Aroid Land A Colombian Rainforest Documentary 4 K

Where do the most popular house plants come from? And what does it take to find them? The most sought out house plants are aids. And many aeroids can be found in one particular country, home to some of the world's most ancient and unexplored rainforests. We are traveling to this airid land, the most biodiverse country per square mile. Colombia. The rainforest is dangerous place, but it might be the least of our concerns. I'm sure you've heard of the stories that come out of Colombia. Civil unrest, drug trafficking, kidnappings. Is it really as bad as they say? We're about to find out. All right. Okay. There's four lanes, but there's one, two, three, four, five, six lanes of trip. I'm just praying that everyone avoids me so don't have to avoid them. Bogotaa, the capital of Colombia, is over 8,000 ft above sea level. But on our first full day, we need to go even higher into the cloud forests. That's where the really exotic plants are. People kept saying, "Jake, don't go." But I'm here anyway with just one other person, my friend Corina. had to come here before it was too late. Every year, 100,000 hectares of Colombian rainforest are lost from deforestation. And the recent interest in rare house plant collecting has led to largecale poaching, endangering countless species. want to see them as they should be while they're still here. Now that I'm in Colombia, what would discover? Hiking to the top of the mountain, the forest was dark. dense and unforgiving. Then after while, the canopy opened. Heat. Heat. as we went further down the road deeper into the mountains. The road was deteriorating. just love Colombian roads. Day one in foreign country and our rental slides and sinks into muddy ditch. Shockingly, after not seeing anyone on this road all day, all of these locals began appearing within minutes of each other. One of them had truck and some rope to pull us out of the ditch, nearly getting stuck themselves. One of the locals named Juan said he lived just couple minutes down the road and invited us for coffee. He introduced us to his wife Lena and some other family members. Going go. big gun. Big gun. my goodness. Hi everyone. Wow. Can you believe that? Turns out their property, La Tartaria, was an Airbnb along with horse riding and forest trails. The plants think here think. wait, wait me, bro. have knife filend. Right in their backyard, was seeing so many aeroids. Feladendrrons climbing up their own pendant roots. Zanthos growing as riopes along peaceful little stream. vining anthetheriums with bumpy leaf textures to shed excess water off their surface to avoid fungal infections. Up here in the cloud forests, it's always cold, wet, and sunless. But aids can grow in the most seemingly inhospitable environments and thrive. large anthetherium was seen just hanging off muddy slope. Aerial roots clinging to the vertical terrain. One of the most common house plants, monstera delissiosa, grew abundantly. Known for being climber, these plants were growing as bushes on the ground. And perhaps the most popular flower in the entire world, anththerium Andreanum grew here as well. Native to southwestern Colombia and Ecuador, cultivars have been naturalized all throughout Central and South America. Along the trail, Juan picked up massive airplane that had fallen off tree. Nothing went as planned on our first day, but honestly, I'm glad we got stuck in that ditch because we made some new friends. The next day we were in Otanche, several hours west of Bogota. We were now lower in elevation, but the temperature was still pretty comfortable and the unpaved roads held up just enough, which was good because knew there was lot to see in this area. And the best part, it was all growing right on the side of the road. Here we go. We are searching for anthetheriums with velvet leaves. The velvety texture allows them to more effectively capture light in the deep shade where they grow. Water is everywhere here and allows the plants to grow on any surface. There were so many aeroids had never seen. Then there were some that recognized instantly. Anthetherium magnificum. Among the more famous anthetheriums you see on Instagram. Since so many aroys can grow in complete shade, they become the stalwarts of low light tolerant house plants. Those leaves right there. if could just climb up there, would. They are probably almost the size of my torso. Look at how much bigger they get when they're in the deep shade of that canopy. Unlike crystallinum which has round pedals, magnificum has winged pedals. saw this beautiful red leaf. have to show you guys real quick. Look at the beautiful red emergent leaves and little hints of orange. And that is the anthocyanins which is the pigment inside the leaf. And it is thought to deter herbivorous insects and animals from chewing on the new leaves because red, brown, maroon colors look dead to them. One thing about this forest, the deeper you go and the darker it gets, the bigger the leaves get. The aeroid family is big family with thousands of species. Every year, aids continue being discovered and named. We could be walking past plants that don't even have scientific name yet. We think we've seen everything there is to see, discovered everything that can be discovered. But there's so much life on this planet that we have yet to understand. The most familiar aids like anthetheriums, filidendrrons and monsteras are just the tip of the iceberg. These are giant rotospathas. Moss grows right on their massive leaves. Nearby, flowers across many plant families display bright colors