This photograph by David Arvy (FLAAR Mesoamerica) shows how thick the tasiste palm are in a tasistal. We estimate, literally, 1 million individual tasiste palms in this one area.
We estimate about 1 million tasiste palm trees are in this one single tasiste savanna (estimated 150 to 200 meters wide by 3 to 5 km long) that we first learned about and visited in October and then last week spent 3 days studying up-close. In local Spanish, any savanna with masses of tasiste palms are called a tasistal.
In distinction, I estimate less than several hundred tasiste palm trees are in the seasonally inundated Savanna East of Nakum (that we discovered from aerial photos and then hiked to twice). This grassland savanna is almost one kilometer wide by two or three kilometers long in size.
The Savanna of 3 Fern Species (that I discovered from aerial photos west of Yaxha and then hiked long distances to reach twice) has only a hundred or so clusters of tasiste palm (Acoelorrhaphe wrightii, called palmetto palm in Belize and Florida). This is the smallest of the three PNYNN area savannas.
In the Savanna adjacent to Naranjo sector of Parque Nacional Yaxha Nakum Naranjo (showed to us by Vilma Fialko and Raul Noriega and with Horacio Palacios) we found at most a dozen or so tasiste palms (it we have the opportunity to study this savanna-cibal ecosystem again perhaps we can find at most a hundred tasiste palms).
So a “savanna with tasiste” and a “tasistal savanna” are two totally different ecosystem terms: again, potentially a MILLION tasiste palms in the one tasistal. If funds become available we would like to physically measure and physically map each savanna. Our interest is to find and document plants in areas other than hilltop vegetation, other than hillside vegetation, and other than bajo tinto vegetation (since all these have been studied for decades). Two of the three savannas in PNYNN and the newly discovered tasistal savanna, have, to our knowledge, never previously been published.
It can help archaeologists, ecologists, and other scholars to learn about each distinct kind of ecosystems that were near ancient Maya sites. If agriculture was probably very different 2000 years ago than the slash-and-burn milpa agriculture that is used throughout Mesoamerica today, then potentially the seasonally inundated savannas of Peten surely were utilized by the Classic Maya. This is another reason we are working on making lists of every single plant that is very happy growing in these seasonally inundated flatlands.
Posted December 10, 2019
