Dr.John W. Hayden, professor of biology at the University of Richmond in Richmond, Virginia has spent many hours in the field at the reserve. The following is an account of John’s project to date:

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The Kiuic Plant Inventory
I first set foot in the forest at Kaxil Kiuic in June 2000. I had, a few short weeks earlier, agreed to co-instruct a course based in part on the forest plants at Kiuic. I’ll admit that my first immersion in the green sea of trees was a bit intimidating. This, of course, is the usual first reaction of temperate-zone biologists to tropical biodiversity. It seemed as though only two species were at all familiar to me: “chacá” (Bursera simaruba), which I knew from the Florida Keys, and a little woodland herb called “contrayerba” (Dorstenia contrajerva) which I recognized having grown a few related species in the greenhouse at my home institution, the University of Richmond. Everything else seemed, at first glance, both new and strange. The experience was simultaneously exciting and daunting.

I am a firm believer in tackling big projects by chipping away at manageable chunks. After some brief instructions, I organized my students on that first trip into teams and sent them into the forest to collect any plant they could find that was bearing reproductive structures, i.e., flowers, or fruits, or seeds, or in the case of ferns, spore-bearing organs. Later in the day, as the specimens were placed into plant presses for preservation by drying, each was examined carefully and notes were taken. Examined individually, many of the plants began to reveal clues to their identity. That shrub with bright red bracts must be an acanth, the little monocot with flowers that shrivel quickly must be a species of Commelina, that shrub with separate male and female flowers (both singularly unattractive) must be an Acalypha, etc. It was a very small first step, but it was a start. With lots of help from botanists at UADY, and later CICY, I began to come to terms with the intimidating diversity of the tropical dry forest of Kaxil Kiuic.

It was not long after my first trip that I learned that Millsaps College had plans to purchase the land and create the reserve now known as Kaxil Kiuic. At about the same time, I resolved to produce a specimen-based inventory of plant diversity at the reserve. The process would be, in essence, a continuation of what my students and I did that first day in the forest: searching for specimens with diagnostic material, making herbarium specimens, and also documenting the plants photographically. At about this same time I was in the process of making the transition from wet-chemistry film-based photography to the digital format. Soon, I realized how valuable my digital photos were in identifying my herbarium specimens. They also served to keep Yucatan plants freshly in mind while back at home in Virginia. It soon became clear that digital photos organized and displayed via the www should be a useful way to present my inventory of plant species from the reserve.

My work on the species checklist and my archive of photos continued for a total of 15 trips (so far). Each included field work at Kiuic and herbarium study at UADY and CICY. On October 12, 2005, I uploaded the first version of my Flora of Kaxil Kiuic web site. Six revisions with additions (and a few corrections) have been uploaded since then, with another in the works as these lines are being written (September 2006).

At present, the flora of Kaxil Kiuic consists of approximately 450 species of vascular plants. (Mosses have not been included.) The web site includes over 2,000 plant photographs. Based on conversations with local botanists, the inventory is perhaps 90 percent complete. Almost certainly additional species will be found among the trees that attain canopy height, the lianas that similarly extend to great heights in the forest, and local weeds. It is hoped that anyone who becomes aware of additions or corrections to the inventory will communicate these updates with me for inclusion on the web site so that this resource can be as complete as possible. The intention, of course, is that the inventory be freely available for use by anyone who needs to know the plants of Kaxil Kiuic.

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