Photo Gallery: The Cactus Gardens of Cadereyta de Montes

If Mexico calls to you with its old-world beauty, its bloody but glorious history, its rich culture and the profound pride and love of life that is reflected in the faces of its people, then like me, you will never tire of searching out the country’s endless natural treasures. From the cathedrals of power to the cathedrals of faith, from the breathtaking beauty of its coastal beaches, to the pueblos, valleys, mountain peaks and ancient ruins that make up the country’s landscape, Mexico is a journey without end.

One of the great joys of traveling in Mexico is that wherever you find yourself, for the cost of only a bus ticket, a cab fare or the services of a hired guide, you will always be able to find new frontiers, another piece of Mexican history to unravel and delightful memories to carry home with you. In the winter months, David and I make our home in San Miguel de Allende, and one glance at the map reminds us each year that we will never run out of new terrain to explore and still-undiscovered roads to travel.

One of our 2013 journeys was a day trip to Cadereyta de Montes in the state of Querétaro, a 90-minute trip from San Miguel. Sometimes referred to as the gateway to the Sierra Gorda, Cadereyta was founded in 1640 at the site of a Franciscan mission. In 2011 it was designated a pueblo mágico through a federal and state program that focuses on promoting the country’s places of particular natural beauty, historical significance and cultural bounty.

Cadereyta’s pristine main plaza features two churches – the parish church of St. Peter and St. Paul and the temple of La Soledad – that exemplify the beauty and grace of neoclassic architecture. It also features a stone-carved and beautifully painted Atrial Cross dating back to the late 1500s and preserved in a baptistry, and an extravagantly sculpted and gilded late baroque retablo created by Pedro de Rojas in the 1750s.

The highlight of our time in Cadereyta, though, and the purpose of our journey, was a trip to the city’s two botanical gardens: the older La Quinta Schmoll, founded in 1920 by biologist Caroline Wagner and her painter husband Ferdinand Schmoll, and the government sponsored Regional Botanic Gardens (Manuel Gonzales de Cosio Regional Botanic Garden), founded in 1990.

La Quinta is still a family project, run by the 4^th generation of the Wagner family and is dedicated to the preservation and reproduction of cacti and succulents of the region. Some of the more unique species to be found at La Quinta are what they refer to as ‘oldies’ – 500-year-old plants, some of which take 300 years to bloom. The plants have served a variety of purposes; many are edible and many are used for medicinal purposes. In one area called Casa Abuela (Grandmother’s house), mother plants are cared for to enable the collection of seeds for reproduction. The work in progress at La Quinta and the organization’s dedication to teaching and the sharing of information is clearly a labor of love. La Quinta’s beautiful old-world ambience and its mysterious winding pathways into a true world of natural wonders inspired a friend to say: “The old display garden at the back, now wildly overgrown, feels like a setting for an exotic mystery novel.” And indeed, it does.

Cadereyta’s Regional Botanical Garden occupies 12 hectares and is supported by the Science and Technology Council of the state of Querétaro; this garden focuses on the preservation of the many cacti and succulents that are under threat of extinction, particularly the Cactaceae and the Agavaceae. Dedicated to the conservation of these endangered families, greenhouses have been constructed as propagation units with low humidity refrigeration where seeds are stored in a germplasm bank so that they may be reproduced at a later date. The centre offers guided tours and educational, conservation and research programs for both school children and the general public. Its beautifully groomed gardens and winding pathways provide an enchanting experience for the visitor and the views above the gardens (a winding rocky path makes its way to a small lookout at the top) offer a stunning view of rolling green and umber fields and hazy blue distant mountains.

Both botanical gardens are a delightful visual gift for the traveler. Cadereyta is in the state of Querétaro on Federal Highway 120 (San Juan del Río-Xilitla Highway); it is 29 km to Bernal; 71 km to Quéretaro and 211 km to Mexico City.

Published or Updated on: December 17, 2018 by Edythe Anstey Hanen © 2018

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Crossandra, mango and jellybean plant: ornamental plants and flowers of tropical Mexico

Common names, scientific names, use and care, cultivation and propagation tips, flowering habits, history and little-known facts for the curious tourist or resident.

Crossandra (Crossandra infundibuliformis)

Family: Acanthaceae

Alternate Names: Firecracker Flower. The scientific name is from the Greek, meaning “fringed antlers.”

Use: This tropical shrub is originally from India but is widely cultivated for its beautiful, long-lasting flowers. It is often planted as a low growing (to 3 feet) border and can be grown as a houseplant or hothouse plant anywhere.

Flowers: Crossandra’s showy salmon-pink to yellow or orange-red flowers in terminal racemes bloom atop a shrub of glossy green leaves. This is a well-shaped bush with a long flowering season.

Cultivation: Crossandra’ thrives in light, fertile, acidic soil that is well drained. Keep the plant moist, and cut it back after flowering. It does well in a sunny, sheltered, warm place, or indoors, with bright sunlight.

Propagation: The plant is propagated by seed, or by cuttings rooted in a peat/sand mixture.

Mango (Mangifera indica)

Family: Anacardiaceae

Alternate Names: Peach of the Tropics, King of Fruits

Use: The mango is a member of the cashew (sumac) family. It is a handsome upright landscape tree which produces an abundance of edible fruit.

Flowers: At the branch tips, curved upward-pointing panicles of tiny pink flowers appear, each one with four or five petals. These are followed by the heavy, slow-ripening 6-inch fruits.

Cultivation: Found throughout tropical and sub-tropical climates, the mango requires a warm climate and abundant moisture, but can tolerate a dry season of several months. It grows best in full sun. It may reach 100 feet tall in Southeast Asia, but generally less than that in Mexico.

