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Weekly Observations

Nov 13 - Nov 19, 2005
Australian Pine (Casuarina spp.) is blooming now, but that is not very remarkable as it may flower any time of year in this climate. Probably the most common evergreen trees one sees along the North Shore of Lake Chapala, tree is considered an unwanted invasive species in many areas of Florida, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands, where it is blamed for driving out native species. Highly drought tolerant, and sufficiently nitrogen-fixating to thrive in very poor soils, it is ideally suited to conditions here.

Most of the local plazas have Australian Pines, and they grow along both major and minor roadsides here. The curious thing about them is that although they are from Australia as the name implies, they are not pines or even conifers.

If you look closely at the 'needles' you will see they are jointed, like snakeweed plants. These are, botanically speaking, actually branches. Look closely at the joints (you may need a magnifying glass) and you can see the tiny leaves. This is a deciduous tree that can reach 30 meters high or more. It produces two types of flowers (make and female) and produces woody fruits that are like little pine cones, making the pine-tree resemblance even greater.

At left is a close-up scan of the base of one of the needle-like deciduous stems, showing some of the joints. These 'needles' can be up to ten inches long, and are very thin -- giving the tree a wispy or feathery appearance close-up.

These are the male flowers which are borne on slender, cylindrical spikes at the tip of the twigs. The female flowers cluster in lateral heads on non-shedding branchlets where the cone-like fruits form. The picture below shows Australian Pine branches with those woody fruits that look like little pine cones.

Nov 6 - Nov 12, 2005
Bergamot or Bee Balm (Monarda spp.), is a group of about twenty species of fragrent flowering plants that have been used for medicinal and decorative purposes. There is a common orange flower blooming this time of year that I believe belongs to this diverse group, but none of the species I have found described or illustrated exactly match the plant that is so common around here. Nor have I had any luck finding reference to Monarda among the botanical references I have for Jalisco.

Most bergamots grow to half a meter, with only a few species getting up to one and a half meters high -- but the Mexican plant easily exceeds two meters. The bergamots generally have a terminal spike or interrupted spike -- but this Mexican plant has both terminal and axial spikes.

Still, the flowers look very much like Monarda fistulosa, except they are orange rather than purple. The leaves are large, ovate, and dentate, which makes me think it may be related to Monarda lasiodonta or Monarda punctata which were named, presumably, for the rough teeth on the leaf margins.

Here are close-up pictures of the flower cluster, leaf and a single floret:

There is, by the way, a Mexican Bergamot (Monarda austromontana) but from illustrations I've found it is not even close to resembling the plant growing around here.

Oct 30 - Nov 5, 2005
The hills are about 50% brown now, and the remaining green spots are a somber dusty-green. There has been no rain for the past few weeks, so the surface water has pretty much dried up, and only trees with deep roots or strong drought tolerance can remain green.

With the end of Daylight Savings it is getting dark around 6:30 PM, the sun actually sets a few minutes before that, and twilight is brief. Since the skies are usually cloudless it is a great time for skywatching. Even in town the stars are visible, but go just a little away from the lights and the view is spectacular. The Milky Way and major constellations are easily spotted, along with planets and the brighter of the artificial sattelites. A few meteors (shooting stars) and the panoply is complete.

This is the time when the scorpions begin to wander. One large specimen found its way into our house, and attracted the attention of our new little kitten. She was cautious enough not to attack it -- instinct perhaps, since she pounces on bugs without hesitation -- but her attention drew ours, so I could dispose of it.

Being a former street-cat she came to us with a full complement of fleas, lice and even mange. Weekly baths with antibiotic soap takes care of the fleas and lice, but we had to buy her medicine to cure the mange. Mange is similar to scabies in humans, they are caused by related species of mites -- microscopic creatures that burrow into the skin. Ivermectin pills seem to be curing her rapidly, and after just a few days her hair is growing back in the few affected patches. She is so small (she weighed one pound when we got her) we have to divide a regular cat-dose pill into fourths for her.

