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
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Sagittaria lancifolia found by FLAAR Mesoamerica working with PNYNN park team. |
Sagittaria lancifolia located in Parque Nacional Yaxha Nakum Naranjo
Turns out that both the Habenaria repens orchid and Sagittaria plant often grow near each other elsewhere “Most commonly encountered here in North America is the water spider orchid (Habenaria repens). It is a relatively robust species, however, considering that even its flowers are green, it is often hard to spot. Though it will root itself in saturated soils along the shore, it regularly occurs in standing water throughout the southeast. Often times, it can be found growing amidst other aquatic plants like pickerel weed (Pontederia cordata) and duck potato (Sagittaria latifolia). Because it can reproduce vegetatively, it isn’t uncommon to find floating mats of comprised entirely of this orchid. “ (www.indefenseofplants.com/blog/2017/1/30/aquatic-orchids). What is amazing is that his observations or comments he has read somewhere document that in North America grows “admidst other aquatic plants like…duck potato (Sagittaria latifolia). The Habenaria repens at the Yaxha park was growing 3 to 4 meters away from what Elena Siekavizza suggests is Sagittaria lancifolia. So first let’s see if one is a synonym of the other:
Now lets see the botanical description by Standley and Steyermark: Sagittaria lancifolia L. PI. Jam. Pug. 27. 1759. Figure 18. In shallow water or in muddy soil about lakes or along streams, 600 meters or less; Alta Verapaz; Izabal; Jutiapa. Southern United States to Mexico and British Honduras; Honduras; Nicaragua; Costa Rica; Panama; West Indies; South America. Plants large and coarse, glabrous, often a meter high or taller; leaves borne on long thick spongy petioles, erect, the blades lance-linear to elliptic, 20-50 cm. long, mostly 2-8 cm. wide, acute or acuminate, acute to long-attenuate at the base, conspicuously nerved; scapes simple or usually branched, the flowers on long slender spreading peduncles, the thin bracts lanceolate; corolla pure white, 2-4 cm. broad; fruit heads 1-1.5 cm. in diameter; achenes cuneate or obovate, short-rostrate, with a narrow dorsal wing. (Standley and Steyermark 1958: 80). Notice that they do not list Peten for where this plant was known to them half a century ago. But any plant found in Mexico (on one side of Peten) and in Belize (on the other side of Peten) is logically most likely also present in Peten. Balick, Nee and Atha list only Sagittaria lancifolia subsp. Lancifolia and S. lancifolia subsp. Media (2000: 173). Sagittaria latifolia Willd. Sp. PI. 4: 409. 1806. In marshes, at or little above sea level; Izabal. Southern Canada and United States to Mexico; Honduras; Nicaragua; Costa Rica; West Indies; South America. Hawaii (where introduced). Plants glabrous, usually 30-60 cm. tall; leaves long-petiolate, the blades narrowly or broadly triangular-sagittate, 10-40 cm. long, acute or acuminate, the large basal lobes acute to attenuate; scapes simple or branched, the peduncles 1-5 cm. long, slender, the bracts ovate; petals large and white; fruit heads 1.5-3 cm. in diameter; achenes very numerous, obliquely obovate, winged, with a horizontal apical beak. Called “arrow-head” in the United States, in reference to the shape of the leaves. The starchy rhizomes were used as food by many of the North American Indians. (Standley and Steyermark 1958: 80). So Sagittaria latifolia is not listed for Peten; listed only for Izabal. Neither species of Sagittaria is listed in the index of Lundell (1937: 239). Family Alismataceae is not in the plant family index of Atran et al. 2004. So two leading botanical surveys of Peten seemingly did not find any species of Sagittaria (unless Lundell uses one of the 51 synonyms that is not Sagittaria genus. Also no Sagittaria plant in the plant index of Cook’s excellent coverage of plants of the Lacandon area of Chiapas, Mexico. So seems like it was worth wading across the water area to take photos (this is not Lake Yaxha, this is a mixed ecosystem of bog, cibal, fern savanna, and swamp; all this is high high above the series of lakes). The only lake at this elevation in the park is Laguna Perdida, about 50 meters north of the north edge of Savanna of 3 Fern Species. But no way that Sagittaria is not found by anyone anywhere in Guatemala, Belize, or Chiapas (and is certainly in Quintana Roo as well, and Tabasco). So let’s do more research: If Sagittaria is in most wet areas of the Maya Lowlands, it will be in Chiapas even if not in the research area of one botanist. So Sagittaria lancifolia is indeed found in the Lacandon areas of Chiapas (Levy et al. 2006: 96) Sagittaria lancifolia is indeed known for Belize; it is listed for almost every different kind of wetland ecosystem: Bridgewater et al. 2002: 430. Also listed on p. 427 and 435. Meerman and Sabido also note Sagittaria lancifolia for marshy ecosystems (2001: ecosystem #65, page 66). Peraza et al. lists Sagittaria lancifolia for Tabasco (2019: 5). For Campeche it is Sagittaria guayanensis Kunth ssp. Guayanensis which is listed (Gutiérrez et al. 2016: 2). A report on the Biosfera Calakmul (a few kilometers into Campeche, Mexico, north of El Mirador, Peten) list three species (Instituto Nacional de Ecología 1999: 175):
Sagittaria guyanensis Kunth is a synonym of Sagittaria guayanensis Kunth Corona (2013: 55) lists Sagittaria for Rio Dulce, Izabal area. Reyes (2009: 35, 50) mentions Sagittaria longiloba for food (but so far Sagittaria lancifolia is not regularly listed as food whatsoever in lists of edible Maya plants). However, in theory, the tubers of Sagittaria lancifolia are potentially edible (Zepeda and Lot 2005). Just that today there is so much tasty junk food plus fruits and vegetables from other parts of the world. Reyes also mentions that Sagittaria has not been listed for the Peten chain of lakes in the past. On page 61 she lists Sagittaria lancifolia. She lists it for Aguada Zotz (page 73, not in the laguna category). Most other books and articles use the word Laguna Zotz. Here are places where Sagittaria lancifolia has been found in Peten two decades ago:
So their team found it in more than 20 locations in the Municipio La Libertad, but they admit they did no research around Lake Yaxha; Rio Ixtinto is not in their index (unless spelled differently). In November 2020, we found more Sagittaria plants in swamps of Municipio de Livingston, Izabal While taking a motor boat up and down every river and creek that flows into El Golfete, we saw and photographed Sagittaria plants in the wetlands of the Municipio de Livingston, Izabal, Guatemala. We will have a full pdf with photographs ready by late January 2021. This will have an updated expanded bibliography. Summary and Conclusions on Sagittaria lancifolia It really helps to do field work in Parque Nacional Yaxha and Nakum Naranjo (PNYNN) to find plants that have not been noted in this park previously. Dix and Fernandez also do not list this plant for the Parque Nacional Tikal, though there are wet areas there as well. We are curious to learn about plants present in the Yaxha park but not documented for the Tikal park. There are several species of Sagittaria in Guatemala. Of these at least Sagittaria lancifolia is at Yaxha. PDF, Articles, Books on Sagittaria lancifolia and other Sagittaria of Mexico and Guatemala
Web pages with nice photographs and/or helpful info on Sagittaria lancifolia, arrowhead, duck potato
www.cabi.org/isc/datasheet/109160
https://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/plant-directory/sagittaria-lancifolia/
www.theplantlist.org/tpl1.1/record/kew-287245
http://web.fscj.edu/David.Byres/duckpot/duckpot.htm
www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=SALA
Most recently updated, January 11, 2021
First posted, August 2019 |