Challen Willemsen  

@challenguate

Guatemalan ecologist at Santuario Natural El Tular sharing orchid species & other botanical marvels. Online Spanish & English teacher. Photos my own. 🏳️‍🌈

Nueva Guatemala de la Asunción
Joined June 2011
2,985 Photos and videos Photos and videos

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  1. Pinned Tweet
    17 Nov 2020

    Hi! My name is Challen and I’m an ecologist with an interest in botany, particularly Guatemalan orchid species and other epiphytes. I climb a lot of trees.

    20 replies 44 retweets 528 likes
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  2. Retweeted
    19 hours ago

    What would botany Twitter be without the elfin charm and wisdom of ? 🌈🌿✨

    1:00
    A giant oak in a Guatemalan cloud forest. / Un encino enorme en un bosque nuboso guatemalteco. Reserva Biósfera Sierra de las Minas, approx. 2,800 m altitude.
    6 replies 2 retweets 30 likes
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  3. May 5

    A giant oak in a Guatemalan cloud forest. / Un encino enorme en un bosque nuboso guatemalteco. Reserva Biósfera Sierra de las Minas, approx. 2,800 m altitude.

    14 replies 16 retweets 164 likes
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  4. May 4

    “Drums of Autumn” by Diana Gabaldon

    4 replies 2 retweets 21 likes
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  5. May 4

    The common hydrangea can produce flowers in different colors, depending on the pH of the soil it's growing in: acidic soils lead to blue flowers while alkaline soils lead to pink flowers.

    6 replies 19 retweets 146 likes
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  6. Apr 30

    Wild orchids! This is Prosthechea cochleata, the national flower of Belize, where they call it Black Orchid. In an oak forest somewhere in the Guatemalan highlands.

    12 replies 26 retweets 251 likes
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  7. Apr 29

    Incredibly proud of my husband and his latest poetry collection, “Uncertain Ground”, with which he inaugurates Sión Editorial’s “Indispensables” collection.

    3 replies 4 retweets 62 likes
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  8. Apr 27

    The walking iris, Trimezia northiana, is a beautiful herb native to Brazil that produces many short-lived iris-like flowers on the tips of stems that then droop to the ground and take root (hence its name).

    5 replies 9 retweets 88 likes
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  9. Apr 26

    Many people are surprised to find that many trees usually associated with high northern latitudes are found naturally in Guatemala. We have willow, oak, pine, cypress, juniper, walnut, yew, ash, and fir (like these Abies guatemalensis).

    11 replies 41 retweets 277 likes
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  10. Apr 23

    Anthurium andraeanum is a native of Colombia and Ecuador. Each "flower" is actually an inflorescence composed of many tiny flowers on a finger-like "spadix" surrounded by a showy bract called "spathe".

    4 replies 9 retweets 83 likes
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  11. Apr 22

    Every day should be ! Let's reconsider our priorities. Let's think about how we treat and interact with animals and ecosystems in general. Let's be more compassionate, aware, & responsible. Many small shifts amount to large-scale changes. (Photos: Guatemalan highlands.)

    2 replies 29 retweets 139 likes
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  12. Apr 21

    Tillandsia ionantha is a small bromeliad native to Mexico and Central America.

    1 reply 29 retweets 178 likes
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  13. Apr 20

    Foggy day — my favorite kind — in western Guatemala. Parque Regional Todos Santos Cuchumatanes, Huehuetenango. I saw a coyote here for the first time in my life!

    3 replies 8 retweets 85 likes
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  14. Apr 19

    Right now on planet Earth, at 14°38′N 90°30′W.

    10 replies 38 retweets 246 likes
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  15. Apr 18

    How big do you like your bromeliads? 🤪 Tank bromeliads like this Werauhia werckleana are important sources of water for many animals, including the frogs and salamanders that live in them.

    12 replies 25 retweets 260 likes
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  16. Apr 16

    Apparently, it's ! This is one of my all-time favorite species, Catasetum integerrimum. My friends have described it as astronauts or monks with aliens sticking out of their stomach. What does it look like to you?

    4 replies 8 retweets 44 likes
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  17. Apr 14

    Botany question: if the suffix -oides means "resembling", does that mean that Tetragonia tetragonoides means “the Tetragonia that resembles a Tetragonia”? I know Tetragonia means 4-angled, but that doesn't really help. 🤨

    8 replies 8 retweets 71 likes
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  18. Apr 14

    Euphorbia leucocephala is a pretty shrub with fragrant flowers. Like other members in the large genus Euphorbia (including the poinsettia), its "petals" are actually colored bracts. Native range: Mexico-Colombia.

    3 replies 18 retweets 110 likes
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  19. Apr 12

    Clouds of Tetradenia riparia. It's called "mirra" (myrrh) in Guatemala because of the scent of its leaves, whose essential oil has medicinal properties. It is native to southern Africa.

    3 replies 7 retweets 58 likes
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  20. Apr 9

    Mañana daré una conferencia virtual sobre la importancia de la flora nativa (con un enfoque en Guatemala) para el evento "Bird Fair Antigua Guatemala 2021" (11:30 hora Centroamérica). Es gratuita y se pueden inscribir aquí:

    1 retweet 16 likes
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  21. Apr 6

    Some beautiful water-sculpted rock formations in western Guatemala. Río Quisil, Huehuetenango.

    7 replies 12 retweets 193 likes
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