Palms on Caye Caulker

TerdalFarm · Post by **TerdalFarm** » Mon Dec 13, 2010 7:29 pm

At home, it is -3 oC right now after a morning low of -7 oC. This must seem warm for you folks, but no good for me.

I am in Belize right now, on the tiny island of Caye Caulker.
Here is the current weather:
http://cayecaulkerwe...eather-data.htm
The locals are whining about how cold it is and wearing jackets. It was hilarious to go to the beach this afternoon and see Canadian girls in bikinis soaking up the sun while grown men were shivering in coats.

I'll attach a few photos showing the arrival by my friend Mike and I, and then get to photos of the only native palm, Thrinax radiata. It is called "chit" locally. Chit is becoming rare as the local people, descendants of refugees from the Caste War in the Yucatan in the mid-19th century, use it for construction.

They introduced coconut (Cocos nucifera) cultivation as a cash and food crop. It is now ubiquitous. Many were killed by hurricanes, especially Keith in 2000. In the village, they were re-planted with varieties resistant to lethal yellowing disease. A few were lost in September to Hurricane Richard.

Recently, the village is turning to tourism and so many ornamental palms have been planted. I can take photos of those if anyone is interested.

Sources:
Chit palm http://www.backyardn...an/chitpalm.htm
Botany of Belizean islands: http://ambergriscaye...ide/botany.html
Text: The Plants of Caye Caulker, Jacob Rietsema and Dorothy Beveridge, BTIA, 2009.

<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/C2 ... site"><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_r-MvN4jW1sE/TQazE ... AG0414.jpg" height="478" width="800" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/terdalfarm/ ... te">Belize December 2010</a></td></tr></table>

<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Ex ... site"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_r-MvN4jW1sE/TQZ0V ... AG0417.jpg" height="478" width="800" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/terdalfarm/ ... te">Belize December 2010</a></td></tr></table>

<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/QX ... site"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_r-MvN4jW1sE/TQZyM ... AG0420.jpg" height="800" width="478" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/terdalfarm/ ... te">Belize December 2010</a></td></tr></table>

<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/tS ... site"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_r-MvN4jW1sE/TQZy6 ... AG0419.jpg" height="800" width="478" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/terdalfarm/ ... te">Belize December 2010</a></td></tr></table>

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Mon Dec 13, 2010 8:27 pm

Nice pics, Erik.
That is a tiny island, elevation 2 inches

Yes please more pics of the ornamentals.

Cocos oil comprises a huge industry, with multinational farms each month burning up thousands of acres of rainforest in the Amazon in S.A.

Let's hope folks on Belize/CC don't put all their eggs into one basket.
Diversity will protect them from inevitable price drops.

Barb

TerdalFarm · Post by **TerdalFarm** » Mon Dec 13, 2010 8:33 pm

The folks here shifted from coconut to lobster in the 20th century. Tourism is taking over in the 21st.
The close-knit community here is very protective of their resources, so I am optimistic, unless of course sea levels rise. High spots are about 3 feet above sea level.

I'll take more photos tomorrow. I am on a quest to identify a non-native ornamental Cycas that the authors of the text I cited could not identify. So, all the cycad experts out there, the ones who identified the Zamia I photographed last year, get ready.
Y'all know I less than nothing nothing about cycads. I embarrassed myself to the owner of my hotel today by complementing her on her PDP only to be told it is a Cycas!

--Erik

sidpook · Post by **sidpook** » Fri Dec 17, 2010 3:54 am

Great pics...Jealous! :verycold:

TerdalFarm · Post by **TerdalFarm** » Fri Dec 17, 2010 9:07 pm

Mike,
very nice weather now. Winds from ESE are keeping it tropical.
I think I now have a complete list with photos of palms on this little island, thanks to the help of the new book,
"The plants of Caye Caulker." I bought a signed, dedicated copy from the author (photo 1).
Besides the native chit palm, the introduced palms are:
bamboo palm Chameadorea seifrizii (photo 2)
coconut Cocos nucifera (photo 3)
date palm Phoenix dactylifera (photo 4) [note: an important food crop in the 20th century, but now merely ornamental]
botan palm Pritchardia pacifica (photo 5)
royal palm [sic] Veitchia merrillii (photo 6)

<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/jV ... site"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_r-MvN4jW1sE/TQw8G ... CT0035.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/terdalfarm/ ... te">Belize December 2010</a></td></tr></table>

