Download Tropical Plants

Tropical plants and flowers
A botanist’s dream
3-25-2010
Annato, or Lipstick Bush, is a common spice.
Annato lipstick in action.
Who can resist plucking a Hotlips flower and
sticking it between your lips?
Now you see why they are called hot lips.
Bat Flowers (Tacca) are so named due to the
black flowers reminding someone of bats.
Black orchids, the Belize national flower
Orchids are not uncommon, but
depend on the right amount of rain to
bloom.
People love orchids because they are
beautiful. Biologists love them because they
are sexual tricksters.
Utricularia, or Bladderwort, is an insectivorous plant. In the
U.S., they are almost all aquatic. The roots and insectivorous
bladders (the white ones) of this species grow in soil. The
specimen is from a cloud forest in Venezuela.
Jackass Bitters is one of the most
important medicinal plants to the Maya.
It is most often used for an upset
stomach (“the
bitta, the
betta”)
Doug Nobile curing his runs by
chewing Jackass bitters.
The beefworm plant oozes a white,
alkaloid that Maya use to kill botfly
larvae.
Marcos Ack shows the white
alkaloid ooze that one dabs on the
beefworm to kill it.
Beefworm plant flowers and fruits
(taken in August).
Red-sticky is a common plant used by the
Maya to stop bleeding. They just wad up the
leaves and press them on the wound. It gets
its name from the reddish stem.
Fish Plant is a rounded leafed plant
that the Maya use to wrap fish when
cooking. It also has medicinal uses.
Cassava (manihot, manioc, yuca) is a
staple food of the Maya.
Vincenti Ack and Macal, also called poi.
In the southeast, it grows wild along
bayous and rivers and is called Elephant
Ear, Colocasia.
Primitive societies always had
viagra-like medications.
This is parapim, the kek’chi name
for the viagra-like plant used in San
Miguel.
This plant is used to ease heavy
menstruation.
This wild
yam is used
to induce
abortion.
A Caribbean favorite is cristophine
(called merliton in New Orleans).
Pipers (same genus as black pepper),
with their characteristic seed stalks
sticking straight up, are from the
tropics.
Bird peppers – a favorite in Belize.
A passion flower species in fruit.
Near Belmopan, 8-07.
An unidentified legume in fruit.
Note the closed leaves to the left.
Near Belmopan, 8-07.
Bougainvillea is a common tropical landscape
species (also comes in purple & peach).
Pineapples grow in most people’s yards, and
are wonderful when fresh.
Bottlebrush plants attract a variety of
nectar feeding animals.
More flowers on trees.
Frangipani’s, a commonly seen nonnative, are very pretty and aromatic.
Helios is a non-chlorophyll plant
found in Cockscomb in 2004.
Heliconias come in a variety of shapes & colors. Have interesting
communities of organisms that live in those colorful bracts [good research
topic!]
Vincente Ack demonstrates how to
make a sound like a toucan with a
heliconia flower.
Writing heliconia
Gingers are also
common in the
tropics – and
there are a
number of
species.
Drip-tip leaves – very characteristic of tropical
plants. They ensure that the leaf doesn’t stay wet
and encourage growth of mold and mildew.
A wonderful drip-tip leaf on a palm
in Tambopata, Perú.
Melastomataceae – a characteristic
plant family of the tropics.
Mistletoe: Central Venezuela. The plant (l),
the very sticky seed (r) that sticks to the bill of
birds, and a new plant (bottom) that grows
from a seed scraped off the birds beak on the
limb.
Cacti are also typical of most tropical
environments. (Why?)
Devil’s Guts is a type of cactus that
produces a tasty fruit called pataya.
Shoe String Cactus, Rhipsalis
capilliformis
Solanum mammosum: fruit of Udder
Plant (l) and spines on another species’
leaf (r) that prevent predation.
Most species of Solanum are toxic; again, note the
spines on the tops of their leaves. BTW, the tomato
is a member of the Solanaceae.
Datura (Angel’s Trumpets) are common.
This is a common source of hallucinogenic
compounds.
A typical tropical Hibiscus species.
Jade vine is a common ornamental in the
tropics. (Another legume…)
The Traveling Palm is a common landscape
species. Not native—introduced from
Madagascar, just like Flamboyant.
The grapes on Beach Grapes.
Tropical fruits, such as this caimito,
often look weird.
John Crow Bead, Cojoba graciflora
Tietie vine – Belize. The “hooks” help it to
climb. They are only on the distal end of the
vine.
Tietie has long, sharp thorns, and is a
bush as it grows.
Close-your-butt (also called Bay Cedar,
Pixoy, Tapaculo), Guazuma ulmiflora.
Guess what it is used for. Don’t eat too many
mangos!
You may be familiar with louffas, used in our
tubs. On the right is a louffa, which is the
interior of those growing on vines (l) in San
Miguel.
Sleeping plants in the rainforest in Trinidad.
Japanese Hats, Holmskiolda sanguinea –
Trinidad.
Spiny Bamboo is common along rivers in Belize.
Iguanas love to bask on the upper branches, and thus
got the name “bamboo chickens.”
When you see stands of bamboo like
this, look closely for iguanas.
Haul-em-back – a common vine that is covered with
small thorns that simply will not let go of you.
The fronds of all ferns grow from unfolding
“fiddleheads.”
The Powder Puff Tree, Calliandra.
Hummingbirds love this plant.
Sugarcane is a common agricultural
crop in the north.
“Sameness” of tropical forests
Dark with flecks of sun
 Tall trees (at least appearing so, due to
“thin” shape with most branches high)
 Flaring roots, buttresses, prop roots
 Tangled where sunlight penetrates
 Lots of woody vines
 Humid!!!

“Sameness” of plants
Many woody
 Wood often hard and insect resistant
(why?)
 Leaves

– Drip trips
– Waxy
– Often oval, unlobed, and with no teeth
Differences of tropical forests
Rich (e.g., alluvial) vs. poor (sandy)
soils
 Evolutionary history (kinds of
organisms)
 Terra firme vs. várzea
 Not all wet or superwet—don’t forget the
seasonally dry forest (and savannahs
and high mountains and …)
