When time and funding permit, each flower (each plant species) will have its own page, and its own PDF, and eventually its own PPT so that professors and students have plenty of material on Guatemala (and Honduras, etc) to study.
Heliconia adflexa, Coban, Guatemala, Hotel Monja Blanca, FLAAR, by Nicholas Hellmuth
This space is for flowers we have recently found and photographed.
Conostegia xalapensis, and edible fruit of Municipio de Livingston
Conostegia xalapensis, photo taken with an iPhone 12 Pro Max by Dr Nicholas Hellmuth
In our field trips of our recent project in Livingston, Izabal; we have found Conostegia xalapensis, also called Palo de uva or “grape stick” in English by the locals. One of the guides that lead us to “Cueva del Tigre” explained us that the fruit is edible with a very similar flavor and shape as the grapes, just like its common name.
We didn’t find the plant with its fruits, so we couldn’t taste it, but we do found its beautiful tiny flowers. The flowers have 5 petals, which measure between 4-6mm in color white or pink.
According to the Tropical Plants Database (2012) it is a is a shrub or small tree growing up to 10 metres tall that distributes from Northern S. America, through Central America to Mexico and Cuba. The edible fruits are gathered from wild tress, whilst the trees are sometimes also semi-cultivated.
Consumption of Conostegia xalapensis fruits and seed dispersal of Coussapoa oligocephala by the nectarivorous bat Hylonycteris underwoodi Thomas, 1903 (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae). Studies on Neotropical Fauna and Environment. Volume 44, 2009 - Issue 3
HERNÁNDEZ, Ivette, ROJAS, Octavio, LÓPEZ, Fabiola, PUEBLA, Fernando and Cecilia DÍAZ
2012
Dispersión de semillas por aves en un paisaje de bosque mesófilo en el
Centro de Veracruz, México: Su papel en la restauración pasiva. Revista Chilena de Historia Natural 85: 89-100.
