Goodbye Old Fig Tree

It was a good tree.  Although you couldn't call it pretty, you could call it pretty awesome; it provided shade for the generator shed and the garden beds below it, fruit for many species of birds and bats, and home to the most massive Myrmecophila orchid I have ever seen.  Below is the homely fig tree 13 months and 1 week ago as seen from the sunset balcony.

The fig tree, still suffering from a bad trim job that we gave it when it was interfering with our satellite internet reception.  It needed to have dead branches cut out too.

Then, on 4 August, 2016, Hurricane Earl hit northern Belize.  We felt some of it - high winds and lots of rain on the order of a tropical storm rather than a hurricane for us here in southern Belize.  The fig tree weathered the winds of Earl, but not the rain - the day after Earl came through the fig slowly tipped over in the dead calm.  Its shallow roots just pulled free from our sandy soil.

Fallen fig tree behind the gen shed.  It considerately slowly rolled off the roof, leaving some slight bends in the metal. 

Such a shallow root system just couldn't hold it up in the water saturated sand.

Over the next week, we started trimming the tree into smaller pieces.  I learned just last week that locally this process is called "junking up".  There are people who make a living "junking up" trees.  

Richard, junking up the tree.  But saving as much of the big orchid as possible.

Orington, AKA Tiger, standing next to the large orchid in the partially junked tree.

After we cut off the limbs with the orchids, we put those limbs under the cashew tree next to the old fig tree.  They are doing well, and even bloomed this year after a substantial post-Earl die-back.  The main trunk and the roots were too big and too hard for our chainsaw to make a dent.  So we let the remain portion rest in place, hoping that with time rot would set in and make it easier to finish junking up the tree.  Last week, we tried again.

Orington and Pascal attacking the roots with a machete. 

In the meantime - look at that Agave flower stalk soaring to the left of Orington.  The guys had never seen an agave bloom before.  I had to break it to them that after it bloomed, the main plant would die, but that the young agaves around it would take its place.

Slow going with a machete.

 Time to get the chainsaw out once the little stuff is dealt with by the machete.

Roots trimmed of with the chainsaw.

But our chainsaw still could not make a dent in the big trunk and main roots, even after a year.  We had to call in a professional to junk up the tree. Enter Godwin and his big chainsaw.

Godwin going at the tree.

 No one touches Godwin's chainsaw except Godwin.

He made several girdlings of the trunk with moral support from Orington, Clinton, and Pascal.

Clinton giving it the machete test to see how much more needs to be cut with the saw.

First section gone, working on the second.

Clinton trying to help push apart the sections while Godwin wields the saw.

The last section.

Trimming through the roots.

Flipped back with the roots down to get a better angle for cutting.

We can finish this part with our smaller chainsaw.

The fig tree was a good one and we have some fig seedlings to set out in places that aren't so close to our various buildings and structures.  Near this spot, we will plant a Coral Tree, which is much better suited to the high water table.  More on it next time.

A Walk Through The Jungle Part 2

It's All About The Orchids

They were amazing and intricate and full of ants.  Here you go:

Pink lip with white ruffled edge

Palest of pale yellow lip with no ruffled edge.

Brighter yellow tongue.

Dark fuchsia with white edges.  Young seed pod with remains of dried flower on the end.

Reaching for the sun.  These are epiphytic orchids, but this one got so heavy it broke the tree branch it was growing on and it rests, branch and all, on the ground.  Makes it easy take photos.

A closer look at the flowers from the same plant. Pale pink lips with a white edge on these flowers.

Dark fuchsia covers the entire lip - no white edge.

Same flower from the side.  Perhaps the loveliest of all.

Next time we will complete the walk with a look at some trees.  It was way too much for a single post.

A Walk Through The Jungle With Nolbert And Barnie

My young friend, Nolbert, is visiting his step grandfather's friend (and also my friend) Craig, just up the beach from us.  You may remember Nolbert from a post I wrote last year - "The First Adventure of Green Shanks and Yellow Legs" describing a little sea trip Nolbert and I made in our green and yellow kayaks.  We had the kayaks out again Friday morning and then in the afternoon we went for walk through jungle.  Nolbert kindly had Barnie on a leash so I could be free to take photos without Barnie's "help".  Below are a few of the photos from the first part of our walk.

First up is a very delicate orchid Brassavola nodosa, known as Dama de Noche.  I only was able to take 2 quick photos because ants had gotten into my socks and demanded immediate attention.  Some moderate cursing may have been involved.  Good thing Nolbert had Barnie out of earshot!  Back to the Lady of the Night.  Although she is delicate and ephemeral in appearance, the flowers stay beautiful for about 3 weeks.  They seem to glow in the dimness of the mangrove swamp.

Brassavola nodosa, AKA as Dama de Noche

Once the ants were dispatched, I continued on, catching up with Nolbert and Barnie.  This part of the path is on a man-made raised walk that goes westward toward Black Creek.  On either side of the raised path is mangrove swamp that is home to lots of wildlife.

Nolbert leading Barnie down the path to Black Creek.

See those roots growing across the path above?  They are a real tripping hazard when running in the damn dim dawn light.  My shoulder still aches from that spill.  A little farther along is a vanilla orchid that I first spotted 3 years ago.  Back in March, I was showing it to a friend visiting from the US and we saw a vanilla bean pod on the vine!  I have been keeping an eye on the pod and will harvest it soon.  Another, more robust, vine is about 20 feet away.  I am keeping an eye on that one in hopes to spot it in bloom and and see more beans in the wild.  I'll need to see it in flower before I can determine which species it is.

Protruding vanilla bean in all its rude glory. 

The most dramatic orchid we see around here in Englishtown is Myrmecophila tibinicus.  This orchid hosts ant colonies in its pseudobulbs and the ants swarm all over the flowers, as you can see in the image below.  There is some variation in the color of the bottom lip of the flowers.  This particular stalk has lips of the palest pink.  Others, which I will show in future posts, are fuchsia, pale yellow, or white.

Myrmecophila tibinicus, with its attendant ants.

Nolbert, Barnie, and I backtracked to return to the coastal path that goes from our place in South Englishtown, through Central Englishtown, and finally ends in North Englishtown at Craig's place; a whopping 0.6mi as the pelican flies.

The sea is just to our right on the coastal path.

Spider lilies love growing near the sea; you often find them just above the high tide line.

Spider lilies.

They have the most amazing smell - very lily-like, but not as cloying and oppressive as many other lilies.

 Each flower last only a day, but the flowers on a given cluster open over the span of about a week.

More from our walk in the next post.

Apologies to my readers for my long absence.  I was completely devastated by Trump's election.  Enough said about that.  But I want to offer a thank you to my friends and blog readers who have encouraged me to write again - I appreciate it very much.