Propagation: Ordinary seedlings bear well, although the fruit may be somewhat fibrous. The improved mango varieties are grown from cuttings and are free of fiber.

Note: Mango leaves have a turpentine odor when crushed.

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Did You Know…?

Many common garden flowers were developed from samples collected in Mexico by a German botanist financed by Britain’s Horticultural Society.

Karl Theodor Hartweg (1812-1871) came from a long line of gardeners and had gardening in his genes. Born in Karlsruhe, Germany, on June 18, 1812, he worked in Paris, at the Jardin des Plantes, before moving to England to work in the U.K. Horticultural Society’s Chiswick gardens in London. Keen to travel even further afield, he was appointed an official plant hunter and sent to the Americas for the first time in 1836. What was originally intended to be a three-year project eventually became a 7-year expedition.

By Hartweg’s time, Europeans already knew that Mexico was a veritable botanical treasure trove, full of exciting new plants. For example, the humble dahlia, a Mexican native since elevated to the status of the nation’s official flower, had already become very prominent in Europe.

Mexican cacti were also beginning to acquire popularity in Europe at this time.

The Horticultural Society saw both academic and financial potential in sponsoring Hartweg to explore remote areas of Mexico, and collect plants that might flourish in temperature climes such as north-west Europe.

And Hartweg was certainly the man for the job. He proved to be an especially determined traveler, who covered a vast territory in search of new plants. He collected representative samples and seeds of hundreds and hundreds of species, many of which had not previously been scientifically named or described. Orchids from the Americas were particularly popular in Hartweg’s day. According to Merle Reinkka, the author of A History of the Orchid, Hartweg amassed “the most variable and comprehensive collection of New World Orchids made by a single individual in the first half of the [19th] century”.

Shortly after arriving in Veracruz in 1836, Hartweg met a fellow botanist, Carl Sartorius (1796-1872), of German extraction, who had acquired the nearby hacienda of El Mirador a decade eariler. Sartorius collected plants for the Berlin Botanical Gardens. His hacienda, producing sugar-cane, set in the coastal, tropical lowlands, became the mecca of nineteenth century botanists visiting Mexico. See, for example, two earlier columns in this series:

• Did you know that… a young Belgian botanist established a business exporting Mexican cacti to Europe back in the 1840s?
• Did you know that… scientists first explored El Pico de Orizaba, Mexico’s highest peak, as long ago as 1838?

The world of plant collecting in those days was a relatively small world. Hartweg would later unexpectedly meet another famous botanist Jean Jules Linden on two separate occasions, once in Mexico and later in Columbia.

From 1836 to 1839, Hartweg explored Mexico, criss-crossing the country from Veracruz to León, Lagos de Moreno and Aguascalientes before entering the rugged landscapes around the mining town of Bolaños in early October 1837. In his own words, reaching Bolaños had involved “travelling over a mountain path of which I never saw the like before”, one “which became daily work by the continual heavy rains.” From Bolaños, Hartweg visited Zacatecas, San Luis Potosí (in February 1838) and Guadalajara, where he did not omit to include a detailed description of tequila making. From Guadalajara, he moved on to Morelia, Angangueo [then an important mining town, now the closest town of any size to the Monarch butterfly reserves], Real del Monte, and Mexico City, from where he sent a large consignment of plant material back to England. Hartweg then headed south to Oaxaca and Chiapas en route to Guatemala, Ecuador, Peru and Jamaica. He arrived back in Europe in 1843.

But he was soon back in the Americas. As emissary of what would prove to be the Horticultural Society’s last organized expedition to the Americas, Hartweg left England on October 2, 1845 and reached Veracruz on November 13. He spent some days with his old friend Sartorius before traversing the country via Mexico City (early December) to Tepic, where he arrived on New Year’s Day, 1846, to wait for news of a suitable vessel arriving in the nearby port of San Blas which could take him north to California. In the event he had to wait until May, so he occupied himself in the meantime with numerous botanical explorations in the vicinity, including trips to Compostela and the Tetitlán volcano, now better known as Ceboruco. Eventually, he sailed north to California, from where he sent further boxes of specimens back to England, including numerous plants which would subsequently become much prized garden ornamentals. During this trip, he also added several new conifers to the growing list found in Mexico. It is now known that Mexico has more of the world’s 90+ species of pine (Pinus) than any other country on earth. This has led botanists to suppose that it is the original birthplace of the entire genus.

Disagreements about his remuneration and expenses caused Hartweg to return to Europe, sever his links with the Horticultural Society, and resettle in Germany in 1848. The Society library still houses three substantial volumes of correspondence and documents pertaining to Hartweg’s trips. Karl Theodor Hartweg died in Baden, Germany, on February 3, 1871. In an obituary, one of Hartweg’s closest friends, William Swale, severely criticized the Horticultural Society for the disgraceful treatment of Hartweg meted out by some of its senior members.

It took several years for the boxes and boxes of material sent back to England by Hartweg to be properly examined, cataloged and described. Many of the samples from his early trip were first described formally by George Bentham in Plantae Hartwegianae, which appeared as a series of publications from 1839 to 1842. Among the exciting discoveries were new species of conifers, such as Pinus hartwegii, Pinus ayacahuite, P. moctezumae, P. patula, Cupressus macrocarpa, and Sequoia sempervirens. Hartweg’s collecting prowess is remembered today in the name given to a spectacular purple-flowering orchid, Hartwegia purpurea, which is native to southern Mexico.

Numerous garden plants derive directly from plants Hartweg sent back to Europe. These included Salvia patens (a blue flowering member of the mint family) which became the ancestor of modern bedding salvias, the red-flowering Fuchsia fulgens, ancestor of a very large number of Fuchsia cultivars, and the red-flowering Zauschneria californica, commonly known as California fuchsia.

