Camera NIKON D810, lens 200mm, f/4, f/11.0 speed 1/250, ISO 500, photo by Dr Nicholas Hellmuth
About 7 to 9 years ago, I planted seeds of zapoton from the Costa Sur (sea level) in our FLAAR Mayan Ethnobotanical Research Garden, at 1500 meters above sea level. This week I was so happy to see it bloom for the first time. What a great Christmas present for my heart and soul to see this flower (roughly comparable to structure of flowers it its relatives Ceiba aesculifolia and Pseudobombax ellipticum).
The city’s main botanical garden, just a few kilometers away, has the same tree happily blooming every year, so I knew that it would survive the colder climate, higher altitude, and lack of growing along a stream or lake.
Pachira aquatica grows along Rio Dulce, Lake Izabal, Rio San Pedro (Peten) and the aguadas behind Tikal’s visitors center. We are now searching for Pachira aquatica along the Rio Ixtinto, Rio Holmul, and Lake Yaxha (all part of Parque Nacional Yaxha Nakum Naranjo).
Camera NIKON D810, lens 200mm, f/4, f/10.0 speed 1/50, ISO 100, photo by Dr Nicholas Hellmuth
We have found and identified most of the really large bromeliads at Yaxha and Topoxte Island. Then I noticed that our photos of a bromeliad from Aug 14th had not been identified.
Turns out it's Aechmea bromeliifolia. Now that we know it's at Nakum and blooming in August (2018) we need to return in August 2019 and find it at Yaxha, Topoxte Island, Naranjo, etc.
We continue to search the Parque Nacional Yaxha Nakum Naranjo for large bromeliad species and all the other undocumented plants of this part of Central America.
Close-up of flowers of more of this "bog orchid" in Lake Yaxha, Peten, Guatemala.
When you visit Parque Nacional Yaxha Nakum Naranjo you will see “wild orchids everywhere.” Having worked at Yaxha mapping the ruins with archaeologist Miguel Orrego and team, over a 5-year project of FLAAR research and educational institute (1970-1974), I know that most of the orchids are up in the trees.
From my research on orchids worldwide I also am aware that there are terrestrial orchids (we have them wild on our Hellmuth family farm in the Missouri Ozarks). And a few orchids in other parts of the world spend much of their life “underground.” In other words, there are “orchids in most eco-systems except the frozen Antarctica and in the sand dunes of the Middle East.”
But are their “aquatic orchids?” Do some orchids “grow on water?”
I raise this question since while courtesy of the IDAEH-CONAP boat of the park, on 31 October this year (2018), I noticed dark-pink lavender flowers among the reeds out in the water a few meters from the shore. When I saw a second patch I asked the boat captain to stop so I could see what plant was floating along with the mass of roots of the reeds that are in many areas along the north shore.
One of the park rangers (Teco, Moises Daniel Pérez Díaz, who accompanied us) said that these were indeed orchids and that he had seen them before. The leaves are comparable size and shape to hundreds of other orchid species (all of which grow high up on trees).
But back in camp, everyone told us the logical answer: “maybe these have just fallen on top of the reeds because the branches of large trees stretch out several meters over the lake shore area?” Plus dozens of trees (whose branches often have orchids) along the shore fall into the lake every year because the soil is only a few centimeters deep (below is limestone, since this is an area of karst geology). So every rainstorm lots of trees fall over. Their branches are covered with bromeliads, orchids, arboreal cacti, and parasitic vines (with beautiful flowers).
But the orchids that I found are NOT fallen from tree trunks or tree limbs. These orchids are at water level. In November we even found lots of freshly germinated young orchid plants, just a few millimeters high (since there are mature flowering orchids of this water-related species every several meters along the north shore of Lake Yaxha).
Now that we found this “aquatic orchid” we learn from our research that the jargon is “bog orchid” or “swamp orchid,” although in this case at Yaxha it is not a swamp and not a bog: it is near (but not over) the shore area of the lake. However you could consider the first two or three meters a kind of swamp-like ecosystem because of all the roots and fallen reeds that create their own ecosystem on which these orchids are very happy.
Since no one believed that “water orchids” existed, we returned to Yaxha in late November and learned a lot more. These are indeed water related. Obviously they don’t float on the surface independently like water lily pads: instead the orchids grow from the base of reeds whose root mass floats on the surface. In some cases the lake is 5 meters deep underneath the reed 20 cm deep reed root mass (and decayed fallen reeds); in other cases I could wade out and only have my body 2 to 4 feet deep in the water (to study the position of the roots in and above the water level you need to stand in front of them at eye level).
We (FLAAR Mesoamerica) go to Yaxha at least one week every month all year: so we hope to see you there. We will be looking for additional species of “aquatic orchids” since there are indeed seasonal swamps in other areas of the park.
We now have a list of all water-related orchids found in other lakes in Peten and adjacent Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche, Quintana Roo and are making a list of water-associated orchids of Belize. We estimate that there may be several of these species in Parque Nacional Yaxha Nakum Naranjo (all the more reason to visit Lake Yaxha and Rio Ixtinto next to Topoxte Island).
