In October while visiting friends in Peten we were taken to an area that they told us no botanist or ecologist (that they are aware of) has seen or knew about in the recent 40 years.
We also doubt that earlier botanists were aware of this awesome tasistal: Cyrus Lundell should have been here in 1930’s-1960’s, he knew lots of pine savannas around La Libertad. Peten. But we have not yet found a Lundell documentation of this mass of Acoelorrhaphe wrightii palms. Botanists Standley, Steyermark and their capable team were definitely never hiking these trails (they missed much and probably most of Peten since they worked primarily from dried specimens in botanical gardens and university and natural history herbaria). If in fact no botanist or ecologist has ever visited or even realized that this tasistal existed, this is a sad conclusion. So we hope that someone can find previous mention of this area (it is a 5 minute walk from the Arroyo Petexbatun, 8 minutes downstream from Hotel Ecological Posada Caribe). We thank the owner and administrator of this property for permission to experience this frankly awesome ecosystem. We thank Julian Mariona Hotel Ecologico Posada Caribe for showing us this previously undocumented habitat.
Drawing is by two of our team: university graphic design student Mellany and student intern Maria Josefina, copyright 2019 FLAAR.
The ancient Maya of southern Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala had a turkey species totally different than the North American turkey: the turkey of Guatemala is the ocellated turkey (Meleagris ocellata).
We show here two felines getting ready to have their yummy turkey feast (there are five species of felines in Guatemala: jaguar, puma, jaguarundi, ocelot, and margay).
We hope you enjoy our thanksgiving day bird feast humor. Don’t worry, we do not eat wild ocellated turkeys; they are protected species.
While cold waves sweep through many parts of the world we have lots of flowers in our research garden surrounding the office of FLAAR Mesoamerica, Guatemala City, elevation 1500 meters.
We will be posting photographs every month to show what is flowering. Our cacao trees (Theobroma cacao) were flowering about a month ago, but not many flowers today.
Last Christmas we found lots of trees and flowers blooming between Senahu and Chipemech, Alta Verapaz. May spend Christmas there this year (I work 7 days a week, all year; my Thanksgiving reward and Christmas rewards are being able to record more of the flowers of Guatemala, Central America. We hope you will visit and see them yourself.
There are several species of the popular “sensitive plant” in the Petén area of Guatemala: Mimosa pigra and Mimosa pudica. The Mimosa species that grows along the edges of lakes and rivers is the most common. We found thousands of this plant along the shores of Lake Yaxha and especially along the seasonally inundates shores of Rio Ixtinto (southwest part of Laguna Yaxha, Parque Nacional Yaxha Nakum Naranjo). Sensitive plants are the popular plants that close their leaves when touched.
Mimosa at Parque Nacional Yaxha Nakum Naranjo, Peten, Guatemala
Mimosa along Arroyo Petexbatun, Sayaxche, Peten, Guatemala.
Mimosa along Rio San Pedro, Peten.
The Mimosa that likes waterlogged areas along rivers is found “by the millions” along Arroyo Petexbatun. This stream flows from the Laguna Petexbatun area to Sayaxché where it joins the Rio La Pasión. We were visiting friends at the hotel Posada Caribe and noticed kilometer after kilometer of this riverside Mimosa. It is called zarza by local Peteneros. Zarza is also the name for the other sensitive plant, Mimosa pudica L., so we will need to double-check. But so far we estimate the wetlands Mimosa is M. pigra. We are preparing a full report to list all Mimosa species potentially available in wetlands of Peten; you will also find these in seasonally flooded ecosystems around Peten: Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche, Quintana Roo, Belize, Izabal and Alta Verapaz.
As a child my parents showed me equivalent sensitive plants, and often when visiting Petén people show me the fast-folding leaves of Mimosa pudica. Since we were in a boat and did not want to tip over, I avoided leaning over the side to test the sensitivity of the leaves. My interest is in ecosystems and biodiversity of plants of Guatemala, especially of the Mayan areas of Petén. The riverside Mimosa and another common plant Passiflora foetida are a giveaway for a seasonally flooded area. Most rivers and lakes in Petén rise several meters in water height during the rainy season, so any plants you see along the shore in October will often be totally underwater by November. In fact due to heavy rains the week before we were on the Arroyo Petexbatun, most of these Mimosa plants had their bases under water.
The maize (Zea mays L.) is the most essential and culturally important crop in Mesoamerica. It’s an annual, monoecious species (with female and male reproductive organs in the same plant but separated) and its pollination is through the wind. His domestication took place in Oaxaca, Mexico, about 9,000 years ago (UNAM, 2017).