It is also breeding time for the canaries, of which we have seven pairs currently. One has already laid three eggs, the others will follow soon. We usually have two to three clutches of three to five eggs from each pair, so we will be inundated with baby canaries by December.

Oct 23 - Oct 29, 2005
One really gets the feeling that rainy season is over now. The hills are still somewhat green, but it is a dull, mottled green, with splashes of brown. The Poinsettias have begun to bloom, a harbinger of winter.

Poinsettias are native to Mexico, and are sometimes called Mexican Flame Leaf or Christmas Star. The scientific classification is Euphorbia pulcherrima. This is one of about 1600 species in the Euphorbia family, which are called 'Spurges' and are characterized by an acrid, often poisonous milky latex. Such a liquid seeps out of branches or leaves of Poinsettia when you cut them, but in this case they are not poisonous -- despite persistent rumors and folklore to the contrary.

The name in Spanish is La Flor de Nochebuena or Flor de pascua, and the Aztecs called them Cuetlaxochitle. The term Poinsettia comes from Joel Roberts Poinsett, who was the first U.S. ambassador to Mexico, and who brought the first specimens of this plant to the U.S.A. in 1825.

The blooms will last almost all winter, at least until February or early March. Botanically, the most interesting thing is that these blooms are not really flowers, but specialized leaves (bracts) that surround the little unremarkable flowers.

Oct 16 - Oct 22, 2005
The Guaje (Leucaena leucocephala) are in bloom, called 'white leadtree' in English and Koa haole in Hawiian, and marainu in Maori, but the French name best sums it up faux acacia, for it looks like it should be an acacia. In fact it is in the Fabaceae (formerly Leguminosae) or Pea family, and sub-family Mimosoideae like the Acacias, but is a seperate genus, and one of the 13 species in that genus.

This tree may be native to Mexico, or could have originated further south in Guatamala or El Salvador. It is hard to know for sure, because this highly-prized tree was cultivated in prehistoric times, and spread by native Americans throughout the southern North America and Central American regions. It is now widespread on Pacific islands and in the tropical and sub-tropical countries bordering the Pacific.

This is a very useful tree, according to Perdue University it is:

A multipurpose tree with extremely wide range of uses, based on naturalized and cultivated stands throughout tropics and subtropics. Uses of wood include fuelwood, lumber, pulpwood (paper, rayon), craftwood and charcoal. Uses of foliage include animal fodder, green manure and food (juvenile shoots). Feeding can be unrestricted to ruminant animals, but must be restricted to poultry and non-ruminants, where it is often used for its high contents of Vitamin A and protein. Uses of legumes and seeds include animal fodder, tea, medicinal and food (juvenile beans). Trees are used as ornamentals, windbreaks, shade trees, sources of green manure, and as stabilizing hedges on hillslopes. Gum is used as a substitute for gum arabic; seeds are strung into leis and jewelry; poles are used to prop bananas or crops like beans.

The most popular Mexican use of the seeds for food involves collecting or buying seeds while they are still green and tender. They are eaten raw, or added to beans or egg omelettes. A special salsa is also made from Guaje seeds. Medicinally, it is supposed to clean the kidneys and help reduce intestinal parasites. Some people do not like the smell, and young children may have a stomach-ache or diarrhea from consuming them. I've eaten them in an omelette and thought they were fine, but not strong-flavored enough to be memorable.

Oct 9 - Oct 15, 2005
Well with the help of Mary Prud'homme from the Lake Chapala Garden Club I've finally learned the name of the tree that is currently flowering all over Lakeside, with big orangish-red flowers -- Galeana in Spanish it is known as African Tulip Tree or Flame Tree in English. The botanical name is Spathodea campanulata and it is in the Bignonia Family.