to attract their pollinators. Out here, it's survival of the fittest. And sometimes you have to survive in the least ideal conditions. So this is anthetherum foretti growing among all this sleinella. It just looks like beautiful living wall. There's water dripping constantly. They're not growing on the ground. They're always growing on slope. So they're always getting moving water. that are always getting very, very good drainage and they're always growing in the shade just like how you see it on Instagram, but this is where they all originate. They've all been on these embankments that are cut for the road because we are on the side of mountain right now. They're actually winding their way through the sides of mountains. Look at how big the leaves get way up there. And just want to fly up there with my little fairy wings. That's about as close as we can get. The darker it gets, the bigger the leaves get. And the darker the leaves get, they have more chlorophyll in them. So when you have plant growing in super bright light, it might actually become lighter shade of green. But if it's growing in darker spot, it might have darker shade of green on the leaf. Way off over there, there's waterfall. There are waterfalls all over these roads. These roads. I'm curious if they are maintained or how often they're maintained. They would very easily fall into disrepair. And look at that. And then that night and day. You can't drive on that, but you can drive on that. Look at this right here, guys. We're going right over waterfall. little close to that rock, Jake. Which one? There's too many. Heat up here. We are seeing just so much and we are passing so much and unfortunately we are just pressed for time. These roads take 5 6 7 hours to drive through. No stopping. They are unpaved roads. At any point mudslike can happen and then okay the entire road's closed. This is the only access from this town to that town. Five hours of driving, it's like, okay. Well, got to turn around." There's just so much rainfall here, guys. There's just so much water. Definitely not the safest. We just don't have enough hours in the day to get footage of everything that we're seeing. We still have six or seven hours of driving. Look at this, guys. mean, you could stop anywhere on the side of the road and be there all day and you can find so many different plants. You have lot of dogs. Like, there's dog right here. It's hard to tell which ones are owned and which ones are strays or if they're all owned cuz they kind of just wander around and they'll be just sleeping in the middle of the road and they they will not get up because they they own the road and we just have to find way around them. And dogs aren't the only ones we got to watch out for. Look at that. It's it's kid. It's an 11-year-old hurting the cattle. Hello, buddy. This is all part of the Colombian experience, guys. Okay, great. That was fun. Ain't going to find that on the tour. We were just in the rainforest of rainforest and within minutes that has all changed. We're now in cow pasture right here and it just goes on for miles and miles and miles and there are whole areas that used to be rainforest that has now lost to the cow pasture. media and stuff try to put the blame of cutting down trees on big company building factory or like billionaire comes in to cut down all the the wood for lumber to sell. We want villain. Every story needs villain. And with this one, there really is no there's just lot of decisions being made. Locals here are literally just trying to feed their families. They're not trying to destroy anything. And at the end of the day, this is their land. lot of this land has been passed down through generations. And who are we from another part of the world to say what they should be doing with their land, especially in places like Colombia where there's high rates of endemism. You have plants and animals, flora and fauna where it only occurs in specific spot. You can't just be like, we'll just have couple little natural reserves or what have you." And that's good. And then we'll just cut down the rest. We'll save few pockets here and there, but it's all green. It's all for It's all the same, right? All the plants grow everywhere, right? We saw so many aeroids now that we're not going to see for the rest of the trip. Like that's it. We're not going to see them anymore because they only grow in specific area of the world. And when one plant species that may seem not that important, if that one species go extinct that maybe has symbiotic relationship with certain insect or an animal that feeds on it, one species going extinct can take dozen other species with it. Everything is linked together and it's almost like taking blocks out of Jenga tower. Not only do you have all of this former rainforest that's been cleared out once all the pastures been used, it just stays grassland forever or for decades and decades and decades and it would take hundreds if not thousands of years for the rainforest to regrow. And who knows, there could have been plants that grew in this very area. There could have been animals that were only found in this area that were driven out. So many species are being discovered every year, which means so many species are going extinct every year. Look at all this unused cow pasture. The sun was setting fast and we still had hours to go before we reached the next town. could tell we were passing so many amazing things. As the light dimmed, all of it was fading away. These anthetheriums appeared silver, but it was hard to get good look at them without any sunlight. And