Sources:

• Elliot, Brent. “The adventures of Hartweg”, The Garden, November 2004, 868. London: Horticultural Society.
• Hartweg, Karl Theodor. “Journal of a mission to California”. Journal of the Horticultural Society. London, England. In several parts: 1846, 180-185, 1847, 121-125, 187-191, and 1848 217-228.
• Hartweg, Karl Theodor. “Notes of a visit to Mexico, Guatemala and Equatorial America, 1836 to 1843, in search of plants and seeds for the Horticultural Society of London. London, England”: Transactions of the Horticultural Society, vol. 3, 1848, 115-162.
• Reinikka, Merle A. A History of the Orchid. Timber Press. 1995.

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Did You Know…?

A surprising percentage of Mexico’s land area is protected in one form or another. A very large number of sites of archaeological or historical importance are managed by the National Institute of Anthropology and History, more commonly known by its acronym INAH. In theory, all buildings more than 100 years old have some degree of protection (under INAH), but in practice (witness the wholesale destruction of the oldest non-religious building in Jocotepec, Jalisco, to make a car park in recent years) this protection is often ignored by developers who have other ideas.

Sites considered significant for their natural beauty are protected in a variety of ways, ranging from nature sanctuaries of local importance to protected areas, national parks and internationally recognized biosphere reserves. In total, more than 11.5% of Mexico’s land area is now protected. This percentage has risen steadily for more than a century.

The designation of biosphere reserve can only be made by UNESCO (U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), in a manner somewhat similar to the designation that some major historical sites enjoy as World Heritage Sites.

One of the benefits of Biosphere Reserve status is that it opens the door for better access to more sources of funding for conservation programs. In 2009, another biosphere reserve was formally created in Mexico, to bring the national total to 36. Only the U.S. (47), the Russian Federation (40) and Spain (37) have more. Worldwide, there are now 531 biosphere reserves, in 105 countries. The guiding principle of biosphere reserves is that the local populace is not displaced, but actively involved in all aspects of management, research and monitoring.

Biosphere reserves have a research-intensive core area or areas at their heart, surrounded by a buffer zone, where sustainable development is fostered, before gradually transitioning into the surrounding region. Many reserves have innovative systems of governance designed to ensure that the views of local people are fully respected. The idea of biosphere reserves was first proposed in 1968 at the UNESCO “Biosphere Conference”, the first international attempt to reconcile the need for conservation with the use of natural resources for development.

No system is perfect. The challenges for biosphere reserves include strengthening the worldwide network by establishing new reserves in areas where few currently exist, as well as helping meet the on-going funding needs for all the reserves. One of the most significant future threats to biosphere reserves is likely to be the habitat changes wrought by global warming.

One of the more startling surprises in the existing network of reserves is the almost total lack of protection afforded to such an amazing part of Mexico as the Copper Canyon region, with its indigenous Tarahumara people and world-class scenery. But perhaps one day this region, too, will become part of Mexico’s extensive system of protected areas.

Mexico’s Biosphere Reserves, as of May 19, 2009:

Baja California Peninsula:

El Vizcaíno (Baja California Sur): desert, mountain and coastal/marine ecosystems, petroglyphs, wall paintings, birds and Grey whales.

Sierra La Laguna (Baja California Sur): contrasting ecosystems, woodlands and scrub, with high degree of endemism.

Alto Golfo de California (Baja California and Sonora): extraordinary geological formations with volcanic craters, dunes, oasis and beaches, and a diversity of plant associations.

Islas del Golfo de California (Baja California Sur and Sonora): series of over 240 islands with high number of endemic species; ornithological paradise.

Northern Mexico:

Mapimí (Durango, Chihuahua and Coahuila): fragile warm desert and semi-desert ecosystems.

La Michilía (Durango): mountainous area of pine-oak forest; habitat for the now rare black bear (Ursus americanus) and wolf (Canis lupus).

El Cielo (Tamaulipas): one of the most ecologically rich and diverse parts of Mexico; numerous endangered animal species; ecotourism area.

Laguna Madre and Río Bravo Delta (Tamaulipas): a migratory bird haven on coastal wetlands.

Cumbres de Monterrey (Nuevo León): the landmark mountains that ensure the water supply for the state capital.

Maderas del Carmen (Coahuila): encompassing parts of the Chihuahuan Desert in Coahuila state adjacent to the U.S. biosphere reserve of Big Bend National Park.

Cuatrociénegas (Coahuila): an oasis with 500 pools that preserve species found only in the Coahuila state part of the Chihuahua desert.

Sierra de Alamos–Rio Cuchujaqui (Sonora): endangered tropical deciduous forest.

Central and Western Mexico:

Sierra de Manantlán (Jalisco and Colima): transition of the Nearctic and Neotropical biological realms; cloud forest and wild perennial corn (Zea diploperennis).

Chamela-Cuixmala (Jalisco): a Pacific Coast dry tropical forest harboring iguanas and crocodiles in lagoons and marshes.

Islas Marietas (Nayarit): a biodiverse archipelago of islands with a rich mix of marine species, corals and landforms.

La Primavera (Jalisco): pine and oak forest in a caldera close to Guadalajara, Mexico’s second city.

Sierra Gorda (Querétaro): ecologically diverse area with 14 vegetation types, historic missions and Huastec Indians.

Monarch butterfly migration sites (Michoacán and State of México): unique annual migration links Mexico to Canada and the U.S.

Sierra de Huautla (Morelos): woods full of endemic species.

Barranca de Metztitlán (Hidalgo): home of Otomí Indians and large variety of wildlife.

