Heliconia aurantiaca, Ecoalbergue Lagunita Creek, nicely managed by CONAP and FUNDAECO, near Rio Sarstun, Municipio de Livingston, Izabal, Guatemala, Central America.
Photograph by Nicholas Hellmuth (FLAAR Photo Archive) using a Google Pixel-3XL. March 12, 2020.
In part because there is more rainfall during the year in the Izabal area of Guatemala, you have the potential to find lots of Heliconia species here.
Alta Verapaz is comparable; lots of rain in the rainy season and still humidity even in the “non-rainy” season. Led by Q’eqchi’ Mayan plant scout Senaida Ba (FLAAR Mesoamerica) we have found and documented more species of Heliconia in Izabal and Alta Verapaz and Peten than are in any monograph on Heliconia published in the recent years.
Very easy, 90% of books on Heliconia are on the garden varieties. We study only the wild native Heliconia. Another reason it is easy to harvest information on Heliconia is because we focus on Guatemala. Most monographs focus on botanical gardens or Costa Rica or South America. I have been exploring Guatemala and adjacent Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatan, Quintana Roo, and Belize since age 16 (starting as a backpacker, by myself).
Courtesy of the Alcalde, Daniel Esaú Pinto Peña, and coordinator team of the Municipio de Livingston, Edwin Mármol Quiñonez, Coordinación de Cooperación de Livingston and Juana Lourdes Wallace Ramírez, Asistente Administrativo, Coordinación de Cooperación de Livingston, we have received access to visit all the nature reserves. We found several species between Livingston and Plan Grande Tatin (en route to Cueva del Tigre). And awesome Heliconia aurantiaca in the Ecoalbergue Lagunita Creek nature reserve (Área de Usos Múltiples Río Sarstún, Municipio de Livingston, Izabal, Guatemala).
Manicaria palm at the entrance to Lagunita Creek nature reserve. this palm, as well as the other species near it, both prefer to grow near a river edge or in seasonally flooded areas.
I have noticed more different species of palms in the nature reserve of Lagunita Creek than any area of Guatemala that I have visited in the recent half century.
They are a challenge to identify as to species without seeing their inflorescence. But university student Victor Mendoza suggests these are genus Manicaria and possibly saccifera species. This is correct since there is no other palm of this leaf structure in this area of Guatemala.
The local name is spelled either comfra or confra.
Since I have never seen this palm before in decades of field trips throughout Guatemala, I took photographs when I saw it at the Ecoalbergue Lagunita Creek nature reserve (Área de Usos Múltiples Río Sarstún, Municipio de Livingston, Izabal, Guatemala).
CONAP and FUNDAECO have accomplished a lot here; the trails were neat and well organized. The local personnel were helpful and hospitable.
If you are a botanist, ecologist, student or individual keen to experience tropical flowers, vines, palms, water plants in an untouristed area, we recommend you visit the Ecoalbergue Lagunita Creek nature reserve in the northeastern corner of the Municipio de Livingston.
You will see lots of tasiste palm and Manicaria saccifera growing around the lodge. When you go up the river (away from the coast), there are more of both species. It would be an interested MS thesis or PhD dissertation on Manicaria saccifera palms to map how far away from the actual sea they can prosper (since clearly they need aspects of salt water). Is it the salt spray in the stormy winds, or high tide that floods low areas with salt water from the Caribbean Sea (via Amatique Bay).
Tasiste palm, Acoelorrhaphe wrightii,than also grows in savannas in Peten, hundreds of kilometers from even brackish water, so tasiste palm has evolved to handle sea water (along the shore of Amatique Bay) and brackish water (on many rivers that flow into Amatique Bay or into El Golfete of Rio Dulce) and seasonally inundated fresh water. But comfra palm grows only along the coast or along nearby rivers with brackish water.
Tasiste is the word used in Peten. Name in Florida is Paurotis or Everglades palm. In the Municipio de Livingston, along rivers and the coast, this is called pimientillo or similar. However, as typical of Spanish names for trees, pimientillo is used for other totally unrelated trees that are not palms. So I prefer the name tasiste.
Updated November 3, 2021. First posted April 25, 2020.
The flowers of the Nymphoides indica waterlily plant have so much fluff and puff around their petals that they are called Water Snowflakes. These are photogenic especially with a 1:1 tele-macro lens.
Other gardeners use the name Floating Heart for these flowers of Nymphoides indica. I call them “Amazing Fuzzy-Fluffy Petalled waterlily flowers.”
While working together with the team of the Municipio de Livingston, Izabal, Guatemala, with the assistance of local guides, in mid-March 2020 we found entire fields of these waterlily plants in full bloom. Sometimes the Nymphoides indica were by themselves. In other nearby areas hundreds of Nymphoides indica were intermixed with the significantly larger white flowers of Nymphaea alba. In other nearby areas the Nymphaea alba were all by themselves.