unfortunately, there was no time to stick around. Clearly, we have missed the sun for the day. So, we are approaching this waterfall right here. Look at this, guys. The water goes right over the road. passing local tried to get our attention. Turns out he was warning us not to turn right onto the bad road ahead. The road we needed to drive on to get to our next hotel. It serpentineed along the side of mountain range. It was the worst road we had been on. It was narrow, uneven, and made of mud. Rocks scraped along the bottom of the car. Patches of road were nearly impassable. The tires were constantly skidding. It went on and on. Then when saw what was ahead, my heart dropped. After driving on this terrifying road for 2 hours, there was yellow tape blocking our path and nothing but black void of darkness ahead. The road had fallen off the mountain. So, we have been driving for seven hours today and we've spent the last think 2 hours on the last road that was supposed to get us to our hotel, get us to the main road where our hotel is. And it it was this terrifying, dark, bumpy, narrow road full of potholes and and things. and rocks flying up, hitting the car and and bouncing around and us getting nauseous and and now we're at point where there is no road. the road is dropped off the mountain and there's some yellow tape and the road just ends and it's just black. can't see anything and yeah, I'm I'm really upset and I'm trying not to freak out, but It is past midnight. We have not seen single person on this road for the last two hours since we turned on it. don't think we're going to get off this road tonight. don't think can drive back down there right now. So, we might have to just sleep in the car. yeah, it's been rough 48 hours. Suddenly, not even minute after turning off my camera, somebody on motorcycle appeared and approached our vehicle. Put backi Young. Hey, kill. Hey. Hola. Hola. Before could even comprehend what had happened, we were in stranger's house in remote mountain range. He and his family had served us food and offered us one of their bedrooms for the night. The next morning, Freddy, the man who found us last night, asked me to follow him. babies. Hi. he showed me his entire property along the mountain side. Muchas plantaso is bonita. Auate cafe. Cafe. Mhm. Caka lemon. Lemons lumbo plant. Mhm. Rio Riosa. He then served us breakfast and offered to escort us not just off the mountain but all the way to our next town. Since the road was closed, we would have to go the long way, which was 4 hours. But he insisted party. So his son also wanted to come along for the road trip. Surprisingly, the car didn't see any like densing or anything. It's just all muddy, like all dirty. think this is like Kia. Whatever it is, 10 out of 10. rented compact SUV. almost rented Volkswagen. And then the last minute, was like, maybe we should go for slightly bigger car. on the parts that are paved. could drive on this for miles, but because it's so rocky and we're so afraid of the car getting damaged or flat tire and especially at night, the loud noise and the bumping around, you start getting car sick and nauseous and and then after what 2 hours on this road, the road just ended. I'm glad there was tape there because there were lot of times that the road would dip down and because of the the lights of the car, couldn't immediately see where the road went. mean, had there not been tape there and if that mudslide or whatever, had that just happened, may have just driven right over that. And then you have big puddles you want to try to avoid. Also, there's big ditches because it rains all the time. It's filled with mud. If our tire goes into one of those and gets stuck, that's it. And have feeling most people that come on this road, they're motorcycles. It's not going to be truck that just happens to have cable to pull us out, you know. So, the first day in Columbia was bad. was like, "Okay, that was the worst of it." The second day was worse. But both days had such wonderful endings. It's because we met some incredible locals two days in row. We didn't wait for more than few minutes. Both times we got stuck. Like as soon as we got stuck, within minutes, somebody showed up. It was almost like God had sent somebody to help us without them even realizing it. I'm very grateful. The last two days were really bad. They were traumatizing, but they could have been lot worse. These are really dangerous places that we are trying to go. mean, we're trying to find organisms that are endemic to high mountain ranges that are only accessible because of one road, and this is the only road. And you can't climb up this embankment. You can't climb up this mountain. It's too steep. It's too dangerous. There's there's the threat of mudslides. kept thinking last night, my god, what if the road just fell underneath us when we were right on the edge of the mountain looking over and there's another rock. just want the car to not like break. Also, don't We have spare tire, but don't know how to change it, guys. don't know how to do things on my own, which is why came here. Freddy pulled over and brought us down path that led to river. Careful, it's slippery. Wow. Is that better? Woo! Down here, anthetheriums were growing in sand. even spotted small colony of anthetherium crystallinum, plant named for its sparkly crystalline leaf veins. The river was rough and you could see just how high the water gets during heavy rain. But in this moment, I'd never felt calmer. Hello. Hello. Freddy's son wanted to join us in the car where we taught him English and he taught us Spanish. Monte