Naming the Charrrales

So what’s in bloom this November 11th, 2006:

Yuco (Bernoullia flammea) – Gorgeous orange blossoms, covered by white butterflies, light up the forest mountainside.

Guacimo Macho (Luehea speciosa) – Big, fragrant white blooms turn this common tree into a show stopping work of art.

It was long past time that we got around to naming and describing the assorted charrales around the Finca. Charral is pastureland we stopped cutting two years ago and is in process of natural regeneration back to forest. Already the mass of herbaceous material rises up to our noses, with lots of emergent trees popping through. After two years of walking through them and taking pictures, it’s become clear that each Charral is distinct from the others, even though many of the same plants occur in them all. Also, I wasn’t clear of the size of each of them or even how many charrales we actually had!

So Armando and I went off this morning to sort it all out.

Charral de Las Cuadras – area 1.5 hectares
We started from the stables and walked down the trail we’d cut through the center of the Charral. We can view the expanse from the Stable terrace- thus we named it Stable Charral. Two year ago it was a large pasture extending all the way down the hill to a large flat area we still keep as pastureland. A large Guanacaste stands in the middle of the Charral and many emergent trees are popping through – cecropia, guazuma, guachipelin and many others. In May of this year -2006- we planted seedlings donated by the University of Peace, all along the edge of the center trail. It wasn’t easy to see the planted trees some six months after planting because the Charral had pretty absorbed them but after moving about the plants we could see the hardwoods peaking through – all of them look very well. The Charral is fostering the hardwood seedlings – protecting them from disease, insects and sun. In a few years they will be strong enough to pop up through the Charral and face the elements on their own. We planted: Caobilla (Carapa guianensis), Chirraco (Myrolylon balsamum), Cascarillo (Lafoensia punicifolia), Soto Caballo (Zygia longifolium), Cedro bateo (Cedrela salvadorensis), Jaboncillo (Sapindus saponaria), Cristobol (Platymiscium parviflorum), Ceibo Verde (Pseudobombax septenatum).

We will continue to plant additional hardwoods – K Species – on two edges of this same Charral at the beginning of the rainy season next April.

Charral de la Casa – area 1 hectare
This Charral extends from the pasture just below the house down to a another flat area of pasture. This Charral is characterized by an abundance of Achiotillo (Vismea baccifera) as well as other emergent trees, particularly guachepelin. We plan to introduce hardwood seedlings along all three edges of this Charral next growing season and, since the upper pasture is close to the house, we will plant several large ornamentals trees, such as Spathodea campanulata, Delonix regia, Jacaranda, etc.

Charral del Naciente – area 1 hectare
This Charral is cooler and moister, due to the presence of a permanent spring that refreshes the area. It is bordered by our neighbor’s property –a closely cut pastureland, which is rather like looking into another dimension across the fencerow in contrast to the exuberant tangle of plant life on the Tigre side. The Charral is bordered below by secondary forest with many species, particularly guachepelin (Diphysa Americana), Ron Ron (Astronium graveolens), Myrsine coriacea, Picramnia and Garcinia intermedia. We plan to introduce difficult to grow hardwoods into this Charral next season.

Charral de los Alvarados – 3.5 hectares
I have no idea who Los Alvarados refers to but the Charral is named after a beautiful hilltop grove of Guayabas and Guisaros – known by the same name, which overlooks the vast expanse of this Charral. Los Alvarados Charral will be interesting to study over the years because it is bordered on three sides by forest – fine fodder for its future without any intervention needed by us. We can walk into this Charral through a trail bordering it with a secondary forest to the east and old growth forest below to the north. If we take a side trail, we come to a massive Ceiba tree extending up to the heavens from a streamside. It’s quite impossible to visit Alvarados Charral without paying homage to this awe inspiring tree. Returning to the edge of the Charral, we can see a large Madroño (Calycophllum) spreading out amidst a field of Mazote plants. We have no idea what trees are coming up through the herbaceous material but, judging from a quick look at the bordering forest, we can expect to see: Yuco (Bernoullia flammea, (Cenizaro) Samanea saman, Soncoya (Annona purpurea), Apeiba tibourbo, Ardisia revolute, Ojoche (Brosimum alicastrum), Cedro Maria (Calophyllum), Cedrela salvadorensis, Desmopsis bibracteata, Guanacaste, Murta (Eugenia salamensis), assorted Ficus species, Volador (Gyrocarpus jatrophilfolius), assorted Ingas, Lonchocarpus, Zanthroxylum, Luehea, Miconia argentea, Picramnia, Sapium, Schizolobium parahyba, Sennas, Spondias, Trichilia hirta and many, many others.

We are going to let this Charral regenerate naturally and just enjoy the show.

Charral El Tigre – area 1 hectare
The Finca is named after a beautiful hillside known locally as Cerro El Tigre, although there are no Jaguars left in this remnant of forest (but smaller cats, yes). This location is unusual because it is characterized by volcanic soil – the only place on the entire Finca. Probably a huge volcanic rock landed there after the Barva eruption many decades ago. The small Charral is bordered by the pasture hillside to the south and secondary forest surrounding it on the other 3 borders. The Charral is already teaming with seedlings from hardwood trees nearby: Guapinol (Hymenea courbaril), Mora de Brazil (Maclura tinctoria), Cocobolo (Dalbergia retusa), Guayacan (Acosmium panamense) and many, many emergent trees seeded from elsewhere in the Finca.

We have no intention of planting anything in this Charral. On the contrary – we will likely pot up hardwood seedlings from here to plant in Charrales elsewhere on the Finca.