Wei-Assipu-tepui, also known as Little Roraima or Roraimita,McPherson, S., A. Wistuba, A. Fleischmann & J. Nerz (2011). ''

Sarraceniaceae of South America ''Sarraceniaceae of South America'' is a monograph on the pitcher plants of the genus ''Heliamphora'' by Stewart McPherson, Andreas Wistuba, Andreas Fleischmann, and Joachim Nerz. It was published in September 2011 by Redfern Natural History Pr ...

''. Redfern Natural History Productions, Poole. is a minor

tepui A tepui , or tepuy (), is a table-top mountain or mesa found in South America, especially in Venezuela and western Guyana. The word tepui means "house of the gods" in the native tongue of the Pemon, the indigenous people who inhabit the Gran ...

of the

Eastern Tepuis The Eastern Tepuis (Spanish: ''Tepuyes Orientales'' Brewer-Carías, C. (2012). ''Río Verde'' 8: 77–94.), also known as the Roraima–Ilú range, is a mountain chain stretching for some along the border between Guyana, Venezuela and, to a sma ...

chain. It lies just off the northeastern flank of Roraima-tepui in the country of

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, directly on the border with neighboring Guyana in the disputed

Guayana Esequiba (), sometimes also called or Essequibo, is a disputed territory of west of the Essequibo River that is administered and controlled by Guyana but claimed by Venezuela.

territory, and very close to the

tripoint A tripoint, trijunction, triple point, or tri-border area is a geographical point at which the boundaries of three countries or subnational entities meet. There are 175 international tripoints as of 2020. Nearly half are situated in rivers, l ...

of all three countries. The mountain is known for its extensive

cave system A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. The word ''cave'' can refer to smaller openings such as sea ...

s, with one extending for over a kilometre. Carreño, R., J. Nolla & J. Astort (December 2002)
Cavidades del Wei-Assipu-tepui, Macizo del Roraima, Brasil
''Boletín de la Sociedad Venezolana de Espeleología'' 36: 36–45. Wei-Assipu-tepui has a maximum elevation of around . Its summit plateau is highly

dissected Dissection (from Latin ' "to cut to pieces"; also called anatomization) is the dismembering of the body of a deceased animal or plant to study its anatomical structure. Autopsy is used in pathology and forensic medicine to determine the cause ...

and generally inclined south-southwest (towards the Brazilian side). The rocky summit is partially forested, with

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. They include all forbs (flowering plants without a woody stem), grasses and grass-like plants, a vast majority of ...

s of the genus ''

Bonnetia ''Bonnetia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Bonnetiaceae. Most of the roughly 30 species are shrubs. The remaining species, all trees, are among the dominant species in the forest vegetation on the tepui plateaus of northern South ...

'' featuring prominently. It also hosts a number of

carnivorous plant Carnivorous plants are plants that derive some or most of their nutrients from trapping and consuming animals or protozoans, typically insects and other arthropods. Carnivorous plants still generate some of their energy from photosynthesis. Ca ...

s, including ''

Heliamphora glabra ''Heliamphora glabra'' (Latin: ''glaber'' = bald) is a species of marsh pitcher plant native to Serra do Sol in Venezuela. It was for a long time considered a form of '' H. heterodoxa'', but has recently been raised to species rank. References ...

'', ''

Heliamphora nutans ''Heliamphora nutans'' (Latin: ''nutans'' = nodding) is a species of marsh pitcher plant native to the border area between Venezuela, Brazil and Guyana, where it grows on several tepuis, including Roraima, Kukenán, Yuruaní, Maringma, and ...

