LA CAMPANA
La Campana is a national park in a mountainous area about 60 miles northwest of Santiago (as the crow flies). It has the largest habitat of Chile's only native palm, the Chilean wine palm (Jubaea chilensis).

First, pics of various Chilean wine palms, which grow in habitats ranging from along streams to mountain tops...





Note the very fat trunks!



More fat trunks with some mayo (Sophora macrocarpa) shrubs...











A pic with Puya berteroniana, a native bromeliad...



A native trunked cactus called the quisco (Echinopsis chiloensis)...





Quiscos with wine palms and a mountain in the background...



A native acacia (Acacia caven)...





Lithraea caustica...



Lobelia excelsa, with its red blooms...



A soapbark tree (Quillaja saponaria), a comparatively ordinary tree)...



Chile has dodders (Cuscuta sp.), a strange parasitic vine, just like California (and many other locations). Not sure what species this is, though the color is different from those in California...



And, finally...one last view of the wine palms...



All of the above pictures on this page were taken in November 2009 by Brandt Maxwell.

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