If you are like to study orchids, if you like to experience something in nature you have never in your life seen or heard of before, then come to visit Parque Nacional Yaxha Nakum Naranjo. Hotel Ecolodge El Sombrero is where we stay and Gabriella, the owner, knows plants, animals, and archaeology since she has been in the Yaxha area for many decades.
There is one additional genus of orchids which also float over the surface on aquatic material. This other genus of water-related orchids is list for most lakes, rivers, and aquatic areas around the El Peten area of Guatemala: in order words, it is only a matter of time before we can find a second, and maybe a third, water-related orchid.
So if you like to experience orchids out in the wild, far from a greenhouse, if you or your company or association or a foundation where you know board members could provide funding for our field trips, then we can return to Lake Yaxha find all the other water-related and also the terrestrial orchids on the shore adjacent to the lake and associated Rio Ixtinto. Plus you and your family or friends can join us on a field trip to Parque Nacional Yaxha Nakum Naranjo.
Updated Dec. 5, 2018, first edition posted Nov 2, 2018
9:47 pm Nikon D810, 200mm, f/13.0, 1/200, ISO 6400
The two best documented flowers that contain chemicals that vulcanize latex from native Maya rubber tree Castilla elastica bloom in the FLAAR Mayan Ethnobotanical Research Garden. Ethnobotanist Dr Suzanne Cook has documented that the juice, from both these vines, is used by the Lacandon Maya of Chiapas, Mexico to create viable rubber.
The Olmec 3500 years ago and the Maya 1500 years ago used these vines to make latex sap into rubber that could bounce (for the rubber ball game balls, for example). MIT researcher Michael J. Tarkanian has done actual experiments (in Chiapas, Mexico) with Ipomoea alba with Castilla elastica for his B.S. and M.S. theses.
We (FLAAR, USA and FLAAR Mesoamerica, Guatemala) estimate that Merremia tuberosa may grow also in the Yaxha park. We also feel that other "morning glory vines" may also have chemicals to vulcanize rubber. So every month we visit Parque Nacional Yaxha Nakum Naranjo to update the lists of plants to find all utilitarian plants that would have helped the Classic Maya for thousands of years at Yaxha, Nakum, Naranjo, Topoxte Island and all the other sites around the park areas.
Lecture by Dr Nicholas Hellmuth, Friday, November 30, 2018; Coban, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala, as part of the I CONGRESO ECOLÓGICO DE ALTA VERAPAZ (in honor of Parque Nacional Laguna Lachua).
This lecture will show high-resolution photographs of giant birds in flight (at Parque Nacional Yaxha Nakum Naranjo). Will show awesome beautiful bright colored flowers of parasitic plants and remarkable pineapple-related bromeliads (terrestrial).
The final slide will be an aquatic orchid in full bloom: literally, an orchid about 2 meters from the shores of Lake Yaxha.
This orchid is NOT fallen from a tree; this is a kind of “bog orchid” or “swamp orchid” associated with the tall grass-like vegetation along the shores of many lakes. This orchid, to our knowledge, is not in any botanical book of orchids of Guatemala. It is not, we repeat, it is not an orchid fallen from a tree: it literally grows up from the roots of water plants. We found it in more than six different locations.
If you return to this web site in about 2 days we will have a preview that you can download (sample slides from the Powerpoint presentation). We hope to see you in Coban, Alta Verapaz on November 30th.
If you are interested in jaguars of Central America, on the home page of www.maya-archaeology.org you can download a sample of the lecture by Hellmuth at a jaguar conference last week.
If you can’t get to Coban, Dr Hellmuth can present either or both these lectures in your city anywhere in the world.
In case you are attending the expo, here is a map with the location of the event and the Hotel Monja Blanca where Dr Hellmuth is staying.
Bud is so plump that it is obvious that it will open this same evening.
6:36 pm
After two hours of photography every 5 to 10 minutes, the flower finally begins to open more dramatically.
6:46 pm
7:21 pm
The flower at 7:44 pm, about 98% open.
7:51 pmm
Selenicereus testudo is the most common arboreal cactus plant at Parque Nacional Yaxha Nakum Naranjo. In all the diverse eco-systems we have, so far, not located one single solitary terrestrial cactus plant: not even any Opuntia. So there are scores of native terrestrial cacti species in the Rio Motagua dry zone and the Rio Sacapulas dry zones of Guatemala. But zero in Parque Nacional Yaxha Nakum Naranjo (however if we or anyone else finds a wild terrestrial cactus plant, we will be glad to revise this conclusion).
Selenicereus testudo is easy to find among the Mayan ruins of Yaxha, Topoxte Island, Nakum, and Naranjo. Its roots do not need to be in the ground.
The flowers we find at Yaxha are very very similar to Hylocereus costaricensis, but that other Pitaya is native to the southern part of Central America (Costa Rica and Nicaragua).
We will present the series of scores of time-lapse photos in a PDF format by next week. In the meantime, here are three photos showing the first, middle, and final phase of opening of this night-blooming tree cactus.
