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Maya Life Tree
Cohune |
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When Maya farmer clear the forest
for milpa
purpose, they spare one kind of tree due to its
many uses, that is the Cohune Palm
Cohune palm is abundant in Belize
rainforest, we use it's leaves for the ceiling,
people use it for roofing, use the trunk as
siding, it's heart of palm for food and it's
nuts for oil and charcoal, it is a symbolic tree
in most of Maya ruins |
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The Wood Changed
History of Belize |
When the Spanish controlled
Central America and Mexico, the valuable
logwood, or the dyewood or tinto (the local
name), attracted the British baymen, they came
to cut the logwood and ship it to Britain. At
that time, 50 Tons of logwood almost equal the
value of shipping freights for one year.
This wood make
Belize the only English speaking
country in central America,
This hard wood grows in the swamp areas, it is
as hard as iron, no insect can eat it, it is
an ideal material for making posts.
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National Wood |
In this restaurant, all the
tables are natural mahogany
trunks, after loggers harvest the
mahogany, they left the stump of the tree. We go
and cut two more layers, and use them as our
tables. Even our tables are reclaimed.
The majestic mahogany can grow up
to 130 feet in the
rainforest, and take 50 years to
mature, due to its beautiful color and
long-lasting, it is one of the most sort
after material for furniture. If you go to the
top of the rainforest canopy, it is very easy to
find mahogany; they are average 30 feet higher
than the other trees |
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Bamboo is a treasure but most of
unknown to many Belizean, there are a lot of
treasure in Belize waiting for people to
explore.
Bamboo is one of them. Many of
the bamboo in this building is nearly 16 years,
they are still in good shape, bamboo is a kind
of grass, but they are tall and strong, bamboo
could be used for furniture, construction,
gifts, arts etc.,
The best part of Bamboo is bamboo
shoot which is delicious
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Out side of the bamboo
Windows in this Museum,
is an experimental butterfly farm, there are
more than 700 varieties of butterflies in
Belize, which is out numbers all the butterflies
in north American
The butterfly have 4 life cycles,
the egg cycle is quiet. The teenager life cycle
of a butterfly is as a caterpillar. This period
of their life, is spent as an eating machine.
After they tired of only eating and being Ugly,
They hide Themselves in pupae for remodeling,
when they are done, they emerge as
beautiful butterflies who are happily flying
around. Butterflies are beautiful and have
sex only during their last stage of life |
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The Belize
rainforest is home
to epiphytes. Epiphytes like
orchids and bromeliads grow
on the tree instead of in the soil.
They hang from trees and get their nutrients
from the moisture and dust in the air
Bromeliads, A Plant with Its Own Water Tank;
These are plants that collect water in their
centers
The water forms pools that can support miniature
ecosystems! Many of these pools support
bacteria, insects, crustaceans, tadpoles, frogs
and even birds. The most well known bromeliad is
the pineapple, Pineapple, the miracle fruit from
the Americas. The pineapple has served as both a
food and a symbol throughout human history in
the Americas |
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Mushroom House |
ˇ§Mother of Cacaoˇ¨
This is a very hard wood that
is used popularly for fence Posts which will
grow again after been posting.
Our traditional used to
soothe tired irritated eyes. The leave have
been used as a poultice for wounds
In the Philippines,
Gliricidia
(Madre Cacao) is washed and pounded to
extract the juice from the leaves. It is
then applied to the area affected by
external parasites once to twice a day for
one week. In Guatemala, the bark and leaves
of Gliricidia are used to treat human skin
diseases
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