Last week, while visiting Biotope Chocon Machacas, Lourdes Wallace discovered an area of many heliconia relatives. These relatives of heliconia are named Calathea crotalifera. These are wild, native plants (this is not a garden of a fancy hotel).
We are preparing a full report on these gorgeous flowers of Calathea crotalifera. As soon as this photo essay is available, we will link to it. In the meantime we wish to thank Ing. Daniel Esaú Pinto Peña, Alcalde of Livingston (Izabal, Guatemala) for the cooperation of his team in this nice Caribbean area of Guatemala. We thank Edwin Mármol Quiñonez, Coordinación de Cooperación de Livingston, for organizing the local support for these botanical and zoological research field trips. And is was great that Juana Lourdes Wallace Ramírez, Asistente Administrativo, Coordinación de Cooperación de Livingston, was with our team of FLAAR Mesoamerica every day. She is the one who happened to see these gorgeous flowers: they were not on the hiking trail, so without her we would not have seen them.
The full report will also have photographs by María Alejandra Gutierrez and David Arrivilaga (both are experienced photographers at FLAAR Mesoamerica).
Calathea crotalifera flowers, Biotope Chocon Machacas, Municipio de Livingston, Izabal, Guatemala, Central America.
Photograph by Nicholas Hellmuth (FLAAR Mesoamerica) with Nikon D810 camera.
While assisting the Municipio de Livingston, Izabal, we noted cordoncillo around the entrance houses at Biotopo Chocon Machacas (north side of El Golfete, Rio Dulce, Livingston, Izabal, Guatemala).
There are hundreds of species of Piper in Guatemala and nearby countries of Central America. Many different species are called cordoncillo. So on our field trips we include Q'eqchi' Mayan plant scouts (people who know which plant is which).
Santa Maria is another Piper that is edible.
We have found many different Piper species in the Municipio of Livingston, Izabal, but so far, not even in the kitchen gardens, we have not yet identified any Piper amalgo or Piper auritum. The large-leaf Piper that is locally named Santa Maria is easier to find and easier to recognize: this is present in Izabal.
We will continue searching for the cordoncillo, the Piper used to flavor cacao a thousand years ago. But in the meantime, here is a snapshot of one of the many species of Piper visible along the roads and trails near the town of Livingston.
Found more palm species in Lagunita Creek nature reserve than expected. CONAP together with FUNDAECO do a great job maintaining the nice hiking trails and providing guide service.
The team of the Municipio of Livingston kindly provided a boat and guide to take us to this nature research near the mouth of the Rio Sarstun (so south of the Peten-Belize border, with Amatique Bay to the east).
When you are hiking the trails at Lagunita Creek nature reserve you will find many of the plants of the Mayan world. I found more different species of palms here than in other areas that I have visited. Photo by Nicholas Hellmuth, FLAAR Mesoamerica, iPhone Xs, Mar. 12, 2020.
If you are a botanist, a student of biology, or otherwise like to hike through a Neotropical rain forest, we highly recommend that you visit Lagunita Creek nature reserve.
You can find a boat in the village of Livingston. There is no way to drive or hike to the entrance of this nature reserve; boat is the only access.
On our next visit I would like to spend an entire day at Lagunita Creek, and reserve a second separate entire day for Área Protegida Parque Ecoturístico Tapon Creek that is a few minutes away (the ecosystems here are different even though not far away).
But if your schedule is tight, visit both Lagunita Creek and Tapon Creek on the same day (as we did our first visit, since in advance I had no idea of the biodiversity we would find in both areas).
We thank Ing. Daniel Esaú Pinto Peña, Alcalde of Livingston (Izabal, Guatemala) for the cooperation provided by him and the team of the Municipio de Livingston. We thank Edwin Mármol Quiñonez, Coordinación de Cooperación de Livingston (Izabal, Guatemala), for introducing our team and our project potential to the Alcalde.
We appreciate the cooperation of Juana Lourdes Wallace Ramírez, Asistente Administrativo, Coordinación de Cooperación de Livingston, for organizing the day-by-day transportation and logistics for our team. Lourdes also accompanies us each day of each field trip.