This tree really is native to Africa, but the tremendous blossoms have made it popular wherever frost-free weather prevails. The tree can reach 25 meters (82 feet) and grows with such gusto is it considered a weed on some Pacific Islands. The blooms are almost always red or orangish-red around here, but there is a yellow variety too. The bloom is described by botonists as:

Petiole up to 6 cm long, thickened at base; raceme 8-10 cm long on a peduncle of about the same length, with a pair of reduced leaves about halfway up, rachis and pedicels thick, brownish puberulent, bracts subtending pedicels lanceolate, curved, about 1 cm long, caducous, pair of bractlets near summit of pedicel similar, opposite; calyx strongly curved upward, asymmetric, about 5 cm long, tapering, somewhat ribbed, splitting at anthesis to within a few mm of base along dorsal curve, apex horn-like, blunt, exterior brownish sericeous puberulent; corolla bright vermilion or scarlet, 10-12 cm long, mouth of limb about 7 cm across, lobes about 3 cm long, obtuse, margins strongly crispate, orange-yellow; filaments about 5 cm long, dull orange anthers arcuate, linear, very dark brown, 15 mm long; style yellow, 8 cm long, stigma reddish; capsule lanceolate, slightly compressed, 17-25 x 3.5-7 cm

That somewhat complex description is needed to describe this flower:

Oct 2 - Oct 8, 2005
About three rainy days this week as the remnants of Hurricane Stan make themselves felt. Down on the Mexico-Guatamala border area that storm wreaked havoc, killing dozens of people in the flooding. Here we had one night with heavy rain, and a couple evening and early morning showers.

In the lake the Lirio (actually Water Hyacinth) are in full bloom. Very pretty, I don't know why people are so anxious to eradicate them. They provide a place of refuge for small fish, and the water birds are always perching on the floating mats. Some claim they cause water-loss through transpiration, but I'm sure the shading they provide diminishes evaportion enought to outweigh any loss. Like the lake itself they follow a natural cycle of abundance followed by diminishment, so just leave them be and they will thin out in time.

I identified that orange flower that is so ubiquitous now, and it is indeed a wild Cosmos (Cosmos sulphureus). It has somewhat wider leaf structure than Cosmos bipinnatus, another species commonly found in this area. These orange flowers are most common in this area, but the same species may be seen in various shades of yellow in other locations, while the Cosmos bipinnatus tends toward purples, reds and pinks. Both are grown as domesticated flowers, and both are native to Mexico.

Like sunflowers, dandelions, and thousands of other flowers, Cosmos are in the Composite family. What most people call 'flowers' on these plants are actually dense clusters of flowers forming a flower head. The 'petals' are each an individual 'ray flower' while the central disk is made up of many tiny and compact 'disk flowers.'

Sep 25 - Oct 1, 2005
Had one good rainstorm this week, Thursday night. About that time hurricane Otis was off the Pacific coast due west from here, so I assume the rain was part of the spin-off from that storm. Most nights are clear again, so it is once again good star-watching weather.

The mountainsides have lots of yellow flowers, kind of a repeat of Spring when the Primavera blooms. Not sure what shrub is responsible for the yellow flowers this time of year. On the roadsides one sees many orange flowers, these may be wild cosmos (Cosmos spp.) -- I haven't had time to examine them closely to be sure, but they have the same wispy leaves as cosmos, and that species is native to Mexico. Sometime before they stop blooming I'll try to take a closer look so I can say for sure.

Anyhow, another native flower in the Aster family is also making its annual showy appearance. The wild sunflower (Helianthus spp.) grows in abundance in local fields. Some heavy stands of these plants grow ten feet tall in such dense clusters that they shade out all other plants. These are true sunflowers, not the Mexican Sunflower (Tithonia rotundifolia) which in Spanish is called clavel de muerto (carnation of the dead), though that too is in the Aster family.

Saw two scorpions this week, they must be moving about more than usual this time of year as the rains end. It has been six months since I last noticed one, so two in one week constitutes a crowd. One was outside, but within a yard of the front door, so I killed it. The other was indoors, crouched against a wall. He was moving pretty slow, probably affected by the poison I spray on the door sills about once a month to keep the cucarachas out. Both were medium-sized, about two inches long.

Sep 18 - Sep 24, 2005
The rainy season has ended. We had some light rain this week, but nothing of any consequence. Thunderstorms will continue to occur over the next few weeks, but with decreasing frequency. November through April will be so dry that rain of any sort will be a rarity. We usually get about two inches of rain over those six months, compared to about 33 inches over the six rainy months.

