Research and Conservation in Southern Sonora, Mexico
(South of Yécora, focused on Alamos)

Learning From Local Experts: Asking the Right Questions

1. Rafael Figueroa is an Alamos professional cabinetmaker and amateur naturalist who has been hiking the Sierra de Alamos for decades. He knows the mountain's terrain, plants, and wildlife intimately. He has often served as a guide for botanists seeking to study the flora. But he does not simply expound upon his vast knowledge of natural history to visiting researchers; one must ask the right questions and explain what is of scientific interest.

Brian Kemble and Robert Nixon hired Don Rafael as a guide in 2004. They were specifically interested in rosette plants. Don Rafael led them to numerous species, including Agave, Echeveria, Dioon, Dasylirion, and Hechtia. He also led them up a remote arroyo to an isolated population of Nolina matapensis, which was not known to occur in the Sierra de Alamos. Don Rafael had not told all the previous botanists of this plant because none had asked, and to him it was not a particularly remarkable species.

2. Tom Van Devender has been documenting the flora of the Municipio of Yécora for more than 20 years. One day while he and Ana Lilia Reina were having a meal at a little restaurant on the Río Maycoba, the owner offered them laurel tea. He remarked that it was unusual for a remote village to import this plant from the south. The owner replied that, in fact, she collected the leaves from the hill behind the restaurant. The next day she led them to a ridge where there was a small grove of Litsea glaucescens (Lauraceae) and Tom documented a new (to botanists at least) species for Sonora.