Eastern Mexico:

Los Tuxtlas (Veracruz): a beautiful jungle-covered volcanic region, with vestiges of pre-Hispanic archeology.

Sistema Arrecifal Veracruzano (Veracruz): an archipelago off the Caribbean coast.

Pantanos de Centla (Tabasco): villages in coastal wetlands.

Southern Mexico:

Montes Azules (Chiapas): Lacandon tropical rainforest; 500 species of trees; several indigenous groups (including Tzeltal, Chol and Lacandon Maya).

Volcán Tacana (Chiapas): fragile ecosystems in Chiapas, adjacent to Guatamala.

El Triunfo (Chiapas): diverse evergreen cloud forest in rugged mountain terrain; a primary Pleistocene refuge for numerous endemic plants and animals; large mobile population.

La Encrucijada (Chiapas): shrimping lagoons on the Pacific Coast.

La Sepultura (Chiapas): ancestral lands of the Olmec and other pre-Hispanic cultures.

Selva El Ocote (Chiapas): rain forests, caves and reserves of underground water.

Huatulco (Oaxaca): coastal reserve protecting endangered sea turtles, dolphins and purple snails.

Yucatan Peninsula

Ría Celestún (Yucatán and Campeche): coastal region including important wetlands and drowned river valley (ría) with diverse fauna and flora, including flamingos.

Región de Calakmul (Yucatán): diverse tropical rainforests; the largest forest reserve in Mexico, with important Maya sites; ecotourism project.

Ría Lagartos (Yucatán): coastal estuary with diverse birdlife including more than 18000 pink flamingos as well as some 30,000 migratory birds.

Arrecife Alacranes (Yucatán): the largest coral reef in the Gulf of Mexico, and the only one in Yucatán state.

Sian Ka’an (Quintana Roo): coastal limestone plain, and extensive barrier reef system on Caribbean coast, with numerous archaeological sites; more than 4,000 plant species.

Banco Chinchorro (Quintana Roo): mosaic of open water, sea grass beds, mangroves, sandy beaches and coral reefs; more than 95 species of coral.

Sources

(a) UNESCO: People, Biodiversity and Ecology. and (b) Comisión Nacional de Áreas Naturales Protegidas.

Text © Copyright 2007, 2009 by Tony Burton. All rights reserved.

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Photo gallery: Henequen and its role in the Yucatan's shifting fortunes

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Did You Know…?

The first detailed scientific account of Lake Chapala was written by Henri Guillaume Galeotti. It was based on a visit to Chapala in February-March 1837. The article was published first in French in 1839, and then shortly afterwards in Spanish in El Mosaico Mexicano. It remains unclear precisely why Galeotti prepared his excellent article devoted to the geology and natural history of the lake. He did not publish anything else based on his trips to Mexico apart from some specialist botanical papers.

Galeotti, born in Paris on September 10, 1814, studied natural history at the Establissement Géographique de Brussels, founded in 1830 by Philippe Vandermaelen, a very famous Flemish cartographer. Vandermaelen produced an extraordinary world atlas, published in 1827, with 400 maps in six volumes, covering the entire world at a uniform scale of about 1:1,600,000.

Galeotti arrived in Mexico in December 1835; it turned out to be a visit which lasted several years. Galeotti was primarily a botanist, and one of considerable note. He was responsible for the first scientific descriptions of scores of plants, including a wide variety of cacti, for which he had a particularly fondness. During his time in Mexico, Galeotti amassed an extensive collection of Mexican flora.

On his return to Europe, Galeotti decided to set up his own business, collecting Mexican cacti and importing them to Europe. He apparently revisited Mexico briefly in the winter of 1840-1841. Regrettably, tumultuous events in Europe caused the cactus venture to fail by 1849, leaving Galeotti in dire straights. He was reduced to selling some of his prize specimens, and even parts of his massive collection of more than 8,000 pressed plants from Mexico. One of his more expensive cacti had a price of 500 francs, equivalent at the time to a laborer’s salary for an entire year. In 1853, Galeotti was appointed director of the Brussels Botanical Gardens, though with only a meagre salary, equivalent to that of a head gardener. He held this post until his death in 1858.

Galeotti begins by setting the scene:

An immense quantity of water bordered to the north and south by some scarped mountains, located 14 leagues south of Guadalajara, the capital of the Department of Jalisco (formerly the province of New Galicia), and 130 leagues west of Mexico City, is known by the name Lake Chapala, derived from the name of the old village of Chapala, situated on the western shore of the lake. Excavating in the environs of the village, old Indian burial ditches, skeletons, idols, earthenware vases called cantaros, and monetary tokens of obsidian or reddish clay etc. are found.

His paper includes some detailed observations of storms and mirages:

We have observed in the lake the phenomenon of occasional waves (seiches) which are in the habit of lasting plenty of time, with one part of the water remaining calm next to the rough part. This occurs, usually, at about five in the afternoon. We noted several of these singular effects, on February 27 and 28, and in March of 1837: the weather was calm and the temperature between 18 and 22 degrees Centigrade. The phenomenon is visible on the southern shore and in Tlachichilco and Chapala. The flood water rises from one to four feet (from 33 centimeters to 1.33 meters).

We also observed on the lake the phenomenon of the “mirage” of water, this is when one part of it reflects the objects and remains calm next to another which is rough. It is seen with more frequency close to the island of Chapala, at mid-day with the weather serene and the Sun high. These two phenomena – the water movement and the mirage – are without doubt, correlated.

From time to time, very strong whirlwinds or cloudbursts agitate the lake, snatching fish from their hideouts, and hurling them onto the nearby mountains. Some have been found on quite a high mountain near Ixtlahuacan, two leagues from the lake.