We climbed up into the mountains on Sunday, curious to see where a two-track trail would lead us. It ended in a mining claim, but such a small scale operation that it is doing little damage to the magnificent scenery. We will have to return during the dry season to see how different it looks without the nearly jungle-like verdant vegetation.

Saw some large caterpillars up there, black and gray and about three and a half to four inches long. Wonder if these turn into those very large, mostly black butterflies (or moths?) that are common around here? Those are the only really large Lepidoptera that occur in large enough numbers to correspond with these fairly numerous caterpillars -- we saw a dozen over a two or three kilometer stretch of trail.

I also saw a snake. It too was black, but moved so fast I couldn't get a really good look. It was about three feet long, but thin, only about an inch wide. It crossed the trail rapidly and disappeard in the heavy bush.

Sep 11 - Sep 17, 2005
Well bobo season is with us again. I can't find anything on bobo in reference to an insect when searching the Mexico Google, but only citations that use the word in its original Spanish sense as 'foolish' and some mention of kind of tse-tse fly in Africa. The creatures known locally as bobos are not African, though they do seem rather foolish at times.

A flying insect, the bobo appears to be a small mosquito -- though they all seem to be male as none have a proboscis. I do not know where the female of the species lives and hunts, as they do not appear to be the kind that feed on humans. The antennas are fuzzy, like in this picture, whereas local mosquitos that bite, insofar as I've managed to catch them, have straight antennas. Whatever their origin, bobos gather by the thousands this time of year and swirl around, seemingly aimlessly.

Certain surfaces seem to be especially attractive to them, such as certain textured walls, and they will land on these and collect in such numbers that from a short distance the wall looks grey rather than whatever color it may be painted.

They are also attracted to lights, like so many other flying insects, and many outdoor restaurants are bothered at night by huge swarms swirling around their lights.

Bobos take no interest in humans, though when you walk through a swarm it is difficult to avoid breathing them in. Likewise, they seem to have no interest in your food or drink, but may end up there accidentally anyhow. Some Lakeside areas seem to have more bobos than others, though I have yet to detect a clear pattern. It is not simply proximity to the lake, for example. They disperse when the wind blows, so sheltered areas have more, but not all sheltered areas. They mostly gather in the evening, and can be found in concentrations near favored resting places (like those walls I mentioned earlier) in the morning, but they disappear in the mid-day sun -- just as should people if they have any sense. So perhaps the bobo is not as foolish as the name implies, but their behavior is also in no way endearing.

Sep 4 - Sep 10, 2005
Lake Chapala has continued to rise slowly, but I don't think it will reach the heights (or should I say depths) it was at when it peaked last year, though it is already higher than the peak from 2003.

I've been noticing the vegetation along the shoreline. The Lirio or water hyacinth is of course most prevalent in the shallows (and it continues to blossom) but there is another plant occupying fairly large swaths of very shallow water, just ten centimeters deep and less, forming patches among the lirio. Like lirio this plant seems to have floating leaves, kind of oval with ridges that give them a striped appearance, but I think that unlike the water hyacinth they are mostly rooted in the sandy bottom. I have yet to see any flowers on them, and so have little hope of identifying the species yet.

There are also smaller plants visible in some patches of water, little chichicastle and lenteja de agua which are both species of duckweed (Lemnaceae spp.). Here and there are patches of floating sedges and some cattails that seem to have been uprooted and set adrift as the water levels rose.

Aug 28 - Sep 3, 2005
It has been raining nearly every day this week. For a couple days it even rained during the daytime, but mostly we have been getting powerful thunderstorms around midnight. Earlier in the year evening storms seemed to form in the southeast and you could see them coming across the lake in the hour or two before dark. But these late-night storms are coming down from the north or northwest. You can see the lightning in the distance for an hour or more before they get close enough to hear the thunder. Then minutes later the rain begins to wash down in torrents.

