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Weekly Observations
May 22 - 28, 2005

The Tabachin trees are in full and glorious bloom, their large red/orange flowers giving the trees the appearance of living fire. There are a few scattered clusters of blooms on some Jacaranda trees, but they are well past their peak -- a few weeks back they engulfed the trees with their little blue blossoms, and carpeted the ground beneath so that it seemed to reflect the dark blue of the cloudless sky. That sky continues to hint that rainy season is to come -- May 20th there was a slight sprinkle about 10:00 P.M. and it has been repeated almost every evening since. Then on the 23rd there was just enough rain around sunset to wet the ground. In the lake the lirio (water hyacinth, Eichhornia crassipes) is beginning to bloom too, trying to make up for its tendency to dominate the shoreline, much to the chagrin of boaters, swimmers and those who find the green carpet effect esthetically objectionable.

Of course with the rainy season coming soon that means the guamuchiles are ripe, and people can be seen using long poles to shake the pods out of the Guamuchil (Pithecellobium dulce) trees. They continue producing into the early rainy season, but are not good to eat once the rains come because they get 'wormy'. (Butterflies, such as the Red-bordered Pixie {Melanis pixe} feed on this tree in the larval stages, and may be one source of the 'worms').