Introduction
to the
Páramo Ecosystem
Checklist
of Páramo
Plants
Lichens
Mosses
Hepatics
Vascular
plants
Gazetteer
of Páramo
Localities
Costa
Rica & Panama
Colombia
Venezuela
Ecuador
Peru
James L. Luteyn
The páramos of Peru, locally called
"jalcas," are located north of 8°S latitude in the northern portions
of the Cordillera Occidental and the Cordillera Oriental, in the departments
of Piura, Cajamarca, Amazonas, Lambayeque, San Martín, and La Libertad.
Peruvian páramos are very similar to those of southern Ecuador in
vegetation and general physiognomy. They may begin at the low elevations
of 2900-3100 m especially east of the Río Marañón,
where the cordillera is lower in general and moister air from the Amazon
Basin predominates. The páramos of Peru seem to be more grass-dominated
and less shrubby overall, with many more rock outcrops. In the region
north of the city of Cajamarca, the páramos are intensively cultivated
up to about 3500 m with corn and potatoes; between 3500 m and about
3800 m there are now many tree plantations of Pinus. In the more
eastern páramos, around the Jalcas de Calla Calla (Balsas-Leimebamba
road), for example, there is less population pressure and the páramos
may occur as low as 3000 m. In Peru, páramo (jalca) includes
a total of 420,000 hectares (I. Sánchez Vega, pers. comm.) or ca.
4200 km2.
The only Peruvian national park within
our range that includes páramo is Río Abiseo, although Huascarán
(just south of 8°S latitude in the Cordillera Blanca) may also have
páramo (cf. D. N. Smith, 1988).
For additional discussion about Peruvian
páramo vegetation, see D. N. Smith (1988), Weberbauer (1911, 1936,
1945), Young and León (1988, 1990), Young and Reynel (1997), and
Young et al. (1997).
Bibliographic Sources for Locations of Páramos
PERU
American Geographical Society of New York. 1949. Iquitos.
Map, SA-18. Provisional edition. A. Hoen and Company, Baltimore.
. 1938. Piura. Map SB-17.
1:1,000,000. Provisional edition. A. Hoen and Company, Baltimore.
Carta Nacional. 1:100,000.
Dillon, M. O. & A. Sagástegui A. 1986. Jalcophila,
a new genus of an andean Inuleae (Asteraceae). Brittonia 38: 162-167.
Herrera de Loja, B. 1980. Revisión de las especies
peruanas del género Gynoxys. Bol. Soc. Peruana Bot. 8(1, 2):
3-74.
Instituto Geográfico Nacional. Mapas fisico-político.
[Piura 1:500,000; Lambayeque 1:3,000,000; Cajamarca 1:480,000;
La Libertad 1:420,000; Amazonas 1:600,000.]
Smith, D. N. 1988. Flora and vegetation of the Huascarán
National Park, Ancash, Peru, with preliminary taxonomic studies for a manual
of the flora. Ph.D. Dissertation. Iowa State University, Ames.