This phenomenon, which causes great damage to the inhabitants of the shores, occurs usually in March, April and May, before the rainy season. It is during the same season when the waters reveal the idols and cups of the ancient Indians. The inhabitants believe that an old city was buried by a sudden flood, and at some distance from Chapala, several trunks of Sabino [Bald cypresses] (Taxodium distichum of Richard), partially covered by water, can still be found.

He pays particular attention to the varied birdlife around the lake:

A multitude of aquatic birds which feed on the insects of the lake inhabit its shores and the shores of the islands. There are two species of gulls (Larus), one cormorant (Carbo) which gives off a strong smell; they move slowly and stand in isolation on the rocks, or swim in groups of six or seven individuals, diving in order to eat the fish easily: water fowl (Fulica) which always collect in great numbers, and eat, from preference, the weeds the lake provides: herons (Ardea) of various species, including the egret walking alone along the shore, showing their white feathers and aiming their long pointed beak from time to time at the fish that are within reach, and other grey storks… and water sheep or pelicans (Pelecanus) which live on the island of Chapala, and fly in flocks of 50 or 60 individuals, at about five in the afternoon, to search for food on the shores, where some little fish called javai are abundant. The pelicans are very fierce and plump, and have white feathers with a yellowish green tint at the tips of their wings. Similarly, there are diving ducks (Colymbus) which hide in the water at the slightest noise: others called alcaldes, brown and small, that are not very common in the environs of the island of Chapala, royal plovers (Charadrius) and of a beautiful white color with red, curved beak; rose-colored spoonbills (Platalea), of the island of Chapala, where they are very rare, since I believe they emigrate from tropical areas in the months of June and July: night-herons (Árdea nycticorax) that have on their heads three or four fine feathers, long and flexible: there are many on the island of Chapala: green kingfishers (Alcedo) and a multitude of ducks and herons that vary enormously in color, size and species.

Galeotti reports that he sent “an almost complete collection of these birds” back to Vandermaelen in Brussels, and then turns his attention to the fish:

There is a great diversity of fish in the waters of the lake. The whitefish and the bagoc are very well-liked for the table. A great quantity of fish is caught in Easter week. The inhabitants of the vicinity subsist on little else apart from the product of this fishing, for which they prepare by building reed shacks on the shores of the lagoon, and lighting large bonfires between 6 and 7 in the evening to attract the fish. Some small tortoises (Testudo) are frequently seen, warming themselves in the sun on top of rocks; but they hide at the slightest noise. Near Lake Chapala are found small crabs, two to three centimeters, with clearly unequal pincers and some molluscs such as Unios (We have not managed to collect even one in good condition.) Planorbis and Lymnaea, which are not found whole, which we attribute to the force with which they are washed up.

He next provides a list of land-based fauna:

In the vicinity of the lake many animals are abundant, such as wolves (Cani lupus), rabbits, hares (Lepus), foxes (Cani) that the natives call coyotes: lions (Felis puma leones): brown and red squirrels (Scicirus), and skunks (Viverra) which give off an unsupportable stench. In the not very thick woods are beautiful coas (Trogon), misanthropic birds: very loud and agile blue jays (Corvus), which perch on the elevated trees, moving their long tails, and also brown-colored birds (Cuculus cayanus). On the sides of the hills are owls and burrowing owls (Strix) which live in hollows they make in the ground: clouds of robins (Turdus) and green and violet grackles; sparrows (Fringilla) with thick blue beaks; pheasants (Fatianus) etc. Snakes and insects are very rare, and sometimes some dragonflies are obtained.

After dismissing the vegetation on the hills surrounding the lake as “unremarkable”, he offers an evocative description of the area’s beautiful scenery:

There is a sublime view of the lagoon from the summit of the mountains located north of the hacienda of La Labor. To one side is revealed an immense spread of water with its islands and rock-covered shores, white villages, fishermen’s huts, the prison building, haciendas, fertile shores covered in maize and chickpea fields, large herds of cattle grazing on the plains, streams shaded by willows and Cinerarias and the snow-capped summit of Colima volcano, which stands out from the mountain range to the SSW. Canoes formed from tree trunks fly over the smooth or lightly rippled surface of the lagoon in which a blue sky is reflected. The sombre mountains of Tizapan in the SSE and SE belong to the Department of Michoacán. The ends of the lagoon are hidden by the haze. In the other direction, the rich and fertile plains of Ixtlahuacan and Atequiza, together form a combination that enchants the naturalist and landscape artist who leaves the arid valleys of Guadalajara to enter this chain of mountains, from where the views extend towards an ever-cheerful horizon.

Galeotti describes the geology and fossils of the area in similar detail. All in all, his article is a remarkable achievement for its time, a true testimony to the powerful pull that Lake Chapala has had on so many foreign visitors.

Galeotti, H. G. 1839 Coup d’oeil sur la Laguna de Chapala au Mexique, avec notes géognostiques. Translations by the author; all rights reserved.

• Based on chapter 21 of Lake Chapala through the ages; an anthology of travelers’ tales (Sombrero Books, 2008)

Related articles:

• Trade in Mexico’s cacti grew in the 1840s
• An early ascent of Mexico’s highest peak, El Pico de Orizaba

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Did You Know…?

Rubber balls wouldn’t bounce very high if it wasn’t for some Mexican ingenuity.

That’s right! They wouldn’t! And just think of the hours of pleasure that a simple rubber ball gave you as a child. Would you have had as much fun if it hadn’t had a good bounce? I don’t think so…

It has long been known that the pre-Columbian peoples of Mexico had rubber objects, including balls. The basic ingredient is the sap or latex of the native Panama Rubber Tree (Castilla elastica).