In theory there may be up to 35 palm species in the Caribbean area of the Municipio de Livingston, Izabal, Guatemala. Our field trips will seek to find and accomplish high resolution photography of as many palm species as possible. So far we have found the easy ones: escoba palm (fronds used to make brooms), tasiste that like lots of water nearby (here called pimientillo), bayal (palm that's a spiny vine), and thousands of corozo palm. Lots of kala which looks identical to a small guano palm; but kala is neither a palm nor even related.
No pharmaceutical companies 2000 years ago. The Maya, Xinca (and Aztec, Toltec, Zapotec, etc) had plenty of medicine from local plants. Much of our modern medicine also comes from plants, of the Middle East, Asia, Africa and EU (of course most is now chemicals, manufactured in factories).
This attractive white lily, Eucharis bouchei, is the wild native Guatemalan relative of the garden plant Eucharis amazonica from Peru). Eucharis bouchei has medicinal properties. Would be helpful if more modern medicine could learn from the over 500 native medicinal plants of the Maya (potentially over 600). FLAAR Mesoamerica notes every medicinal plant that are teams find. We will be exploring remote areas of the Municipio of Livingston later in March.
Pokomchi Mayan plant scout Norma Estefany Cho Cu found these Eucharis bouchei lily flowers in the forests near the home of her parents, Caserio Chilocom, Municipio Santa Cruz Verapaz, Alta-Verapaz, Guatemala, on Feb. 25, 2020. FLAAR (USA) provided a Google Pixel 3XL smart phone camera to FLAAR Mesoamerica (Guatemala) so the plant scouts can take better photos out in the field.
Last week the Alcalde and his team of Livingston took us around to get to learn more about the bio-diversity of flora and fauna of this Caribbean part of Guatemala, Central America. Having been visiting Guatemala since age 17 (and visiting rain forests and Maya ruins of Mexico since age 16), in the circa 59 years of experience in Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche, Quintana Roo, Peten, and Alta Verapaz (plus dozens of other areas: Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador), I was frankly amazed and impressed by the Neotropical ecosystems of the Municipio of Livingston: karst geology (so lots of caves like in much of Mesoamerica), rivers, lakes, lagoons, swamps (but also mangrove swamps, not common elsewhere outside of the Pacific Coast). Hills, flatlands, and everything in between.
Even though we had only two days time in Livingston area (plus one day in Morales and two days driving back-and-forth to Guatemala City, we can now sense the potential of Biotope Chocon Machacas CECON-USAC. Wow, plants, mosses, bromeliads, vines, mushrooms, lichens (plus all the living organisms underwater). And Rio Sarstun has even more (that would be our next field trip goal).
My heart is dedicated to Parque Nacional Yaxha Nakum Naranjo (Peten), and the cloud forests of Alta Verapaz have kept me busy for many years of botanical field work. But the Municipio of Livingston is also “one of the most impressive areas for botanical, zoological, and ecological research I can imagine.”
The Alcalde of Livingston, Daniel Esaú Pinto Peña, is developing projects to assist the local Q’eqchi’ Mayan and Garifuna people in his Municipio (Departamento of Izabal, Guatemala). The individual for outreach of these projects is Edwin Mármol Quiñonez, Coordinación de Cooperación de Livingston. He came to visit the headquarters and research facilities of FLAAR Mesoamerica in Guatemala City. Based on what he saw he invited our team of botany and ecology and biology students and photographers to visit Livingston.
Here are 20 photos of flora and fauna just from one small part of Biotopo Chocon Machacas, based on just 2 hours hike. There are HUNDREDS more flowering plants, orchids, etc. to see if you spend more time here (or in the other biodiverse ecosystems of Municipio of Livingston).
There is material for theses in any and every topic you can imagine; material for PhD dissertations, peer-reviewed journal articles. Plus for people around the world who wish to experience photogenic flora and fauna—come visit Livingston ecosystems. We hope to return to the Municipio of Livingston and continue our research for the coming four years (5 to 10 days per month; average of 10 months per year; four years).