<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/P_ ... site"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_r-MvN4jW1sE/TQw8N ... CT0081.JPG" height="400" width="300" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/terdalfarm/ ... te">Belize December 2010</a></td></tr></table>

<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/LP ... site"><img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_r-MvN4jW1sE/TQw8C ... CT0030.JPG" height="400" width="300" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/terdalfarm/ ... te">Belize December 2010</a></td></tr></table>

<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/xX ... site"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_r-MvN4jW1sE/TQw8g ... CT0088.JPG" height="480" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/terdalfarm/ ... te">Belize December 2010</a></td></tr></table>

<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/mu ... site"><img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_r-MvN4jW1sE/TQw8X ... CT0082.JPG" height="400" width="300" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/terdalfarm/ ... te">Belize December 2010</a></td></tr></table>

<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/_- ... site"><img src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_r-MvN4jW1sE/TQw8R ... CT0079.JPG" height="640" width="480" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/terdalfarm/ ... te">Belize December 2010</a></td></tr></table>

sidpook · Post by **sidpook** » Sat Dec 18, 2010 5:47 am

Excellent pics, love the tropics...Just such a great feeling to be in them! Why the heck am I here!!!!!???LOL

igor.glukhovtsev · Post by **igor.glukhovtsev** » Sat Dec 18, 2010 8:11 am

sidpook wrote:Excellent pics, love the tropics...Just such a great feeling to be in them! Why the heck am I here!!!!!???LOL

'Cos you were born there! Just imagine you are the Thai guy. There is a lot of palms around but nothing like iPad for 600 bucks. And you are thinking: Why the heck am I here!!!!!

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Sat Dec 18, 2010 8:52 am

Erik, thanks for posting those pics.
You'll have lots to talk about with the book's author.

The Pritchardia pacifica is one heck of a good-looking palm.
Hoping my P.hildebrandii seeds pop, so I can have such a robust beauty.

Nice to see the C.seifrizii...a wonderful clumping palm, keep mine mostly in shade and it blooms 3 times every summer.
Barb

TerdalFarm · Post by **TerdalFarm** » Sat Dec 18, 2010 9:53 am

I spent the past couple of hours walking around and have not added any ornamental palms to the list.
I did get better photos of the big date palm by the Catholic church.
However, I am convinced that the plant in front of my hotel really is a pygmy date palm despite the owners insistence that is is a cycad. I don't know much about palms, and nothing about cycads, but that is a PDP. No, I won't say anything to Gertraud.

<table style="width:auto;"><tr><td><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/2A ... site"><img src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_r-MvN4jW1sE/TQz02 ... 20OPRH.JPG" height="640" width="480" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/terdalfarm/ ... te">Belize December 2010</a></td></tr></table>

She says I can have as many Vietchia seeds as I want. They germinate on the ground like weeds she says!

lucky1 · Post by **lucky1** » Sat Dec 18, 2010 9:58 am

Definitely NOT a cycad!

TerdalFarm · Post by **TerdalFarm** » Sat Dec 18, 2010 10:04 am

Right, but I don't want to argue with someone who is offering me Veitchia seeds for free.

I think I'll just compliment here on her lovely cycad again.

--Erik
P.S. Gertraud does have a few small cycads which even I know really are cycads.

sidpook · Post by **sidpook** » Sat Dec 18, 2010 2:21 pm

igor.glukhovtsev wrote:
sidpook wrote:Excellent pics, love the tropics...Just such a great feeling to be in them! Why the heck am I here!!!!!???LOL
'Cos you were born there! Just imagine you are the Thai guy. There is a lot of palms around but nothing like iPad for 600 bucks. And you are thinking: Why the heck am I here!!!!!

LOL, I know but in the winter, I always question my wisdom...

sidpook · Post by **sidpook** » Sat Dec 18, 2010 2:22 pm

igor.glukhovtsev wrote:
sidpook wrote:Excellent pics, love the tropics...Just such a great feeling to be in them! Why the heck am I here!!!!!???LOL
'Cos you were born there! Just imagine you are the Thai guy. There is a lot of palms around but nothing like iPad for 600 bucks. And you are thinking: Why the heck am I here!!!!!

LOL, I know but in the winter, I always question my wisdom...

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Palms on Caye Caulker

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