In Malagasy Mandena means the place where you get wet. This morning we visited Mandena and we did. Very. I had high hopes of seeing the lovely red-collared brown lemur and dared even to hope we might see a southern grey bamboo lemur or a southern avahi (neither of which is probably a valid species). We saw none. We heard barely a bird and we were soaked.
On these sandy soils around Fort Dauphin a unique and beautiful low-nutrient rainforest grows, beautiful even under a downpour. In the edge of a marsh here, where scant nutrients may be obtained from soil or water, we saw, looping through the surrounding vegetation, the sci-fi vines of Nepenthes madagascariensis, a carnivorous pitcher plant.
Mandena: the place where you get wet.
No comments:
Post a Comment