It has also been more windy these days than earlier in the summer. A nice breeze is very welcome in the mid-day heat. Sharp gusts in the evening swirl dust around and cause the birds to pause briefly their incessant chatter.

Many of the fields and mountainsides we walked along two or three months ago are now so thick with thorny brush that they are impassible without a machete. Also the steep mountainside can be very slippery in places where rivulets keep the soil moist.

I saw a meter-long snake crossing a dirt track through a flower-filled field in Riberas. It was dark gray on its back, with white underbelly. Our former neighbor has warned us about dangerous serpents in the mountains, no doubt he would kill this one if he saw it slither along just a block away from his home. Not knowing what species it is I can't say if it was dangerous, but it certainly didn't look threatening. He probably helps keep down the rodent population.

Also saw a tlacuache that was less lucky. The name tlacuache is Nahuatl in origin, meaning 'glutton' -- an apt name for this little opposum. A marsupial, it eats insects and fruit in the wild, but will happily content itself with garbage in town. Our neighbor across the street was cleaning out a shed one evening this week, and startled a poor tlacuache from his nap. As the little creature ran for its life we were alerted by the screams of half a dozen children. 'Kill it! Kill it!' We saw it scurry out into the street, where the children soon beat the hapless animal to death.

Aug 21 - Aug 27, 2005
Water levels in Lake Chapala are only slightly above the low point at the beginning of the rainy season, and still far below last year's high. But there is hope yet. According to news reports, there are reservoirs in the Lerma watershed that are beyond their normal capacity, and the governments upstream have begun releasing water from them. That also happened last year, and was followed by a rapid rise in the level of Lake Chapala.

We had daytime rain several days this week, due to tropical storms on the Pacific coast. Temps have been very comfortable upper 70°s F. all week.

Occasional strong winds at night have preceded thunderstorms. I noticed an odd thing about the avocado tree. It has been dropping one or two fruit each night, and they come crashing down through the branches and hit the ground with a loud 'thump!' But it seems they only fall in very still air -- when it is windy, they hold on.

Fields are reaching their peak of summer wildflower activity, spurred on by the rains no doubt. It is hard to tell which of the many colorful blooms are native, which natural but imported weeds, and which are just recent escapees from the local gardens. One field has a wealth of multi-colored cosmos that must be from some nearby garden; natural plants rarely seem to come in different colors in the same location.

Earlier Weekly Observations:

• Aug 14 - Aug 20, 2005 with information on the Rio Grande de Santiago, and Ocotlán museum and park.
• Aug 7 - Aug 13, 2005 with information on Mistletoe again, local farming and lake levels.
• Jul 31 - Aug 6, 2005 with information on palm trees, Mistletoe (Psittacanthus spp.) and ground squirrels.
• Jul 24 - Jul 30, 2005 with information on weather, Guayaba trees (Psidium guajava), Capulin trees (Prunus salicifolia) and Lignum Vitae (presumabley Guaiacum officinale).
• Jul 17 - Jul 23, 2005 with information on jacarandas blooming out-of-season, castor plants (Ricinus communis) and Jimsonweed (Datura spp.).
• Jul 10 - Jul 16, 2005 with information on weather, tillandsia and an unknown white flower.
• Jul 3 - Jul 9, 2005 with information on weather, greening mountains, lirio clean-up and reviving dodder.
• Jun 26 - Jul 2, 2005 with information on hummingbirds, ciruela, tillandsia, hierba de pajaro, lichen de enchino, and mescalito.
• Jun 19 - 25, 2005 with information on Mezcala Island, dedo de Dios, avocado, camachin, fig trees, and Cora indians.
• Jun 12 - 18, 2005 with information on cicadas, rainbirds, chicharra, cigarras, and dodder - Cuscuta.
• Jun 5 - 11, 2005 with information on St. Anthony, castillas, Tlaloc and weather.
• May 29 - Jun 4, 2005 with information on Guava, Guamuchiles and weather.
• May 22 - 28, 2005 with information on Tabachin, Jacaranda, lirio or water hyacinth, guamuchiles and Red-bordered Pixie butterflies.