Between the decades 1930’s to 2000, I estimate that more than half the botanical “identifications” of wild vanilla as Vanilla fragrans or accepted name today, Vanilla planifolia, are incorrect. How can vanilla vines be identified precisely if there is no complete flower? When crushed, flattened, and dried not as much detail remains. For these reasons we do photography of the flowers. Snag is that a vine flowers only about two weeks and each flower is open only about 3 hours. People we know in Peten tell us they know the vanilla orchid vines but have never seen them flower in 50 years of being in Peten. Our guide said he has been trying to find them flowering the last four years. In May 2022 our FLAAR field work research team found Vanilla insignis orchids flowering on three vines (two in PNYNN and one about 50 kilometers to the west). We thank Guatemalan orchid specialist Fredy Archila for identifying the flowers that we sent by WhatsApp the day we found them.
The FLAAR team has many years experience finding wild vanilla orchid vines in Alta Verapaz, Izabal, and Peten. But to find one flowering out in a remote area is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. In 2023 we will return and find-and-photograph more now that we know where and when they flower (keeping in mind that the rainfall and temperatures vary every year).
If you are a botanist, ethnobotanist, be sure to have a permit from CONAP to do field work in any national park, plus permit from the co-administration of the park. FLAAR has a 5-year permit (2021-2025) of cooperation and coordination for flora, fauna, and ecosystem fieldwork for the entire 21,000 square kilometers (over 5-million acres) of the whole Reserva de la Biosfera Maya. FLAAR specializes in macro photography of insects and details of flowers plus video, panorama and aerial drone photography of ecosystems. Since we have been doing field work for many decades we know the local guides and local people in the villages.
Posted May 20, 2022
