Posted April 20, 2021
This presentation will be in Spanish starting 10 am this Saturday, 24 April.
Though obviously nothing is there until Saturday morning. If you wish to be on our mailing list, please write us FrontDesk at FLAAR.org
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Posted April 5, 2021
This is the view from my research office window in Guatemala, Central America. Can't see Pacaya Volcano (it's hidden by mountains at the left) but we can see lots of other volcanos (including when they erupt). Have a bit of black volcanic dust on everything last week due to Pacaya erupting.
Posted January 12, 2021
While in Parque Nacional Yaxha, Nakum, and Naranjo in 2018-2019 we found two remarkably biodiverse ecosystems filled with plants I have never seen elsewhere in this park nor in adjacent Tikal park. These unexpected plants were surrounding aguadas and in two very different seasonally inundated savannas: Savanna East of Nakum and Savanna of 3 Fern Species. Courtesy of the cooperation of the Naranjo sector team (Arqueologa Vilma Fialko, Arquitecto Raul Noriega, and mapping specialist Horacio Palacios we noticed and documented there was actually a short savanna between the end of Bajo La Pita (a typical Peten tintal) and the beginning of the cibal (sawgrass) and then jimbal (thousands of native Guadua longifolia thorny bamboo) before the hillside forest at the north and corozera area at the northeast (all of this is at the immediate edge of the acropolises and raised plazas of Naranjo- Sa’al).
Then in 2020, the team of cooperation and coordination of the Municipio of Livingston had learned of our interests and abilities to explore remote areas to document plants and trees not noted by botanists in these specific locations. So the Muni Livingston invited us to bring our field photography teams and equipment and we began with a field trip in February 2020 and March 2020. Then COVID hit, but Livingston did not get seriously infected so we were asked to return in October, November, and December. With the assistance of local Q’eqchi’ Mayan guides and the local Garifuna families we found plants I had never heard of during my over a half-century in Mesoamerica: lots of cauliflorous tree species on moist hillsides and three species of edible plants in swamps and marshes. Plus several species of trees produced edible fruits or seeds for the Classic Maya thousands of years ago.
This project coordinated with Alcalde Daniel Pinto (Municipio de Livingston) for the flora and fauna is for 8 days field work each month for all 12 months of year 2021, so we look forward to providing the local people and the world, documentation on the waterbirds, pollinators, and other fauna (such as manatee) and all the flora including liverworts, hornworts, mosses, fungi and lichens in addition to plants edible and used by the Classic Maya in the past. Our www.maya-ethnobotany.org and www.maya-ethnozoology.org show flora and fauna. Our www.maya-archaeology.org features the plants we are finding that are missing from books and articles on food of the ancient Maya. www.digital-photography.org shares with you tips on which digital photography equipment is best for recording flora and fauna. Our social media is via FLAAR Mesoamerica and MayanToons for our programs of education for school children.
Posted December 23, 2020
The FLAAR Mesoamerica team hiking across the hammock bridge over the end of Rio Quehueche (as it flows into Amatique Bay, northeast side of town of Livingston, Izabal, Guatemala).
We hiked for many kilometers along the beach since several kinds of palms and Crescentia-related plants grow only along the Caribbean coast (of Izabal, Belize to the north and Honduras to the southeast).
This photograph is taken by Haniel, the licensed drone pilot of our licensed drone. We are donating all our aerial photos to CONAP and the Municipio de Livingston when the photos are processed and cataloged. These photos are intended to be available to INGUAT, to local students and professors, etc.
Posted December 20, 2020
Happy Holidays! Our very best wishes to you this festive season. May 2021 bring you peace, joy and prosperity. From all staff members of FLAAR Mesoamerica.
Posted August 19, 2020
Here is the voice of Camila Morales narrating the English version of Episode 2 of MayanToons (Our Freshwater Friends, the Boat-Billed heron riding a friendly local Guatemalan crocodile).
Juana the Iguana, Tappie the tapir, and an otter love the river that flows through the rain forest.
Posted July 30, 2020
Quinoa is the Superfood of the Incas of the Andes Mountains of Peru. Amaranth is known as the Superfood for the Aztec of Mexico, but growing it was banned by the Spaniards (because it was associated also with Aztec religious ceremonies).
Quinoa is found in supermarkets in Guatemala in various brands, and in most supermarkets in USA. But, amaranth is not in the giant supermarket near my office. And not in the organic food chain stores here either (in USA). Only very few stores have amaranth. In Guatemala I have found it only in an organic food store (so not in most supermarkets).
This is unfortunate since amaranth is native to Guatemala (in addition to Mexico and elsewhere) and is widely grown throughout the Maya Highlands (often as a decorative plant). But once I found out how healthy amaranth is (and its leaves, named bledo in Guatemala), I like to remind the world to speak with the managers of their local supermarkets to get amaranth available. It comes in raw seeds of “popped” or in flour. Yes, I eat amaranth pancakes as an excuse to cover my meal with honey.
This week Vivian Hurtado took a photograph of one of the many amaranth plants in our research garden. Other species and other varieties come in different colors.
Note the happy beetle that is wandering around on the left (you can see the beetle if you Click to Enlarge).
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