Terrestrial Flora & Fungi

The name of “Huinay” is most likely derived from the term HUINOI, which in huilliche-chilote language means “Alerce with its branches bent by force and persistence of the winds” *, or “twisted Alerce”. Alerce is the Spanish word for larch tree, and means in this case Fitzroya cupressoides, one of the longest living (redwood) tree species on earth. Oral testimonies from the local community and people of Hornopirén indicate to us that up until the beginning 20th century, Alerce stands existed at low altitudes close to the shore of the Comau fjord as well as on the plains and hillsides of the Lloncochaigua valley.  These were exploited in successive expeditions of woodcutters from Chiloé Island, and the first permanently settling families of “colonos” coming from Río Puelo initially in the 1930s. Evidence of this hard and extensive work are a number of “quilantu”, areas covered by dense shrub of Chusquea quila, a bamboo-like pioneer gramineous, that invades the clearings of a forest selectively logged decades ago. Nowadays, untouched Alerce stands and single specimens remain banished to sites of difficult access. In the pristine interior valleys Alerces are found from an altitude of 250 meters on upwards.

Labor of three generations of “colonos” has transformed an important portion of the Lloncochaigua and Huinay River valleys into meadows with herbal species from Northern hemisphere. Nowadays this farmland is used for extensive cattle-breeding.  Its value for livestock is in gradual decay, as it is being invaded by pioneer species like Baccharis, Berberis, myrtles, Fuchsia magellanica and Drimys winteri. It borders on the miraculous that the exotic gorse-plague (Ulex europeo) has not yet arrived, in contrast to brambles and Digitalis purpurea.

Despite this situation in the valleys, the surrounding Valdivian Rainforest is largely free from neophytes. This type of evergreen forest, with microphyllous and laurifoliated elements, is found from the rocky margin of the sea, beginning in a stripe of tepú and – on exposed rocks – murta (a native cranberry bush), and extends up to around 650 meters; through  increasing altitude different species distribution patterns may be distinguished. Below 250 m the dominant constituents comprise of heavy ulmos, coigües (N. dombeyi and nitida), tepas and laurels.  Furthermore, in zones recovering from landslides, notro (“firebush” for its exuberant red blossom), tiaca and tineo may be found. There is also space for avellano, chaumán, diverse voques (twining plants), maqui, corcolén, espino negro, tepú, some canelos and even solitary specimens of conifers. Many trees like tepa and ulmo are covered by epiphytes.  According to incline, illumination and absence of quila, the understory may give room to herbaceous plants (e.g. nightshades) and a broad number of fern, moss, hepatic moss, fungus and lichen species. On disturbed sites with sufficient moisture, extended fields of fern Lophosoria cuadripinnata appear, and/or Gunnera tinctoria with its rhubarb like leaves that may grow up to 3.5 m in diameter.

Above 250 m we observe a gradual transition towards North Patagonian forest. Predominant is N. dombeyi, accompanied by tepa and some Saxaegothea trees.  In a band from 550 to 700 m, we find mayor presence of big specimens of Podocarpus nubigena. In a striking break at 650 m Chusquea quila disappears, and in its place now we find little tihuén (Chusquea palenae).  The beautiful flowers of coicopihue and taique announce proximity to the first heavy specimens of Alerce Fitzroya cupressoides. The understory here is more illuminated and covered by a mass of fluffy moss.

The uppermost limit of this forestal type is formed by a dense belt of “tepual” brush, mixed with some notros. In some sites the tree-line is already at this altitude.

Where topography permits along mayor heights, shrubs of dwarf notro, tiny ulmos and tineos with very coriaceous leaves are found.  At even higher altitudes, dwarf canelo, shrubby alerce and scarce specimens of dwarf cypress Lepidothamnus fonckii appear. Neighbouring at the same altitude, one may find compact stands of Alerce in all ages, some of them with fertile cones. Other less inclined sites are dominated by coigües, both N. dombeyi and N. betuloides. On many of them grow the mistletoe parasite Misodendrum angulatum.

The last forestal ribbon between 1.000 and 1.250 m is formed by spots of lenga and more disperse stands of shrubby ñirres and Escallonia rosea. These latter two deciduous species produce the characteristic yellow autumnal tints bordering the rocks.

The species we find in all these evergreen microphyllous forests mixed with conifers are descended from very diverse biogeographic origins.

