Flowering Mexico July/August 07

[Anthony Darby]

What a holiday! Three weeks in the Riviera Maya, Mexico. Here's a selection of plants I saw.

Firstly three general shots of the hotel grounds.

Next a trailing vine that grew at the top of most beaches. Even though the sun was scorching hot, with temperatures around 30^oC, the sand was cool to the touch.

Five hibiscus flowers. There was quite a variety of shapes and colours and formed part of the diet of the large iguanas which we saw everywhere, even down by the hotel's pools.

Finally in this group, bougainvillea in pink and white.

[Anthony Darby]

Surrounding the hotel was a mangrove swamp. Alas, much is being developed at an alarming rate. Nevertheless, remanants remain within the grounds.

The hotel had a nursery in which they grew palms and other plants. They had rows of young Hymenocallis plants, which were planted along borders and down on the beach.

The grass was cut with rotary mowers every week, and the cuttings removed. Even so, there were a number of interesting 'weeds', such as this "now you see it; now you don't" Mimosa pudica. I did find another species of sensitive plant (Mimosa) sp., which was a large, very thorny shrub.

[Anthony Darby]

Here's a selection of bromeliads and a semi-ephiphytic aroid.

Sisal (Agave sisalana) is also cultivated, and here is some at Xcaret (pronounced shhhh-carett).

Everywhere we went we saw the Flambouyant or Flame Tree (Delonyx regia). It is flound all over the tropics but is endangered in its native Magacasgar and has seed pods over a foot long.

This was the nicest of several Heliconia sp. we saw.

[rob krejzl]

Anthony,

Lovely pictures, remind me of the time we lived in the tropics. I got quite attached to heliconias, costus, gingers and the like up there, but I couldn't stand the heat & humidity.

[Anthony Darby]

The hotel gardens were kept immaculate by a large team of gardeners, like this one trimming shrubs and lawn edges with a machete. One nice chap even cut us a coconut with a sickle attached to a long pole (used to trim off yellowing palm leaves). He cut a hole in it with his machete and we drunk the clear 'milk'. It was then split open to allow us to eat the 'meat'. Everywhere there were lizards, such as this Anolis sp., baslisks and large grey iguanas. I will create a section on wildlife.

Taking a closer look at plants could be risky, as even though the hotel grounds were 'fumigated' I found several Black-widow spiders (Latrodectus mactans).

There wasn't much directly aimed at older children, but Lucy found the 'Daisy Club' fun. Note the new hotel being built next door. The workers seemed to do a twelve hour day, but there must have been a siesta mid afternoon?.

The hotel had several water features, and this epiphytic orchid adorned one.

[Paul T]

Anthony,

Your climber that was at the top of the sand dunes looks to be one of the morning glories (Ipomoea .. spelling?) by the look of it.  Just in case you were wanting to know.  Some great pics of other bits and pieces.  Lovely orchids too!!

[Rob]

Lovely photos, apart from the black widow.

I'm looking forward to seeing more pics.

[Lesley Cox]

You HAVE been living it up Tony. Another great holiday and thanks for sharing it. I think your pink trailing vine is probably an Ipomea or more likely Calystegia or something close. That's about as far as my tropical plant knowledge goes, though I ADORE coconut milk. Very nice with fish and orange juice and a mild garam masala and some salt and pepper, served on rice

I'm surprised you didn't poke the black widow in order to have her stretch her legs and become a better model for the photograph. If you could have encouraged her to advance toward you, even better

[Maggi Young]

I'm enjoying this; well, I was, right up to the arrival of the Black Widow!
Glad to see that there are beast munching the plants out there, too... that aroid is chewed to holes in a big way.
I only have to see a hibiscus to think of Dorothy Lamour and the bougainvillea and oleander remind me of our Libyan gardens.... those were the days..... must go and put a sweater on....

[Brian Ellis]

Thanks for sharing your photos with us Tony, so much nicer to see them in the cool of a British Summer!  I have never come across a Delonyx, what a spectacular flower.  What sort of seeds does it produce?  With threads like this I don't think I shall ever go on holiday again

[Anthony Darby]

Thanks for the comment and the plant IDs. Brian, the seeds are hard and nearly an inch long - a sort of oblong bean. The aroid munched by the beasties was at a remote Mayan site called Coba. It has the tallest pyramid in the area and here's a couple of pics of the jungle from the top.

On our way, we called in at a Mayan village. The little old lady who allowed us into her home is 85. People sleep in cotton hammocks and cook on an open fire in the corner of the house. They raise ducks, chickens and pigs and there were skinny dogs everywhere. Their gardens contain an assortment of flowers and fruit trees such as paw paw and custard apple.

[Anthony Darby]

Here's some more. Firstly some orchids from the Xcaret park orchid house. Then jars of seedlings and oyster mushrooms. The last orchids were on a tree branch overhanging a pathway. Finally some prickly plants.