Mama, Do We Always Have to Look at Plants?

Today, I’m writing you from the eastern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, one of my most favorite places. We’re trying to have a family vacation and do a little botanizing at the same time at an Eco resort just south of Playa Del Carmen in Quitana Roo.

I’m sitting on the porch of my thatched roofed hut amidst the forever tangling mangroves.

My “gnome” of the week was found on the rocky shores of the coral reef. We’ve named him Wilson.

My husband and I love Mexico.

We’d live here if it were feasible. We love the food, the culture, the music and most of all, the hard working people. We come every year for a week with our family.

This year we chose an Eco resort, the Xpu-Ha Palace. Palace it isn’t, but what a cool place. We’ve been surrounded by mangrove swamps full of coatis (they call these foxes, but they look like red raccoons) and wild birds.

We’ve seen wild monkeys, agoutis (big rat-like creatures without tails), many different iguanas. We also snorkeled, kayaked and swam with all sorts of fish.

Most resorts in this area are clear cut and then planted with assorted tropicals and lots and lots of grass. We chose Xpu-Ha because it won an award in 2009 for being one of the best ecologically conscious resorts in the World. Since there’s no grass, we wandered the edges of the mangrove swamps, and the savannahs, looking for plants.

This pleased my seven year-old son to no avail.

On one of our treks we saw two kinds of air plant (Tillandsia sp.), several orchid species and my favorite, the bromeliads (Aechmea sp.). We also saw 20’ tall pagoda trees (Plumeria sp.), but the only one I could get a picture of was the twelve foot tall one standing outside of our hut.

I get so excited to see plants in their native habitats. It was also fun to hear the local man who cares for the plants talk about how he uses them for their medicinal properties.

We’re headed back home on Sunday where I’m sure I’ll find something fun to rant about for next week’s letter, but today I wanted to share a tiny piece of my paradise with you.

My son just wants to go to the beach and the pool.

“How can a neon yellow caterpillar be so exciting to you?”, he says.

My three year-old daughter thinks it’s all interesting. She appeases me and comes running to see what crazy thing I’ve spotted now.

My husband gets the most excited, perhaps because he works on the internet all day. Seriously, he loves how I spot all the “weird” things that he would just walk right by and miss seeing.

I can’t help it… it’s my job.

Until next week, I’ll leave you with a few pictures of the flora and fauna with whom we’ve so graciously shared our vacation.

Happy first day of Spring and, as always, Happy Weeding!

Until next week…

Angela Treadwell Palmer
President, Plants Nouveau