'', and the

natural hybrid In biology, a hybrid is the offspring resulting from combining the qualities of two organisms of different breeds, varieties, species or genera through sexual reproduction. Hybrids are not always intermediates between their parents (such as in ...

between the two. The various rock cavities of Wei-Assipu-tepui are home to nesting colonies of

white-collared swift The white-collared swift (''Streptoprocne zonaris'') is a species of bird in subfamily Cypseloidinae of the swift family Apodidae. It is found in Mexico, the Greater and Lesser Antilles, Trinidad, and every mainland South America country except ...

s (''Streptoprocne zonaris'') and

oilbird The oilbird (''Steatornis caripensis''), locally known as the , is a bird species found in the northern areas of South America including the Caribbean island of Trinidad. It is the only species in the genus ''Steatornis'', the family Steatornit ...

s (''Steatornis caripensis''). For the latter species, Wei-Assipu-tepui is the easternmost recorded locality in mainland South America, and the first known nesting site in Brazil. The mountain's summit supports a greater variety of

herpetofauna Herpetology (from Greek ἑρπετόν ''herpetón'', meaning " reptile" or "creeping animal") is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians (including frogs, toads, salamanders, newts, and caecilians (gymnophiona)) and r ...

than the less vegetated plateaus of nearby Roraima-tepui,

Kukenán-tepui Kukenán, also known as Matawi or Cuquenán, is a tepui in Bolívar State, Guayana Region, Venezuela. It has an estimated surface area of 2185 hectares (equivalent to 21.85 square kilometres). It is high and about 3 km (1.9 mi) long. ...

, Yuruaní-tepui, and Ilú-tepui. Day temperatures of have been recorded on the summit plateau, falling to overnight, with slightly lower values in the more sheltered caves. In the first expedition of its type to Wei-Assipu-tepui, an Italian–Venezuelan team of

speleologist Speleology is the scientific study of caves and other karst features, as well as their make-up, structure, physical properties, history, life forms, and the processes by which they form ( speleogenesis) and change over time (speleomorphology ...

s explored the mountain's summit plateau in July 2000, surveying four caves and several minor cavities.Urbani, F., P. Compère & L. Willems (December 2005)
Opal-A speleothems of Wei-Assipu-tepui, Roraima Province, Brazil
''Boletín de la Sociedad Venezolana de Espeleología'' 39: 21–26. On this expedition were also discovered four previously unknown species of

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-frog" '' Triadobatrachus'' is ...

s (one of which was later described as ''

Oreophrynella weiassipuensis ''Oreophrynella weiassipuensis'' is a species of toads in the family Bufonidae. It is only known from Wei-Assipu-tepui, a tepui on the border between Brazil and Guyana. The holotype was collected in 2000 by a speleological expedition to Wei-Ass ...

''), and at least two of

harvestmen The Opiliones (formerly Phalangida) are an Order (biology), order of arachnids Common name, colloquially known as harvestmen, harvesters, harvest spiders, or daddy longlegs. , over 6,650 species of harvestmen have been discovered worldwide, alth ...

. Villarreal, O., C. Señaris & C. DoNascimiento (December 2002)
Contribución al conocimiento faunístico del Wei-Assipu-tepui, Macizo del Roraima, con énafasis en la anurofauna y opiliofauna
''Boletín de la Sociedad Venezolana de Espeleología'' 36: 46–50. According to Carreño ''et al.'' (2002), the oldest biblio-

cartographic Cartography (; from grc, χάρτης , "papyrus, sheet of paper, map"; and , "write") is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an i ...

reference to the mountain is likely that of Marie Penelope Rose Clementi (wife of

Cecil Clementi Sir Cecil Clementi (; 1 September 1875 – 5 April 1947) was a British colonial administrator who served as Governor of Hong Kong from 1925 to 1930, and Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Straits Settlements from 1930 to 1934. Early lif ...

), ''circa'' 1920,"Mrs. Cecil Clementi" (1920)
''Through British Guiana to the Summit of Roraima''
E. P. Dutton and Company, New York. who recounted how its location was determined with a

prismatic compass A prismatic compass is a navigation and surveying instrument which is extensively used to find out the bearing of the traversing and included angles between them, waypoints (an endpoint of the lcourse) and direction. Compass surveying is a type ...

during an English expedition of 1915.

References

External links

Return to the Tepuis
— National Geographic Society, National Geographic film about expedition to Wei-Assipu-tepui {{Tepuis Tepuis of Brazil Tepuis of Guyana International mountains of South America Brazil–Guyana border Landforms of Roraima

See also

References

Further reading

External links