We want to return to the Municipio de Livingston and document what other water plants are associated. We hope to find the literally miniature water plants Lemna minor and/or also Wolffia brasiliensis.
Nymphoides indica Water Snowflake waterlily, El Golfete, north, area, near Lagunita Salvador, Google Pixel 3, Mar. 14, 2020, FLAAR-Mesoamerica (probably Juan Pablo).
We were doing field work on both sides of El Golfete, Biotope Chocon Machacas (CECON-USAC), nature reserve Lagunita Creek (CONAP and FUNDAECO), nature reserve Tapon Creek (CECON-USAC) and Rio Dulce Canyon during mid-March. Then the Coronavirus pandemic began with one or two cases in Guatemala so we returned to our offices in Guatemala City. As soon as things open back up, we will be back exploring the remarkable biodiversity and awesome ecosystems of the Municipio de Livingston working in coordination with the helpful and hospitable people there.
Photo by David Arrivillaga with a Nikon D5- Lens 90mm f/2.8 G. Settings: 1/250 sec, f/10, ISO 640.
Photo by David Arrivillaga with a Nikon D5- Lens 90mm f/2.8 G. Settings: 1/250 sec, f/9, ISO 640.
This arboreal bromeliad is common in Izabal, Peten, and probably adjacent Alta Verapaz and certainly in Belize. It grows on tree branches, but often is blown over in rainstorms, so sometimes you find Aechmea tillandsioides on the ground (or the branch + bromeliad land on the ground together so the bromeliad still has a perch).
Our team is working from home offices at the moment, but since it is also important to save the fragile endangered ecosystems, we continue making our material available to the almost half a million readers a year on this web site of FLAAR (USA) and FLAAR Mesoamerica (Guatemala).
If you come to the Municipio de Livingston, departamento of Izabal, Guatemala, Central America you can see, photography, study, and learn about Aechmea tillandsioides bromeliads on tree limbs along the shores of Rio Dulce Canyon, El Golfete area of Rio Dulce, and all nearby lagoons and inlets.
Although this great white heron is a water bird, it spends much of the day on a tree. Here it is keeping its eye focused on our boat as we transit the Canyon de Rio Dulce (from El Golfete to village of Livingston, Izabal, Guatemala, Central America). So trees are important to help birds (and trees are important to protect our planet)
Trees are needed by birds as a place to perch, place to find edible food, place to make nests to raise their families.
Trees are needed by vines to allow vines and lianas to get high to reach sunlight.
Tree limbs are helpful supports for orchids, bromeliads, ferns, and arboreal cactus vines (no terrestrial cacti are native in Municipio de Livingston rain forests: only cacti that climb trees).
Tree roots are often above ground since “ground” is limestone karst geology (so not much soil).
Tree bark comes in every color and structure you can imagine; tree trunks are hosts to mushrooms, lichens, ferns, vines, and lots of other plants.
Even though the Neotropical rain forests of the nature reserves of Livingston are not in New Hampshire (USA) or Canada, the leaves change colors: bright reds, copper-reds, yellows (all year long a different tree has their leaves change colors). So you can visit this part of Guatemala any month of the year and you will experience different colors.
So we at FLAAR (USA) and FLAAR Mesoamerica are devoting more field trips and library research on the native trees of Guatemala. We have just added a new web page on trees (and the complete report will be ready in April)
Although this great white heron is a water bird, it spends much of the day on a tree. Here it is keeping its eye focused on our boat as we transit the Canyon de Rio Dulce (from El Golfete to village of Livingston, Izabal, Guatemala, Central America). So trees are important to help birds (and trees are important to protect our planet)
Last week, while visiting Biotope Chocon Machacas, Lourdes Wallace discovered an area of many heliconia relatives. These relatives of heliconia are named Calathea crotalifera. These are wild, native plants (this is not a garden of a fancy hotel).
We are preparing a full report on these gorgeous flowers of Calathea crotalifera. As soon as this photo essay is available, we will link to it. In the meantime we wish to thank Ing. Daniel Esaú Pinto Peña, Alcalde of Livingston (Izabal, Guatemala) for the cooperation of his team in this nice Caribbean area of Guatemala. We thank Edwin Mármol Quiñonez, Coordinación de Cooperación de Livingston, for organizing the local support for these botanical and zoological research field trips. And is was great that Juana Lourdes Wallace Ramírez, Asistente Administrativo, Coordinación de Cooperación de Livingston, was with our team of FLAAR Mesoamerica every day. She is the one who happened to see these gorgeous flowers: they were not on the hiking trail, so without her we would not have seen them.
The full report will also have photographs by María Alejandra Gutierrez and David Arrivilaga (both are experienced photographers at FLAAR Mesoamerica).
Calathea crotalifera flowers, Biotope Chocon Machacas, Municipio de Livingston, Izabal, Guatemala, Central America.
Photograph by Nicholas Hellmuth (FLAAR Mesoamerica) with Nikon D810 camera.