Between 1.000 and 1.500 m we encounter the typical high-andean mountain flora, beginning with tiny humid cushions with the carnivorous Drosera uniflora and Pinguicola chilensis.  Higher up heathers like Gaultheria, Empetrum rubrum and nigrum, Mirteola sp. (with very tasty white berries), anemones, cushions of Azorella comprise the community. The little fern Polystichium plicatum is the vascular plant that best resists mayor altitude, sheltered in the crevices of rocky surfaces generally polished in the past by the extended glaciers that today are reduced to occupy only few hundred meters on the highest peaks.

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In the almost inaccessible interior glacial valleys of Huinay, filled with lakes and waterfalls, the extensions of Alerce forest cover a more varied range of altitudes, conquering almost vertical walls that seem to lack any organic soil. Vast mono-species zones on the rocks give way towards the valley to groves of Magellan coigüe and lenga (that do not mingle), or cipresales (ciprés de las Guaitecas).

There also exist peat-bogs and moist areas of different sizes in Huinay. A special case among them is the so called “Coirón”, some 8 km inland from the coast.  It is a former glacial lake filled up and transformed into bog, with some 30 hectares of surface, affected by drastic changes of water level according to rainfall.

Another zone with specialized flora is found on the coast close to the upper tide line, where several halophile (salt-loving) plant species live, like varieties of Apium australe (beach celery) and Plantago maritima (ribwort).

Finally, a vast field for study is open for mycologists due to the presence of dozens of fungus species in the different ecosystems that cover the Huinay territory.

* Chiloé, Botánica de la Cotidianidad. Renato Cárdenas A. y Carolina Villagrán M., 2005.

Botanic biogeography

Evergreen Andean Forests show a rather restricted distribution (only parts of Chile’s 10th Region), limited northwards by Llanquihue Lake and southwards by the Yelcho River near the Chaitén Bay. Their physiognomy is that of a tall forest, with many elements of laurifoliated forests, localized on the western slopes of the Andean Cordillera. These vegetation formations possess a high grade of endemism, vicariant species, and also populations at the limit of their distribution, making this ecosystemic formation of real importance for studies in biogeography, phylogenetics, plant ecophysiology and ecology of populations.

The actual floral elements represent the integration of floristic stems from different ages and provenance that had arrived in the Tertiary (Schmithüsen, 1956).  The biogeographic history of South America is intimately bound to the ancient continent of “Gondwana”;  the principal features of the flora that today covers the austral zone of South America originated here. During the Triassic began the fragmentation of the supercontinent, which accounts for the floristic links among the actual continents of the Southern hemisphere (Mardones 2005). The processes of continental fragmentation, formation of marine currents, and climatic changes, generated a flow of families, genus and species all along the continent. Four paleo-floras have been defined in this period: Neo-tropical, Mixed, Antarctic and Subtropical (Hinojosa 2005).

During the Upper Cretaceous and Paleocene, the biota in the central southern zone of Chile was composed mostly of elements conditioned to warm and humid climates; the outstanding families were Lauraceae, Anonaceae, Araucariaceae, Myrtaceae.  It is in this period where the Angiosperms appear, while in the Antarctic a mixed forest of Nothofagus, Podocarpaceae and Araucariaceae, Myrtaceae, Proteaceae and Lauraceae raised. During the Eocene an explosion of the Nothofagus genus occurred, mainly in Patagonia. During Upper Eocene and Oligocene, Antarctica and Australia definitely separate which produces heavy climatic changes.

It is in the Quarternary where the current template forests of South America establish.  In this time period, relocation of vegetational formations occur due to glaciation processes (Pleistocene), rendering as result survival of relict populations in sites that were not covered by ice.

The eldest families present in the Huinay Reservation thus are claimed to be neo-tropical ones like Myrtaceae (Luma, arrayán, peta, tepú), Monimiaceae (Laurales: laurel and tepa), and Azara (corcolén), that existed in the zone before the uplifting of the Cordillera de los Andes.

The elements  making up the austral/asian and austral/antarctic flora are the following: Aristotelia (maqui), Fuchsia (chilco), Eucryphia (ulmo), Embothrium (ciruelillo), Gaultheria (chaura), Lomatia (huinque), Drimys (canelo), Austrocedrus (ciprés de la cordillera) y Nothofagus (coigüe, lenga, ñirre). The majority of these elements are found at present also distributed in New Zealand, New Guinea, Australasia, Indonesia and Southeast Asia.

The elements derived from pan-tropical flora found at the present are: Maytenus (maitén) and Podocarpus (mañío).