A few years ago, Dorothy Hosler, an associate professor of archeology and ancient technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and two of her colleagues, chemist Sandra Burkett and undergraduate student Michael Tarkanian, realized that unprocessed pure latex is sticky and becomes brittle when dry. Put simply, balls made of pure latex don’t bounce, but shatter.

They then set out to tackle the mystery of what makes rubber balls bounce. In a landmark paper entitled, “Prehistoric Polymers: Rubber Processing in Ancient Mesoamerica,” published in the June 18, 1999, issue of Science, they revealed how a little Mexican ingenuity turned sticky, brittle latex into a stretchy elastic. Put simply, they revealed what made rubber balls bounce.

The morning glory

Ipomoea alba, the tropical white-flowering morning glory (moonflower or moon vine) is a perennial in its natural habitat. Individual flowers actually open in late afternoon and last only until the following morning’s light transforms them into a shriveled mass. Each flower is an impressive fluted funnel, up to 15 centimeters in diameter, looking like it’s made of alabaster. Add a delightful fragrance to perfume warm summer nights, and there you have the moonflower!

Add morning glory to latex…

The magic ingredient is a little sap from the Morning Glory (Moonflower) vine! The addition of sap to latex begins complex chemical changes that provide a much improved material for tools, figurines and medicines, in a process akin to vulcanization, invented three thousand years later by Charles Goodrich. The addition of Morning Glory (Ipomoea alba) sap to otherwise brittle rubber also resulted in balls suitable for the development of Mexico’s ancient sport of Ulama.

How did Hosler’s team arrive at this startling conclusion? Based on documentary sources and ethnographic research that suggested Indians mixed natural latex with the juice of the morning glory vine, a plant prized for its curing properties, they crushed some Morning Glory vines and squeezed the juice into a bucket containing the latex. After 15 minutes stirring, the liquid latex solidifies into a white mass. The mass is pliable enough to be formed by hand into a ball. The researchers made one about 3.7 inches (9.5 cm) in diameter and, lo and behold, it bounced! When they used nuclear magnetic resonance scans to examine rubber balls dating from 1600 B.C. that had been found in Veracruz and Chiapas, they were able to conclude that these had been made in a similar way.

Is it really surprising that pre-Columbian Indians discovered this chemical trick thousands of years ago? Well, perhaps not as surprising as you may think, since any good tropical botanist will tell you that the two plants, Castilla elastica and Ipomoea alba are often found in close proximity. In fact, the Morning Glory vine often twines itself around the rubber tree, making it quite likely that a careless rubber tapper accidentally contaminated the latex he collected with a little (crushed) Morning Glory vine: an accident that turned out to have incredibly serendipitous results.

Whatever happened all those thousands of years ago, the mystery of why rubber balls bounce seems to have finally been solved…

This article is the basis for Chapter 5 in the author’s Mexican Kaleidoscope: myths, mysteries and mystique (Sombrero Books, 2016).

Copyright 2002 by Tony Burton. All rights reserved.

Published or Updated on: March 14, 2008 by Tony Burton © 2008

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Did You Know…?

Strange but true; the bird now so closely associated with many festive meals is a direct descendant of the wild turkeys still found in many parts of Mexico. How is it possible that a Mexican bird acquired the name turkey?

Turkey

The most likely explanation derives from the fact that the merchants who traded in the Middle Ages between the Middle East and England were based in the Turkish Empire and hence known as “Turkey merchants”. Turkey merchants are believed to have introduced the guinea fowl, a native of Madagascar, to European dinner tables.

Later, the larger New World bird, the present-day turkey, was brought back to Spain by the conquistadors. The rearing of New World birds gradually spread to other parts of Europe and North Africa. The Turkey merchants capitalized on the new opportunity, and began to supply the new birds instead of the guinea fowls to the English market, and the rest is history.

The first use in English of the word “turkey” to describe the bird dates back to 1555. By 1575 , turkey was already becoming the preferred main course for Christmas dinner. Curiously, the Turkish name for the turkey is hindi, which is probably derived from “chicken of India”, perhaps based on the then-common misconception that Columbus had reached the Indies.

Mexico’s wild turkeys had been domesticated by pre-Columbian Indian groups long before the Spanish conquistadors arrived. Several archaeological sites provide tantalising clues as to precisely how turkeys were reared. One such site is Casas Grandes in the northern state of Chihuahua, an area where modern, large-scale turkey-rearing is an important contributor to the local economy.

Corn

According to Ernst and Johanna Lehner, corn, which also originated in Mexico, was misnamed as Turkish corn at the same time, and for much the same reason. Europeans first saw corn, called maize or mahiz by the indigenous people, when Columbus and his followers arrived in the New World. They took samples back to Spain at the very end of the 15th century.

It quickly became an important crop, successfully cultivated throughout the continent. 16th century herbalists in Europe called the new plant by various names, including Welsh corn, Asiatic corn, Turkish wheat and Turkish corn. The latter name was the most usual, since they believed that the grain had been brought into central Europe from Asia by the Turks, who had introduced dozens of other products from the east into Europe at about the same time.

The Turks themselves called the crop “Egyptian corn”; the Egyptians called it “Syrian sorghum”… The German botanist Hieronymus Bock, in his New Kreüterbuch or herbal in 1546, remained on the fence, calling it “foreign corn”. Given the confused terminology, perhaps it is not surprising that, to quote Ernst and Johanna Lehner, “It took Spanish botanists more than 50 years to convince other European herbalists that corn was American.” Corn was given its botanical name, Zea mays, by Carl von Linné in the 18th century.

