one of the more unusual flowers on the Roraima tepui. It makes me think of some of the flowers on the table mountains of South Africa. Perhaps it has a genetic commonality with South African table mountain shrubs? Geologically South Africa and the table mountains, and South America and the tepuis, […]
This plant is endemic to Roraima and it’s leaves are formed as cannisters and hold rainwater. When insects fall into the water they are unable to climb back up as the inside is covered with hair pointing downwards. This ensures the insect is kept inside so that the plant’s enzymes can dissolve the nutrients and […]
This deadly plant has to reproduce and need the help from what it usually hunts – insects! I wouldn’t be surprised if many of the pollinators end up in the trap after they have given their service – or at any other time for that matter! It’s only found here on Roraima and surrounding tepuis […]
Native range is Roraima tepui.
Native range is Venzuela and Guyana.
A most peculiar flower that both looks and feels like plastic! In any case, flowering and producing fruit in particular is the very last of the plant, as it dies producing it – just like pineapple. Native range is the Guyana Shield.
This was only flowering specimen I could find, and it was growing in a very inaccessible location high on a boulder on the edge of Roraima, facing Kukenan in the place called “Kukenan Window”. This is the second species of flower on this extremely hard to get to location. Native range is the Guyana Shield.
This was only flowering specimen I could find, and it was growing in a very inaccessible location high on a boulder on the edge of Roraima facing Kukenan in the place called “Kukenan Window”. The plants were located inside a narrow overhang, so getting close to them was very hard, not to mention taking a […]
This shrub also grows a 1000 metres down on the sabana, but there it grows much larger. Here on Mount roraima some are just 15-20 centimetres tall, but still produces flowers. Amazing! Native range is Southeastern USA to Brazil.
It takes several days to walk to Roraima in the scorching sun on the highland named Gran Sabana. The last day a steep and hard climb to the top of the mountain, through numerous waterfalls and showers finally is rewarded with a landscape like no other. The mountain is often completely covered in fog, or […]
This shrub also grows a 1000 metres down on the sabana, but there it grows much larger. Here on Mount Roraima some are just 15-20 centimetres tall, but still produces flowers. Amazing! Native range is Southeastern USA to Brazil.
One of the most common plant species on Roraima. It resembles pineapple, and like pineapple it dies after blooming and setting fruit. I wonder how it’s able to survive submerged like this. All three plants seem to have no problem being in the middle of a pool of water many months per year. Just one […]
One of the less colorful orchid flowers here on top of Roraima. According to Flora of the Venezuelan Guyana Vol 4: “Both Epidendrum ulei and alsum are two of several members of the Epidendrum dendroobioides-durum complex, a group of mainly terrestrial taxa usually restricted to sandstone-derived or boggy substrates”. A couple of characters separating ulei […]
Here on Roraima I found these flowering plants to be quite inaccessible in contradiction to the Utricularia humboldtii on the open sabana. They were either in a dark place, in a narrow crevice or simply out of reach. The ones that did seem to be well placed to photograph were either cut, bruised or simply […]
Help me identify it – leave a comment!
Endemic to Roraima tepui and thrives in the most unlikely places – like this one which has found a crack in the sandstone wall
Finally arrived at the “hotel”, after a very wet hike up. Now the high clouds are dissolving, and the lower clouds manifest in the heat of the emerging sun. Both Roraima and Kukenan are cloudmakers, and if they are in the clear – just sit and wait, and the updrafts will soon manifest misty rivers […]
This was the third day of the Roraima trek. The morning started with a light shower. Unfortunately it lasted for many hours, and we just had to make our way to the top of Roraima. It was a weeeeet walk! Strangely enough I preferred the wet, as that made it easier to climb and not […]
Base camp turned out be quite a spectacle after dark, as the fireflies here were abundant and glowed – yellow! On the savanna the light was blue, and the fireflies mostly on the ground or in between the grass. Here they were quite busy on the ground, as well as in the air. Some only […]
This from the deep of the montane forest surrounding the sheer cliffs of Roraima. Without the mountain there would be no forest or streams! It might feel a bit inconvenient for a human to walk in this dripping, moist forest which is showered frequently year round, but it is abundantly clear from afar that the […]
Closing in on base camp, Roraima seemed lik an insurmountable wall going on forever as it disappeared into the clouds. How to climb this monster?
The sun is rising to the right of the photo and Roraima is standing tall and dark against the brightening of the sky and clouds. To the left an early rain shower is moving into the picture.
This is the second day on the Roraima trek. It’s just 06:09 in the morning and the light is wonderfully soft, as the very first sunrays fall on the grassland on the base of the Kukenan tepui – Roraimas awesome neighbouring tepui. The waterfall is just a trickle compared to last evening when we had […]
This is the first night on the trek up and down Roraima, and here the trekkers are settling down after dinner. Behind you can see the silhouette of Kukenan to the left of Roraima. The Kukenan and Roraima tepuis create their own weather, and thus there is no way to know the water level of […]
This was the end of the first day of a week long trek to the top of Roraima, the highest (2723 m) table mountain (Tepui) in Venezuela, and what a start! The dry season should have started long ago, instead countless thunderstorms supplied plenty of rain showers and this particular cloud pushed a layer of […]
Darkness is fast approaching and Kukenan (below) and Roraima is almost in the clear – seen from the Tok river camp. The visibility changes continously, and just seconds later both could be covered in clouds, just to reappear seconds later, or gone for a day….