This conference is made to present the importance of nutrition among Guatemalan children, especially in rural areas, and the health benefits that this can have in the Mayan society.
Posted Feb. 13, 2017
Amaranth, Amaranthus hypochondriacus, with an insect which may possibly be Brachygastra mellifica, one of the few wasps of Mesoamerica which makes honey. Photographed in Rabinal during Day of the Dead ceremonies, Nov. 1 and Nov. 2, 2016.
The diverse eco-systems throughout the Mayan areas of Guatemala and adjacent countries offer much more than just maize, beans, and squash of the traditional milpas. For thousands of years people also ate seeds, leaves, flowers, roots, and even edible vines of plants growing around their homes or in nearby forests.
We at FLAAR Mesoamerica have worked for years to learn what nice edible plants can improve the health of people both in villages and in remote areas. Several Guatemalan botanists and agronomists also have excellent articles and books on these subjects; Dr Cesar Azurdia is one example. When you visit remote areas, you quickly see healthy edible plants which are totally missing from most peer-reviewed journal articles in USA and Europe. And our list of plants to support Mayan families already exceeds all lists produced by the experienced botanist Cyrus Lundell and other Carnegie Institution of Washington scholars of the 1930’s through 1950’s.
Plus we have more documentation on edible aspects, more than in the helpful Standley and Steyermark monographs on flora of Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras, and Belize.
Our goal for 2017 is to seek funding so that we can publish our results, especially in local Mayan languages so that both parents, children, and grandparents, can learn about all the potential healthy edible plants available in Guatemala. Improving health is a crucial goal.
With most of the mature forests being bulldozed for commercial purposes, it is useful to have a list of plants available 2000 years ago. And especially, our goal is to do close-up photography of the flowers to help botanists identify the species.
Nance, which ironically looks almost like jocote fruits. Nance is an edible fruit native to many parts of Mesoamerica and sold in Mayan village markets of Guatemala and other countries. Nance grows on a small to medium sized tree, Byrsonima crassifolia. Nance is mentioned in the Popol Vuh as food of the mythical macaw-like deity.
In addition to publishing scholarly lists, it is also crucial to publish for children, in a style that children’s patience will encourage them to read. Two of us flew to the largest book fair in Latin America (800,000 people attended this book fair in Guadalajara, Mexico). So our team of 15 graphic designers, illustrators and biology students now have lots of ideas how to present the information on healthy local Mayan plant alternatives to entire families. Yes, we also will have PDFs for students and professors and researchers, but it is equally important to give this information to local people, including in schools, in their own Mayan language, and Spanish.
As soon as funds are available, you can look forward to innovative publication on the frankly remarkable diversity of healthy edible plants native to Guatemala for thousands of years.
Posted Jan. 2, 2017
FLAAR Reports has two divisions; you are now on one of the web sites of the tropical Mesoamerica flora and fauna team. If you are interested in wide-format inkjet printers, we have an entire network to explain this technology: www.wide-format-printers.org
There is also a growing team of illustrators and graphic designers who do educational children’s books (to show the world the remarkable plants and animals of 2000 years of Mayan civilization in Guatemala, Mexico, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador).
This holiday card shows four different natural actual colorations of jaguars: normal color, rare but occasional white color, “gray” black, and “total black” (often mistakenly assumed to be a black panther).
The gray and black variants are melanistic jaguars, with one or more genes different than the DNA of the traditional jaguar color. Even in the “solid black” jaguar, the spots still exist and can be seen when the feline is swimming and the sun is at the right angle. Yes, felines love water and love to swim (and chase and eat crocodiles and alligators).
To learn more about animals of the Mayan world, take a look at our www.maya-ethnozoology.org
To see our newly launched cartoon book web site, look at our www.mayan-characters-value-based-education.org.
Here you can see a video of Dr Nicholas interacting with a 350 pound tapir and her spotted baby.
Posted Dec 20, 2016
Drawing is by two of our team: university graphic design student Mellany and student intern Maria Josefina, copyright 2016 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.
Posted Nov 23, 2016
In Mesoamerica, Cecropia trees are treated as a junk tree, as a large weed. But these guarumo trees are actually super important for the eco-systems where they grow in Guatemala (and neighboring countries).
Guarumo helps get burned out milpas back to a future forest. Guarumo helps reforest other areas which have been bulldozed and destroyed by commercial greed.
Plus, to help document that a guarumo tree is not a giant weed, we will be issuing a Mayan cartoon comic book character staring Guarumo! First edition is in English; then Spanish, and once funding is available, Q’eqchi’ and other Mayan languages.
Plus, guarumo trees provide food for several mammals and for scores of local birds.
So we are creating a photographic reference archive especially on the flowers and fruits of both species: Cecropia obtusifolia and Cecropia peltata. 90% of the web sites which reproduce snapshots do not label the flowers as to whether they are male or female and so we are not finding it easy to caption our photos, but we wanted to at least show we are studying this very important tree, and we hope to gradually help local people to understand it should be appreciated and not treated as an ant-infested weed!
Posted Jul 21, 2016
We have been doing field trips to find all the different parts of Guatemala where Plumeria grows out in the forests. Most peer-reviewed journals and monographs on plants of Guatemala list the main areas such as the cacti desert along the Rio Motagua. We have found Plumeria growing among cacti overlooking the Rio Sacapulas.
And this weekend we found Plumeria growing on steep high cliffs overlooking the Rio Polochic parallel to the road between Tucuru and La Tinta, Alta Verapaz, Guatemala. No cactus plants anywhere.
2000 years ago Plumeria had many uses among the Maya; and 1000 years ago the Aztec used Plumeria for many purposes as well. Today very few indigenous people use Plumeria except as decoration in church-related ceremonies.
Posted May 30, 2016