Monte Monte. We are higher than the mountains on the other side. We are so high up. We are on top of mountain right now. And the locals here are just living up here with the most beautiful view. The closest thing to God or mother nature you could ever get right there. Finally, we had made it to Norcasia. But Freddy had one more vista he wanted to show us before leaving. Someone plunk. Hell yeah. cried when it was time to say goodbye. still cry to this day. It's true. Angels do walk this earth. don't think can get up right now. So, we are just waiting for the road to open up. There's little bit of construction, but while we're on the side of the road waiting, let's see what we got here. We got giant anthetherum leaf. look at look at this this flower or infllorescent. Look at this. my god. It's giant spider on the road. Look at it. Look at it. my god. And he's pink. You see it? see it. How can you not see it? Hey, buddy. How you doing? How How are you? How Hey. Hi. How you? He's pink. Get out of the road, sir. I'm trying to save you. I'm trying to save you. Look at him. Also, go quick. See the pink ferns right there? my god. my god. Look, he's moving. He's moving by himself. He's moving without me poking him. So, this is the third or fourth time we are being stopped because when you're on the side of the road like this on an unpaved road, you know, you're going to have mudslides, you're going to have rocks falling and things. So, you know, and all that rain, everything. So, they're clearing it out as we speak. But we got this beautiful view. mean, with this view and guys, check it out. We're chilling with anthetherum crystallin right up there. See him up there? Right there. These large, colorful trucks provided transportation between towns. But since we're driving ourselves and things haven't gone according to plan, knew had to play it extra safe for the rest of the trip. As bad as the roads were at times, one pleasant thing we noticed was the strong spirituality throughout this country. Then again, how can you be this close to paradise and not have some reverence for the unknown? That being said, these roads. This looks ominous. my god. my god. Look at these roads. Look at these roads. it's so nice. After hours and hours and hours on unpaved roads, when the road became paved, we just both at the same time went. So smooth. It's so smooth. Jake. Yeah. Jake, how is there more up? don't know, but we keep ascending. There's more mountain. We've just been going up for 6 hours. There's so up. There's so much up. We're in the clouds and there's up. We're higher than those mountains. We're looking down to see those mountains. We're also loopy because after being on painfully bumpy road for like 3 4 hours straight, now we're on this smooth road and it's getting cooler with the haze and everything. It's little bit cooler up here. So now we're just like Excuse me. Let's put it on auto drive. No. Does this car have auto drive? No. Probably broke it. Guys, we lost so many parts to the car. So many pieces of car have cut. They're come undone. We've had locals on the side of the road flag us down and wire our car back together from the bottom up. Everyone's been nothing people that live in the mountains. think we were just closer to to mother nature or closer to Jesus or something. don't know. There's just something there. People are just more pleasant up here. Look at that. What do you want? I'll give him love tap and whatever rolls off, I'll grab it. That is so sweet. Literally, cuz it's full of fruit. yeah. just like to say something, Corina. Okay. On camera, we're still going up. We've been going for like think we're going to meet the Virgin Mary today. Like the real like the original Virgin Mary. my gosh. How are we still going? How? How? How? How? don't know. It's country of mountains. Turns out was right about meeting Mary. As we eventually reached the top of this mountain, something unexpected was waiting for us. castle. Actually, Gothic church called Knights of the Virgin. Cababajer Stella Virhin mass was just starting and after all that we had been through, we decided to sit in and watch. From the priests to the altar boys, every movement was perfectly choreographed. I've only been here few days, but so far everything I've heard about this country was wrong. Next stop was Hareden, town literally named Garden. It was colorful and lively, especially at night. The locals showed just as much charisma as the town itself. The next morning, we fueled up and drove to the top of the nearby mountain. That is crazy. where there was trail through cool rainforest that led to waterfall and was not prepared for it. Jake, are you okay? Jake, are you okay? Is the camera okay? The camera's okay. Here, let me help you. Help me help you. Okay, at least the mud broke my fall. How does the back of you look? my god, we got giant zanthosoma. But right there, massive velvet leaf anthetheriums. Isn't that just spectacular? my goodness, guys. Look at this. Look at this anthsoma. It goes down. Look, my foot's on it. And it goes all the way up there. Look it. Look it. And it goes all the way up there. And look at this big velvet leaf. my god. Look how monstrous that is. Can come down little bit? Maybe not. don't know. Guys, it is darker than dark in here. my god. Look at that. And look at this zanthosoma, guys. It comes all the way down here and it's reaching out towards the light. Look at this. could probably sit on this thing. Look at that. Amazing. guys. Anthetherum. Anthetherum. Anthetherum. Monster. Monster. Monster. Anthetherum. big velvet leaves way up