Potatoes

Alongside turkey and/or corn at Thanksgiving and Christmas, the humble yet versatile potato is often eaten. That, too, was introduced to Europe from Mexico. A previous Did You Know? delved into the connections between Mexico, the potato, and the Irish migration to North America following the potato famine of the early 19th century.

But did you also know that potatoes were originally sold in Spain on the strength of claims that they could cure impotence, at prices up to two thousand dollars a kilo?

Nowadays, potatoes in one form or another are virtually ubiquitous – from mashed or baked or potato salad, to French fries and the quintessentially Québécois variation of poutine (fries, curds and gravy).

The first Thanksgiving

My esteemed colleagues Don Adams and Teresa Kendrick have presented a strong case that the very first Thanksgiving celebration by Europeans in North America was held not in the U.S. at all, but in Mexico, on April 30, 1598.

This date certainly precedes the claims of Plimoth Plantation, Massachusetts, site of the 1621 thanksgiving, and negates the latter’s claim to the be the birthplace of Thanksgiving. One curious historical footnote is that the feast on that occasion apparently did not include either turkey or potatoes!

Pumpkin Pie

And how could you have pumpkin pie without the pumpkin? All varieties of pumpkin, whatever their size and shape, belong to the Cucurbita genus. While there are some doubts about the precise origin of the wild forms of pumpkin, they were certainly being cultivated in Mexico as long ago as 5500 B.C. and were an integral part of the daily diet of many Indian groups. The use of “pumpkin” in English can apparently be traced back to 1547. For many people, pumpkins are eternally associated with both Thanksgiving and with Halloween.

Christmas Poinsettias

Putting menu details to one side, Christmas in North America would not be complete without the finishing splash of color provided by another Mexican native: the Poinsettia.

This beautiful plant, with its colorful bracts, has become indelibly associated with the season. Most people who buy indoor pots of Euphorbia pulcherrima, commonly known in Spanish as Flor de Noche Buena (Christmas Eve Flower), probably do not realize that the plant in its native habitat grows as high as a small tree. Poinsettia, its English name, honors Dr. Joel R. Poinsett, a U.S. diplomat who served in Mexico in the 1820s. While most poinsettias have modified leaves or bracts that are scarlet- or vermilion-colored, other varieties have pink or even white bracts.

So, wherever you are this festive season, keep your eyes open for Mexican influences…

Many traditional Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners would simply not be the same were it not for a few key ingredients from Mexico!

¡Feliz Navidad! Seasonal greetings to all!

Sources:

Lehner, Ernst & Lehner, Johanna. Folklore and Odysseys of Food and Medicinal Plants. New York: Tudor Publishing Company. 1962.

Don Adams and Teresa A. Kendrick. “Don Juan de Oñate and the First Thanksgiving”. Don Mabry’s Historical Text Archive. Retrieved on 2008-07-13.

Elizabeth Armstrong (2002-11-27). “The first Thanksgiving”, Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved on 2008-07-13.

Online Etymology Dictionary. Acessed 2008-07-13.

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Did You Know…?

The oral contraceptive pill, often referred to simply as “the Pill” was officially fifty years old on October 15, 2001. In the words of The Economist: it “was arguably the first lifestyle drug to control a normal bodily function – fertility – rather than a dread disorder. It transformed the lives of millions and helped reshape the role of medicine in reproduction.” Its social impact was massive, helping to foment the sexual and feminist revolutions.

Initially, its development was met by medical, religious and social furore, much of which has since subsided. Even though its popularity has declined since the 1960s, because of concerns about possible side effects, it is estimated that it is still used, in one form or another, by more than 80 million women worldwide.

Curiously, the synthetic female sex hormone called norethindrone was first synthesized from, believe it or not… Mexican-grown yams!

Equally interestingly, the Pill was not developed in a huge laboratory belonging to a major pharmaceutical company but in a relatively humble laboratory in Mexico City, belonging to a small company called Syntex. Syntex specialized in making steroids from Mexican yams, using methods of synthesis invented by a maverick biochemist, Russell Marker. Marker had published various studies on diosgenin, a saponin isolated from a Mexican yam species of the genus Dioscorea, and had discovered how to synthesize the human hormone testosterone and progesterone from diosgenin. After having his proposals for the large-scale production of human steroids from diosgenin turned down by U.S. pharmaceutical companies, Marker moved to Mexico and began his own, home-based, small scale production. This was so successful that a new company, Syntex, was soon born, specifically to make steroids from Mexican yams. Syntex quickly became the world’s largest producer of progesterone, as well as making testosterone and the female hormone esterone.

Enter Carl Djerassi. Djerassi was an Austrian-born chemist who had completed his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin (1945) by researching the synthesis and transformation of steroids, including sex hormones. After working four years as a research chemist with CIBA Pharmaceutical Co. in Summit, New Jersey, he decided on a strategic move, in 1949, to join Syntex, in Mexico City, as associate director of chemical research.

At Syntex, Djerassi set out to see if diosgenin could be made to yield other steroids, which do not actually exist in nature, but which retain the biological activities of progesterone and are also orally active. The original aim of his team was to develop a drug for infertility and menstrual disorders that could be swallowed, as opposed to injected. Only two years later, on October 15, 1951, the group led by the then 28-year-old Djerassi, had synthesized norethindrone, a “super-potent orally active progestational agent”, which turned out to be the key ingredient in The Pill. (Chemically, norethindrone is 17a-ethinyl-19-nortestosterone; its generic name in Europe is norethisterone).

Later, the drug’s ability to suppress ovulation was demonstrated by Gregory Pingus at the Worcester Foundation in Massachusetts and clinical trials began. The rest, as they say, is history!.

