Flower Child

Working under Michael Dix, PhD, a professor at Universidad Del Valle in Guatemala City. Dr Dix was an expert orchids and lizards and his PhD was from Harvard.  His wife studied ants and had a PhD. We were way, way, way out in the country in Guatemala--some of the local population had seen few pale whites. I did the scut work, like picking up dead snakes from the road--to get a random sampling of each species . One time it was a dead Coral Snake. I also used a sextant to calculate bromeliad heights, and then shimmied up high wet trees, carefully watching for tree snakes, to detach them very carefully. The goal was to catalogue the rain forest for purposes of basic research and advocacy. Looks like Dr. Dix has a bromeliad in hand.  At night I slept in a room at the biology department full of snakes in plastic bags---including a very live bothrops. My sister set the whole thing up--she had won the Anna Quincey Churchill award for biology from Tufts.  Going through customs, I had a briefcase full of lizards and the Texan custom agent, first Texan I ever met, showed all his friends, "Look at all them little alligators."  We had papers, though, allowing us to bring in the plants. The results were published.

I also remember shooting off a lot of fireworks that summer--they were readily available in Guatemala. My sister Loring was a great sister--taking along on this jaunt and giving me a pretty unusual educational experience.  And nature was incredible--was able to peer into an erupting volcano and also saw the flight of a Quetzel. I was sixteen.



Margaret A. Dix and Michael W. Dix (2000) Orchids of Guatemala: A Revised Annotated Checklist. 61p. 
"This study represents a compilation of all currently recognized species of orchids known from Guatemala. Species are listed in alphabetical order, together with synonyms or species names used in older treatments, and their geographic, elevational, and habitat distribution in the country are described. Where identification of species new to Guatemala may be difficult, distinguishing characters are briefly described. The list, based on extensive field collections and herbarium material, includes 734 taxa, of which 207 new records or recently described species were not reported in earlier studies." [Stanhopea aff. costaricensis, ecornuta, graveolens, inodora, x lewisae, oculata, saccata, wardii; Kegeliella]