there. Look at this. And look how the roots are growing. The roots are exposed to light, guys. and it the water makes the air so cool, guys. It makes the air so cool and refreshing. got to got to wash off my hands little bit. just sir, can you just get get out of there? that is just beautiful. hear big water. Big water. my god. Heat. Heat. All right, we are on our way to very special coordinate that found on Google Maps. anthetherium warum. found it growing on the side of the road, but the image was taken back in 2012 or 2013, so it's been over 10 years. I'm little nervous. I'm just hoping that the war keys are still there because if they're not, then we might not be able to find them because they are they're quite rare. We are about 48 minutes out from the first coordinate. So, fingers crossed that we find the queen. It's baby. Moo. More moose. Moose. You better move out of the way. We were now heading west deep into the remote department of Choco. The elevation was decreasing and the temperature was rising. Check out this corrugated filidendrrons. You see those leaves? See how they're like pleated like that? Actually, want to take look at that. Check out this buff leaf right here, guys. Look at that. Check out the velvety realness, people. You can just see from distance it's velvety. The further west we went, the more aeroids we saw. Plants had never seen before were growing all over the place. Although this colony of anthetheriums look familiar. was right. They were silver. 36 in. The plant size was increasing drastically. You definitely couldn't put this on your window sill. These giant zanths are among the few edible aeroids grown for their starchy and nutritious corns. See how I'm shaking this tree? Look at the water coming out. It collects rain water in the grooves of the pedial of the stem right here. It goes down into the stem and waters the plant. This is giant zanthosoma. And if shake it, do you see all the water in there? All that rain water is being collected going down into the stem because these leaves can block rain water from getting to the roots. So, it collects the rain water through here. It drips all the way down down into the base of the plant and into the root system. And now my hands are clean. We spotted helakonia flowers longer than any had ever seen. Look at this guys. Look at the veins on that anthetherium leaf. Look how big it is. It's just one leaf. Look at that. look at that. It's actually out of the ground. Look at that. But it's still growing. Isn't that crazy? See more corrugated leaves. Right there. Right there. I'm seeing lot of areroids, lot of enthetheriums. lot of really beautiful stuff. Guys, we are in hot spot right now. We're in hot spot. can feel it. I'm seeing epithetic anthetheriums way up there. We are so close to the war keyum coordinates that have. We're going to keep going, but we're in really nice spot for airways. Let's keep going. I'm not seeing more key on him here, guys, but the coordinate is just little up the road. So, let's keep looking. As we continued, was getting more and more anxious. The road work was becoming destructive to the plant life, clearing the slopes for potential landslides. We're seeing lot of disturbed rainforest that otherwise would be growing on the embankments on the side of the road because of safety reasons because this is main road to the capital of Choco. We are just 5 minutes out from Waranum. Will she still be there? We're about to find out. I'm so anxious right now. hope she's there. We're so close. Just few years prior, the queen anthetherum was poached from its habitat in large numbers. Looks like they're building bridge to go over this stream here. And sold by South American nurseries to amateur plant enthusiasts. The truth is, most of us don't know how to grow these plants successfully, which means most of the poached ones are long dead. Supposedly, it's right over here, but all of this looks cleared out. shoot. It should be here. It's all gone. Look, they redid the road for the waterfall and it's all cleared out. Warp is not here anymore. It's all gone. It's not here anymore. So, let's keep going. was surrounded by so many incredible things and none of it mattered anymore. In that moment, was blinded, searching for one plant. was no longer able to see the wonder and beauty of this place. know you were here somewhere. know you were here. come on. Just give me one. Just one. found it. found it. found it. found it. saw this path here, this trail, and thought, "What the hell? Let me just run down it real quick. See if there's anything." And found it. I'm out of breath, but let's go. And we just have to be really careful because this is very narrow trail. Check out the waterfall here, guys. And uncle, if you feel like you're tripping, losing your balance before you fall over, just let me know and will catch the camera. All right, we're going to go over this waterfall here. I'm crawling up this little bit, so steep. Everybody stop. Everybody catch your breath. We've made it. We've made it. Sir, I'm going to need you to step over there. Okay. Thank you very much. And the working on them. my god. Can you see that number? 15T candles. 