Djerassi is now Professor of Chemistry at Stanford University with an extremely distinguished scientific record, holding no fewer than 19 honorary doctorates in addition to numerous other honors. He is also one of only a handful of American scientists to have been awarded both the National Medal of Science (1973, for the first synthesis of a steroid contraceptive, The Pill) and the National Medal of Technology (1991, for promoting new approaches to insect control).

In medicinal chemistry he will be forever associated with the initial developments in the fields of oral contraceptives (Norethindrone), antihistamines (Pyribenzamine) and topical corticosteroids (Synalar).

They say that the well-rounded man combines scientific enquiry with artistic appreciation, and Djerassi is certainly no exception, having turned, in later life, to science fiction writing, examining the human side of scientists and the personal conflicts they face in their quest for knowledge, personal recognition, and financial rewards. One of his plays, “An Immaculate Misconception,” premiered in 1998 at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and has since been performed in London, San Francisco, Sweden, Vienna and Cologne. It was also broadcast on BBC World Service Radio in May 2000.

Sources:

The idea for this article came from a review in The Economist (October 13, 2001) of two books: Sexual Chemistry: A History of the Contraceptive Pill (Lara Marks, Yale) and This Man’s Pill. Reflections on the 50th Birthday of the Pill. (Carl Djerassi, Oxford University Press)

For more about Carl Djerassi and his achievements, visit https://www.djerassi.com

Did You Know Index
Copyright 2003 by Tony Burton. All rights reserved.
Published or Updated on: March 14, 2008 by Tony Burton © 2008

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Cogan’s Reviews

The title of this travel book sounds a bit odd to us now. But the question of whether Baja California was an island was in doubt for a very long time. In fact, as late as 1737, a map was drawn by a German Jesuit that showed the peninsula as an island. Now, of course, we can settle for this author’s description of it as an 800-mile dead end.”

Bruce Berger is an excellent guide to the Baja. He’s been going there since the mid ’60s, having driven the length of the peninsula at least three times when that meant travelling more than 1,000 kilometers of single lane dirt road. In my humble opinion that would be considered adventure travel. One could drive for a day and meet only one other car. And you would never dream of leaving without taking plenty of food, water and gasoline plus whatever extras and spare parts you might need to fix auto problems along the way.

Chapter 2 of Berger’s book is an account of the peninsula’s history, with emphasis on the primitive nature of the ancient tribes who lived there. As the author points out, they weren’t cannibals, but they had at least one rather revolting eating habit. They were evidently so enamored of the pitahaya cactus that they picked the seeds out of their feces and ate them again. They also liked to tie pieces of string to their meat, swallowing them and then pulling them back out and eating them over and over for the sheer pleasure of it. One writer described that as a second harvest”.

This period, covering thousands of years, was eventually followed by the centuries of exploitation that ensued following the discovery of the area by Cortes. Between conquistadores, Jesuits and both English and Spanish pirates, the region particularly the lower part of the peninsula saw plenty of action. And long afterwards, even the Americans in 1941 were talking of annexing the territory. In the wake of Pearl Harbor, the Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, proposed that the U.S. annex Baja California to protect it from Japanese submarines. The idea, however, met with little enthusiasm in any quarter.

La Paz, the principal city, which now sounds like a bustling center of activity, was only founded in the last century. However, it has attracted a large number of people from the mainland”. (There’s that island mentality at work! The rest of Mexico is referred to consistently as the mainland” throughout this book.) La Paz’s population has doubled every decade since 1950 and now boasts well over 160,000 people. The ferry from the other coast was started in 1964 and that gave a big boost to the area. To a lesser degree, the completion of the paved highway from the north in 1973 also played a part.

According to the author, most of the arrivals in those years were mid-level professionals: engineers, doctors, professors, teachers, many of them escaping the pollution, congestion and crime of mainland Mexican cities.” The Mexico City earthquake of 1985 also produced a boost in the city’s population. And from Berger’s description the influx of people has created a pretty lively and interesting town. Chapter 5, Port of Illusion”, concerning La Paz, is one of the most interesting sections of the book.

One author is quoted as saying: that Paceños with money to travel were more likely to go to Europe than to mainland Mexico or the United States, leavening the town with the ideas they brought back.” Another credits La Paz’s openness to its having been a port touched by the world.” It was at one time a duty free port and a great place to shop.

Although I like this book I have to say that, overall, I find it rather uneven. The chapters on the history and the people and the nature of the coastline and the terrain are relevant and informative. And the chapter on La Paz makes me want to visit the place, as I expect to do soon. But there are other chapters that simply don’t belong in this volume. One, for instance, concerns the author’s adventures with one of La Paz’s music schools. Berger is a professional pianist, as well as an author, and has an amusing story about being coerced into giving a benefit concert for the local Escuela de Musica. However, it’s an episode that fills out the book but adds absolutely nothing to a better understanding of the area.

Also, I’ve never seen a travel book that needs a map quite as much as this one does. It’s a definite lapse on the part of the publisher and the author. Even a simple line drawing would be helpful, showing some of the towns, especially in the north, as well as the route of the new paved highway which has been such an important part of Baja’s development. By the time I got to page seven I was reaching for my book of Mexican road maps and making sure it was always handy when a simple one page map inside the book would have been much more convenient. After all, there isn’t that much to include on a map of the Baja and it is surely unknown territory to the majority of readers.

Verdict: If you’re contemplating a trip to the peninsula, here’s one good place to start your research. Or, if you’re simply curious about what is still a rather remote area of the globe, give Bruce Berger’s book a try.

Almost an Island – Travels in Baja California
By Bruce Berger

The University of Arizona Press, 1998

Available from Amazon Books: Paperback

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