Trees in Patagonia (eBook)

How to use this guide for identifying trees.- Southern South America and the term ‘Patagonia’.- Geology, climate, and soils of Patagonia.- Vegetation of Patagonia.- What is a tree?.- Flowering plants and their divisions.- Characteristic features of gymnosperms (conifers).- Characteristic features of angiosperms.- Dicots and monocots.- Keys to groups of trees.- Genera and species of gymnosperms.- Genera and species of dicots.- Genera and species of monocots.- Afforestations with Pinaceae in zones of transition.- Fruit trees in Los Antiguos and Chile Chico — Lake Buenos Aires / General Carrera.- Trees in urban landscapes.- National parks, forest reserves, and regional reserves of Southern Argentina and Chile.- Carl Skottsberg’s “modest expedition” — A look at the scientific discovery of Patagonia.- Glossary of technical terms.- Abbreviations.- Literature.

3. Southern South America and the term ‘Patagonia’ (p. 7-8)

Trees in Patagonia – our book’s title – refers in a general, open sense to the vast region in southern South America which is also addressed as El Cono Sur, but better known in the entire world as Patagonia. The exact meaning of this latter term, however, is still a matter of controversy, a fact that immediately falls into one’s attention by looking at several attempts to set clear cut boundaries to the region termed ‘Patagonia’. Let us consider a few examples:

R. Magin Casamiquela (in Guía turística YPF [of the República Argentina](1998)) distinguishes Eastern Patagonia from Western Patagonia. According to this author, the northern and southern boundaries of these two regions can be de?ned as follows: Eastern Patagonia comprises the area between the river Colorado in the north and the Strait of Magellan in the south. Western Patagonia (following C. Keller) extends from the lake Todos los Santos and its draining river Petrohué down to the Strait of Magellan, thereby excluding the Isla Grande de Chiloé but with the inclusion of the archipelagos from Chiloé to the Strait of Magellan.

For practical reasons, however, the authors of the Guía turística YPF conveyed to the term ‘Eastern Patagonia’ a very broad meaning, referring by it also to the archipelago of Tierra del Fuego and to the Islas Malvinas / Falkland Islands. On the basis of this pragmatic approach, it would simply be a matter of consequence to incorporate Chiloé and the archipelago of Tierra del Fuego into the realm of what is meant by ‘Western Patagonia’.

C. Runcinan (ed.) and the co-authors of Time Out. Patagonia (2002) call Western (Chilean) Patagonia the entire region to the south of the river Bío Bío, including Temuco and the Lake District. With regard to Eastern (Argentine) Patagonia, the guide refers to the region comprised between the river Colorado and the south of Tierra del Fuego.

S. Blackwell (ed.) and the co-authors of Footprint Patagonia (2005) de?ne ‘Western Patagonia’ the same way as Runcinan et al. Concerning Eastern Patagonia, this guide even expands the region to some areas located to the north of the river Colorado.

R. Gantzhorn, in Patagonien – Trekking Guide (2004), considers the Chilean side of Patagonia to spread from the river Bío Bío in the north (the latitude of which is equivalent to that of the river Colorado on the Argentine side – the northern limit of Eastern Patagonia, according to Gantzhorn) down to Cape Horn.

W. Bernhardson, in Moon Handbooks Patagonia (2005), admits that the term ‘Patagonia’ “is notoriously hard to de?ne, but for purposes of this book, it’s a pragmatic matter… On the Argentine side, it comprises the provinces of Neuquén, Río Negro, Chubut, Santa Cruz, and Tierra del Fuego, while in Chile it includes the lake-district jurisdictions of La Araucaria (Region IX) and Los Lagos (Region X), plus Patagonia proper, Aisén (Region XI) and Magallanes (Region XII)” (p. 5). This means that for Bernhardson Patagonia covers the same area as for Runcinan and Gantzhorn.

R.R. Rodríguez avoids the term ‘Patagonia’ (in his article “Forests of southern Chile and its main components” [in Spanish], in J. Grau y G. Zizka (eds.), Flora silvestre de Chile (1992)) and only refers to the “Subantarctic Province which in Chile stretches along mountains and valleys from the south of the river Bío Bío (ca. 37°S) to Cape Horn (ca. 56°S)” (p.44). In other words: Rodríguez’s term ‘Subantarctic Province’ is virtually equivalent to what Gantzhorn, Blackwell et al., and Runcinan et al. de?ne as ‘(Western) Patagonia’.

M. Graham, on the other hand, uses (in Chile (2003)) the expression ‘Southern Patagonia’ to designate the region con?ned to the comparatively small sector between the National Park Torres del Paine and the Strait of Magellan. F. Ranft (ed.) and the co-authors of Chile, Osterinsel (2004) employ the term ‘Patagonia’ when describing the “southern cone on the Argentine and the Chilean side of the Cordillera” (p. 61), without entering into any further details.

H.A. Schultz, E. Jones, C. Jones, in Argentina (ed. D. Bull, 1988), write that Patagonia stretches from the river Colorado in the north to Cape Horn in the south, belonging both to Chile and Argentina (p. 214), and avoid details about its northern limit in Chile. In Flora Patagónica (República Argentina), the masterly reference work directed by M.N. Correa, the limits of Continental Patagonia are de?ned “to the N by the river Colorado, to the S by the canals of Beagle and Moat, to the W by the Cordillera de los Andes, and to the E by the Atlantic Ocean and the islands of the Southern Atlantic” (vol. VIII, 1998, p. 1).