15T candles, guys. There's no light in here. This one is growing right on the muddy slope right here. am so happy that we found this. This is the queen anthetherum. Anthetherum warum. And ain't telling nobody where this is because want this to stay here for long, long time. don't want it to ever be collected. The ones that were on the side of the road either were collected long time ago or they were just cleared out to make way for the road. So, who knows what happened to them, but it's really nice to see that these are growing here. We found it, guys. We found it. We only saw two. The rest of them were all gone, but we found two high up in the mountains. We found it. Now we got to do laundry. We got no more clothes. As we got closer to the capital of Choco, the pride of this department began to show. The very name Choco refers to the dark skin of the locals who are predominantly of African descent. Spanish colonizers brought enslaved Africans to work in the gold mines. Following the abolition of slavery in 1851, the freed slaves established communities in the region. Kibauo, like all of Choco, is poor, but the people were beautiful, and they sure knew how to treat couple gringoes. But It wasn't the locals had been warned about before coming here. It was the gorillas. The ELN, terrorist organization that funds its operations through drug trafficking and kidnappings. Because Choco is remote region far and away from any major city or government presence, we had to be careful. Our objective was to find filidendran patricia, popular exotic aeroid on the market, though quite rare in the wild. Filaden Patricia was named after its discoverer's wife for being the most beautiful plant he had ever seen. To see one in nature is something truly special. So, I've been told it's been seen growing around here. Strange markings on the leaves looked like splattered blood. Filidendrin subhostatum grows in many forms. Giant leaves painted in red climb to the side of thorny tree. The red anthocyanin pigment is the same as what we saw in the red leaf denththeriums few days prior. Aside from discouraging herbivorous pests, these red and purple pigments can help plants cope with other types of stress by absorbing light more efficiently, acting as antioxidants, and providing UV ray protection. Caladiums use these pigments as well. standard among house plant design, defambakia grows along the shady forest floor. Also known as the dumb canane since eating this poisonous aeroid will cause your throat to numb. Everything out here is blooming and being pollinated right in front of us. Berries emerge red to attract birds to disperse them. Some enththeriums out here are so old they have developed trunklike stems growing like small trees under the canopy. Monsteras grow more abundantly here than any other place we've seen. The strange holes and splits in the leaves are still the subject of debate. We're seeing lot of filidendrrons with long leaves, but none are patricier. would only do this if it was something really amazing. And it is. should have gotten freaking machete. Yeah, the vines are tangling on me. Look at that. Look at how big. It's just impossible to fully grasp how monumental those leaves are. Beautifully undulating leaf, those monster leaves up there. continued searching to see if could find specimen closer to the ground to get better look. And did. my god, look all the flowers up there. Look at how beautiful this is. While not Patricia, it was hands down the most stunning filiden had seen so far. We continued down the road deeper into the jungle until we spotted another contender. Was it Patricia? It was massive, but too high up to be sure. Corina took photos with her camera, which had the good lens, and it just didn't look quite the same. That right there could be brand new species. was getting angsty at this point. We were having no luck spotting Patricia. So, we continued further down the road. Eln my worst fear. We were stopped by men with guns. Where they come from? never want to do that again. Did they pat you down? They didn't? Yeah. just had to open the trunk for them. They have presence here. actually the entire department of Choko was under lockdown for three days because of some conflict happening like way up north. They basically banned for three days like nobody could travel on the roads. So was little bit nervous when saw that news break like literally maybe 3 weeks before we were coming here and was like are we going to like get locked down again or anything? As we drove on, it seemed we had made some good distance with the ELM. And that's when saw it. We were going 30 mph easily, but recognized it immediately. Filidendrin Patricier. Famous for its long dark undulating leaves. It stood out among all the other foliage. We have filidendran patricia. Very rare in the wild. Highly endemic to very small region of Colombia. And we found one. Not even the ELN could deter us. The next day we kept exploring Choco. We are on this really beautiful river here. It's really, really hot because we're in the lowlands. So, it's low 90s Fahrenheit and it's about 80% humidity out here. So, we're going to work our way down this river and see what we can find. All right, let's go. was told along this river we could find the dark form, Queen Anthetherium, the form most desired by collectors for its much darker foliage. Unlike the other queen we found up in the mountains, these darker varieties grow in lower elevation rainforests where it's much hotter. Check out our first velvety anthetherum species, guys. You see all the the holes? Those are herbivorous insects. That is what these plants are here in the wild for, to serve the entire ecosystem. Look at the symbiosis going on. We got lychans, algae, and moss growing on the leaves. The leaf can actually absorb energy and nutrients from the living material on top of the plant. It can absorb that for nutrients. The leaf don't mind, guys. The leaf don't mind. Now that's an insane monstera. Everywhere you look here, you can find