Return to Wadi Natroun
Wadi Natroun comprises nine lakes in all, and on my previous visit approximately one and a half were searched for Papyrus. It has only ever been recorded, in small quantity, at Lake Umm Risha. The climate is extremely arid, with usually no more than 55m of rain a year. However, the reed swamp vegetation in which it was found, characterised by Typha elephantina, T. domingensis with Phragmites australis plentiful has its own sources of fresh and brackish water, with a direct hydrological connection to the Rosetta branch of the Nile. This has led to a fringe of swamp vegetation along the (more-or-less) northern edges of several of the lakes. Some of it has now been converted to agricultural land, but a lot persists, and it’s just possible, therefore, that Papyrus occurs elsewhere than just the Type locality but has been overlooked., perhaps because it grows is a small form here ,and can remain hidden amongst the much taller Typha and Phragmites.
So I decided to return and continue where I left off, hunting through the swamps fringing the northern margin of first Lake Umm Risha, and then Lake EL-Hammra.
Another day spent in this beautiful, swelteringly hot location, but no Cyperus papyrus ssp. hadidii on this trip ... Maybe it has gone, but there are several lakes which went unsearched by me, because of time constraints and the way my time was organised … So just maybe it’s still there to be found and I wouldn’t declare it extinct just yet.
I hope not, there are so many unanswered questions about its relationship to Papyrus elsewhere in Egypt, both cultivated and “natural”, and indeed beyond in sub-Saharan Africa. Not to mention the mystery of whether this really is the same Papyrus that the Ancients used. Important historical and scientific questions, but let’s not forget, the only people who’ve seen it living think it’s not the same taxon as sub-Saharan Papyrus, and looking at the herbarium material for the first time, I’m more convinced that it may indeed be different than I was. the story of Papyrus has a long way to go …
Perhaps the DNA samples donated by Cairo University will provide the answers, but the material is more than 45 years old, so by conventional DNA extraction and amplification techniques this is at the edge of the range for Cyperus, there is no guarantee.
Some images from Wadi Natroun ... hyper-saline lakes, local people enjoying themselves, Juncus cut and drying, Typha regenerating in the most hostile conditions ...
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