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.
3D scanning and 3D imaging are used for many fields. But we at FLAAR Reports are always looking for innovative ways to employ 3D technology.
For example, the team at FLAAR has been working on doing 3D images of all kinds of plants and trees: cacao (chocolate) pods and entire trees. A lot of this work was accomplished by Andrea Mendoza, who attended SIGGRAPH 2015 with Melanny Celeste Quinonez. This year two other Assistant Review Editors will attend both the conferences and the expo in July.
Our purpose is to explain to the world that SIGGRAPH is a great place for students to attend. Everyone at FLAAR Reports is bi-lingual or tri-lingual, but there are plenty of Spanish speaking attendees every day at SIGGRAPH.
Conferences are five educational days, 24-28 July, Anaheim, California.
SIGGRAPH exhibition is 26-28 July.
There are various web sites, one is www.s2016.siggraph.org. We hope to see you there in July.
There are many species of this tree in different eco-systems of Guatemala. One or more species are common throughout El Peten (which you can see in Parque Nacional Tikal, the Lake Yaxha park, Seibal (Ceibal) archaeological park, etc.
It’s tough to live in Guatemala City, 1500 meters above sea level, with a view of three volcanoes (with one erupting every week or so). The only time we see snow is to watch TV about blizzards hitting US cities. Here we have butterflies, friendly stingless bees (yes, honey bees with no stingers), hummingbirds every day, and lots of flowers.
Last week we noticed that a vine had climbed up our Ceiba pentandra tree (higher than a three-story building even though less than 10 years old!). This vine had orange flowers. Within a week this vine was flowering directly in front of my desk (tough view).
We believe this is Senecio confusus, Mexican Flame Vine (good to attract monarch butterflies). It is used as a traditional medicine by the Mayan and related people as treatment of strokes and muscle aches.
On the other side of the house we have a plant with tiny purple flowers. This is Eupatorium pycnocephalum, used medicinally for stomach pains (including for birth).
Eupatorium pycnocephalum, photographed at our garden.
Much to our surprise, Ipomoea alba, Moonflower, is also a medicinal plant. I hope it is included in books on Mayan medicinal plants, but I bet it is missing from many of them.
Ipomoea alba is also toxic: and is missing from Plantas toxicas de Mexico, by Abigail Aguilar and Carlos Zolla’s co-authored monograph on toxic plants.
Ipomoea alba is also edible (in Africa and India) so in theory could be edible in Mesoamerica as well (despite being toxic; many toxic plants are eaten readily). Ipomoea alba is native to Mesoamerica, and introduced to the rest of the world. We raise it in our Mayan ethnobotanical and ethnomedicinal garden (to study the structure of the flower as it opens in the evening).
I just did a TV documentary a few months ago where 66% of the native Maya plants eaten by the gourmet chefs were toxic). Note: it depends which part of the plant you eat. Each part of many plants has chemicals totally different than other parts. However on the TV documentary, I myself ate only flor de pacaya, since I have eaten this for years. But I passed on the other two flowers since one comes from a tree named “mata raton.”
And the other flower was from a palo de pito tree, whose seeds are so toxic they can’t be imported into USA as jewelry (lots of bright colored seeds are used to make necklaces throughout Mesoamerica).
To see the video (which fortunately does not include eating the flowers of Ipomoea alba, since I was not yet aware parts of this plant were edible), here is the link: “El sabor de Mi Tierra - Flores Comestibles de Mesoamérica” in Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/121917491
In order to show how different sizes, shapes, and structures of Neotropical flowers open, we raise native plants of Mesoamerica in our Mayan medicinal and ethnobotanical garden in Guatemala City.
For the last several months we have done dozens of stop-action sequences of the evening opening of Ipomoea alba (Moonflower). This is a vine related to morning glories. Now the passionflowers are blooming, but in the early morning, before the sunrise.
Here is an example of about 90 minutes of photography by Sofia Monzon, assisted by Senaida Ba.