For the Mayan culture, the maize is an important element in their lives. In the story of the creation of the universe, in the Popol Vuh, is said that the gods had several attempts creating men until they achieved their purpose by creating men with maize. In addition, in the Mayan culture, Yum Kax is the God of agriculture, who controlled this sacred food (Nájera, 2004).
Maize is an important part of the milpa. Commonly, the maizefield is confused with the milpa. The maizefields are the set of maize, while the milpa comprises an ecosystem, where diverse species of flora and fauna interact, provides environmental services (such as pollination, soil fertility and biological control), contributes to human nutrition and has a cultural connotation (Biodiversidad Mexicana,n.d.).
The milpa system is a historical result of the man-nature relationship, where there are different types of milpa that adapt to the conditions where they are, either at sea level or in the highest mountains; in humid or dry climates; in fertile or low fertile soils (USAID 2017).
Photograph with a Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III, lens 17mm f/0, ISO 400, f 16, speed 1/60.
The word milpa comes from the Nahuatl -milli- and -pan- which means "what is sown in the plot". This system is made up of 3 basic plant species, known as the three sisters:
Maize (Zea mays L.)
Bean (Phaseolus sp.)
Pumpkin or Güicoy (Cucurbita sp).
Although the milpa can be made up of up to 50 different types of species, including tomatoes, chili peppers, amaranth and fruit trees. (Biodiversidad Mexicana, n.d.).
Photograph took with a Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III,lens 17mm f/0,ISO 400, f 16, speed 1/800.
The three sisters form a synergy that favors performance and increases the resilience of the system. These three species provide benefits in various ways:
Beans are an atmospheric nitrogen fixing species, which provides nitrogen to the other species within the milpa.
Maize serves as a support for beans, since beans are a vine.
The pumpkin covers the ground and is responsible for maintaining moisture and limiting weed growth (Ebel & others, 2017).
Due to all its qualities, food, cultural and ecological, as an individual crop and as part of the milpa system, on August 13 commemorates Maize Day in Guatemala, in accordance with decree No. 13-2014 issued by the Congress of the Republic.
Photograph with a Canon EOS 5D,lens 24-105mm f/0,ISO 100, f 11,speed 0.6.
PDF, Articles, Books on Anthurium crassinervium (Jacq.) Schott
Several months ago, using aerial photographs, I noticed a probable savanna east of Nakum (Peten, Guatemala). With the assistance of our experienced team of local Peteneros and our capable team of FLAAR Mesoamerica, we hiked for kilometers, for hours, to reach this area. We thank the local guides, Teco and his associates, for getting us here.
To finally reach this savanna you climb a steep hill where there is a monumental geological fault, literally, the karst here is “split in two.” After you carefully walk around and then through and across the fault, you climb downhill (or slide downhill on the dry leaves since it is very steep).
Click to view the actual savanna without the trees blocking the view.
Then you reach a point where, all of a sudden, you see kilometer after kilometer of grassland in front of you, framed by the trees (because you are still on the hill). I was so amazed that the first two field trips here I cried with sheer surprise and happiness. Literally, tears flowed down my face.
I know of savannas from the 1970’s, Lake Peten to La Libertad and to Sayaxche. And around Poptun: lots of pine savanna everywhere. But having lived for 12 months at Tikal in 1965, I am more accustomed to hillside and hilltop forests. And from hiking, on foot, to El Mirador (leading tour groups), I know what a bajo is. But to see kilometers of savanna at the base of the forested hill in Parque National Yaxha Nakum Naranjo, wow, what a great reality check for biodiversity.
Then tonight (August 25), while doing research on plant habits (habits, not habitats) and on ecosystems, I came across a typical statement that “savannas are found in southern Mexico, Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua…etc.” Ouch, Guatemala is not listed. Yet even if these botanists and ecologists have never set foot in PNYNN, there are the better known savannas all across the middle of Peten.
Anyway, this is one of dozens of examples that there is a lot of flora and fauna in Parque Nacional Yaxha Nakum Naranjo which is missing from monographs and articles and reports. The park co-administrators: IDAEH and CONAP are facilitating our collaborative research on the plants and fauna: their assistance has allowed us to document that the savannas here in PNYNN are very different than in Belize and totally different than around Poptun, and south and west of Lake Peten Itza (and different than the pine savanna several kilometers northeast of the northeast corner of the Parque Nacional Tikal). In addition to trees, grasses (reeds and sedges). we are noting mosses, lichen, shrubs. A lot more to come.
Parque Nacional Yaxha Nakum Naranjo is well worth visiting to experience the remarkable flora and fauna.
