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.
While assisting the Municipio de Livingston, Izabal, we noted cordoncillo around the entrance houses at Biotopo Chocon Machacas (north side of El Golfete, Rio Dulce, Livingston, Izabal, Guatemala).
There are hundreds of species of Piper in Guatemala and nearby countries of Central America. Many different species are called cordoncillo. So on our field trips we include Q'eqchi' Mayan plant scouts (people who know which plant is which).
Santa Maria is another Piper that is edible.
We have found many different Piper species in the Municipio of Livingston, Izabal, but so far, not even in the kitchen gardens, we have not yet identified any Piper amalgo or Piper auritum. The large-leaf Piper that is locally named Santa Maria is easier to find and easier to recognize: this is present in Izabal.
We will continue searching for the cordoncillo, the Piper used to flavor cacao a thousand years ago. But in the meantime, here is a snapshot of one of the many species of Piper visible along the roads and trails near the town of Livingston.
Found more palm species in Lagunita Creek nature reserve than expected. CONAP together with FUNDAECO do a great job maintaining the nice hiking trails and providing guide service.
The team of the Municipio of Livingston kindly provided a boat and guide to take us to this nature research near the mouth of the Rio Sarstun (so south of the Peten-Belize border, with Amatique Bay to the east).
When you are hiking the trails at Lagunita Creek nature reserve you will find many of the plants of the Mayan world. I found more different species of palms here than in other areas that I have visited. Photo by Nicholas Hellmuth, FLAAR Mesoamerica, iPhone Xs, Mar. 12, 2020.
If you are a botanist, a student of biology, or otherwise like to hike through a Neotropical rain forest, we highly recommend that you visit Lagunita Creek nature reserve.
You can find a boat in the village of Livingston. There is no way to drive or hike to the entrance of this nature reserve; boat is the only access.
On our next visit I would like to spend an entire day at Lagunita Creek, and reserve a second separate entire day for Área Protegida Parque Ecoturístico Tapon Creek that is a few minutes away (the ecosystems here are different even though not far away).
But if your schedule is tight, visit both Lagunita Creek and Tapon Creek on the same day (as we did our first visit, since in advance I had no idea of the biodiversity we would find in both areas).
We thank Ing. Daniel Esaú Pinto Peña, Alcalde of Livingston (Izabal, Guatemala) for the cooperation provided by him and the team of the Municipio de Livingston. We thank Edwin Mármol Quiñonez, Coordinación de Cooperación de Livingston (Izabal, Guatemala), for introducing our team and our project potential to the Alcalde.
We appreciate the cooperation of Juana Lourdes Wallace Ramírez, Asistente Administrativo, Coordinación de Cooperación de Livingston, for organizing the day-by-day transportation and logistics for our team. Lourdes also accompanies us each day of each field trip.
In theory there may be up to 35 palm species in the Caribbean area of the Municipio de Livingston, Izabal, Guatemala. Our field trips will seek to find and accomplish high resolution photography of as many palm species as possible. So far we have found the easy ones: escoba palm (fronds used to make brooms), tasiste that like lots of water nearby (here called pimientillo), bayal (palm that's a spiny vine), and thousands of corozo palm. Lots of kala which looks identical to a small guano palm; but kala is neither a palm nor even related.