something amazing. it's very very hot and steamy and muggy out here. But the water actually surprisingly is keeping me quite cool. We walked further down the river. With every step, more biodiversity revealed itself and drew us further in. Here's an anthetherum right here. And look, it somebody came along and chopped it right there. Now, you might look at that and think, no. People are taking plants." This is the best way to collect plants from the wild because they will continue to grow like it ain't no thing. And I've actually seen quite few big anthetheriums that were chopped at some point and they got big growth point coming off the sides. mean, as long as you don't rip the entire plant out of the ground, you take little bit of the plant, you leave the rest. This is the most sustainable way to harvest. There is nothing wrong with this because you're not taking away the plants from the rainforest. This plant is still here. It's still here and still kicking it. What the heck is this? Is this anthetherum splendidum, guys? do think this is anthetherium splendidum. These are the ones that are really difficult to care for. Look at that. We've also got filidendrin subhostatum out here. They have the most spectacular red unders sides to the leaves. All right, guys. Let's keep going. The queen anthetherium only grows in darkness. It will be hiding. So we have to look in places where other plants would not grow. There it is. Look at that. big anthetherum war keyum the dark form the one that everyone wants in their collection. That is just amazing guys. So beautiful. Look at that. Look at the roots just wrapping around this tree. Look at that. When you're growing in basically 100% humidity, you can afford to have your roots grow totally exposed like that. Woo! Woohoo! am literally waist high in running water, but it feels so good. Just amazing. god, will let myself die before let the camera go into the water. I'm just telling you. We got to make our way back to the car. We have to go all the way down here. All right, let's go. And that's wrap. Leaving Choco, we continued south back up the mountains. see pink. my god, it's so pink. Welcome to Philandia, the quintessential Colombian town, guys. I'm in heaven right now. Plant shop right off the bat. Check it out. Is this know never grew this one. Is this the the arabesence? Your girl that made pink princess and all the other arabesence cultivars and such. I'm in the most beautiful town ever and go right to the plants. By the way, guys, yes, did buy plant. Look at the church. Every town we're in, not only are they so cute, they always have cathedral as the center point. We just went to this place. We had the best hamburger and they had the best French fries seasoned to perfection. It's all very romantic and beautiful. Look at Look at the detail. Look at the paint. It looks like they just painted it. And look at all the flowers. Guys, this is the best place that we have stayed thus far. And we have not even checked into our hotel yet. What's up, boys? We're going to window shop today and then buy tomorrow if we see something. Well, already bought this. This place is just so dreamy, guys. Honestly, five out of five stars. And we've only been here couple hours. Well, now we're off to the hotel. So, let's let's see what the hotel is like. The Villa Jar Hotel. Like, guys, this is just amazing. It looks like the freaking house from Encanto. And then we have the most beautiful view. don't know if the camera will pick it up, but little sparkling city lights. Wow, that's beautiful. This place is so dreamy. All right, guys. guess that's it. And will see you in the mñana transition. Wow, look at those hills right there. hey. Let me see. are you trapped? hi baby. no. He's not trapped. He was for second there, but he's outside now. Sounds like he's looking for someone. Well, you know, March 14th. you didn't know. We mainly communicate through Spongebob quotes. This hotel with this view, gh everything was just perfect. And it was much cooler here since we were higher in elevation. Yeah, there's four of them. Look at that, guys. Right next door, we got some cow pasture. And we got 1 2 3 four. At least four cows, see. And then two more over here. and look it, guys. We have six one coming over there. See them over there? We got at least six cows. Making that methane destroying the environment, but they're cute. look at that. Look at those mountains with the clouds. Just so beautiful. Yeah, the rain's clearing up now. And it's just so nice. We made our way back into town for welldeserved tourist day of shopping. found plant store. I'm going to the plant store inh. Let's see what they got. yes. Yes, approve. Time for lunch or dessert. We're American. Same difference. And now that playtime's over, let's get back to the jungle. The Otun Kimaya Sanctuary protects large region of ancient rainforest. like stepping into strange fairy tale garden. The forest was breathing. Moss grew everywhere, blanketing every branch and rock. The forest felt not only alive, it felt enchanted, something hard to fully articulate. As the canopy above thickened and the light dimmed, we began to see the shadeloving aeroids emerge. didn't have to travel too far to reach the crown jewel. of this jungle. Anthetherium metallicum growing everywhere on the ground and high in the trees. It was forest of velvet leaves. Andthetherum metallicum grows abundantly here. Look at how the pedals are up. They're not horizontal because it knows that it doesn't want its leaves to be touching the forest floor like that. And look at the stem right there. Welcome to the rainforest, guys. check out this one over here. Look at this behemoth right here. And look, there's ferns growing on the anthetherium right there. Everything's just growing on everything. Ain't nobody got space around here. This leaf is the newest leaf. Anthetherum metallicum here in the middle of the rainforest. We're getting eaten by mosquitoes. So, we're done. Let's get out of here. Our final stop was Cali where we met up with local guide, Eduardo. He was kind enough to show us his incredible plant collection. But that needs its own video. Our last day was trip to hot low elevation rainforest. We took several tunnels through the mountains, then walked rickety bridge to board the Bruhittita, carts powered by motorbikes. This was the only way to get to the small afroentric village. It was hot and humid here. Definitely not pleasant. And it was hard to keep up with Eduardo at times. Along the path, tree had fallen on the electrical wires. Hosted by the tree was an unidentifiable filidendrin. Look at that. That is beautiful. my gosh, that's amazing. knew the locals would cut the tree and destroy this amazing plant. So, climbed up the thorn covered trunk to get to it. With thorns all over my body, we found new place nearby for the plant to reestablish itself. And this place was full of strange and beautiful plants. Look at this one, guys. Look at that. Plants you've never seen on the market. That's quite nice. Look at this triangle leaf right here. Nice little like velvet leaf. Check out the bowling pins, guys. so that hanging one is cyclan. Yes. Look at that. Look how it just kind of just draping down. It's got these beautiful like betta fish fins. And so what kind of plant is that? It is probably kalatea. Nice blue flower. Look at these blue ferns, guys. lot of blue plants here, guys. lot of iridescent blue. It's defambia. Look at the pattern. It's such rich color. So, this is Columnia. Yes, it's little fuzzy leaf, guys. it's fuzzy. It's fuzzy. Check out the roto spa, guys. There are so many rotospapas out here. Look at all that dirt. Where that actually, no. It's It's Look at this. There's an antill or an ant colony. thought it was just some dirt and they're making an ant an ant colony under the leaf. under the leaf. Guys, what is going on out here? Look at that. It looks like like piperation. That's really cool. Defakia, guys. Look how cute. What do you think that is? It's fuzzy on top, little fuzzy on the bottom. Look at that. That's amazing. It's purple underneath. Hail to the no. but all of this was just bonus. The main reason wanted Eduardo to take us here was for one peculiar plant known as anthetherium debilis, which literally means debilitated for its fussy nature in captivity. wanted to see where exactly it grew in habitat to better understand it. We found it and theium debilis guys and we found nice thriving little colony here. see just beautiful just perfect leaf growing right on the stream. The stream will actually rise and occasionally soak the roots and completely submerge them. The roots will get access to more water every now and again when there's heavy rain. They require very specific environmental factors. We'll try to walk on this can just walk along here? sweet Jesus. I'm counting at least four more amidst all the other beautiful foliage. Look how they just pop. They're just so strange, so alien looking. More anthetherum debilis, guys. just keep going and there's more and there's more and there's more, guys. And debilis. How about anthetherum thriving as out here? These ain't no debilitated plants. Look how beautiful, how vigorous they're growing. We are some giant ones. my gosh. Yeah, that ain't no debilitated plant. Look at the texture. Look at the undulating pattern on the leaf. Look how it's darker in the center and gets lighter. They're almost right on the stream. And this area actually has really good quality water. So, they're probably species that has very specific requirements when it comes to the water quality. We're right underneath palm right here getting really nice canopy. The elephant plant. Look, it looks it is like like the nose of an elephant. in fluoresence. And that's why it is named that way. The fit ele like it's right in the prime stage of pollination cuz it's it smells and all the be are those bees. Stingless bees. like stingless insects. like my insects to be stingless. So just up and over guys, we have more big anthetherum dabilis. Look how that leaf just stands out. You can't miss that leaf. Hell no. see flowering one, guys. We got to make our way through the mess. Make our way through the mess. Making my way downtown. Walking past me. There it is, guys. So, there is there's two. Two. There's two of them. Really? And the leaf is new one. The things do for YouTube. The things do for YouTube. Strut. Strut. Strike pose. Okay. Okay, guys. There's freaking vines. My nature is trying to keep me, but got to go. that water feels so nice. just realized after all this time we never left Eden. It's right here. Debilis, the Latin word for weak. This ecosystem is anything but. Who are we to call nature debilitated? It's stronger and more resilient than any man who's ever walked this earth. That doesn't mean it's not hurting. But humanity is not disease. As bad as we are sometimes, we have the power to be just as good. The biggest takeaway from this trip wasn't the rainforest. It wasn't the rare plants. It was something much harder to come by. trust. Trust in the unknown, in myself, in others. And what discovered was life-changing. I've been to Colombia. And what discovered was good.