By Julie Etra

The cross streets of La Crucecita are almost entirely named for trees, and the vertical streets for flowering plants. Some are scientific names, some are common names, some are native species – the origins of some are not clear. For the most part, the names were chosen from the species of the dominant native plant community along the coast, known as selva seca (dry jungle). Selva seca is a winter deciduous (caducifolio) tropical forest. The decision to name the streets for native plants was apparently made by Juan Carlos Campillo Ojeda, an engineer working for FONATUR (Fondo Nacional de Fomento al Turismo) at the time the Bays of Huatulco resort was developed in the 1980s.

Bahías de Huatulco is the last of five federally planned resorts developed by FONATUR, which was created in 1964 to promote tourism through, among other things, resorts like Huatulco. The five major resorts developed by FONATUR are Cancun, Loreto, Los Cabos, Ixtapa/Zihuatenejo, and Huatulco. FONATUR has recently been relieved of its custodial responsibilities for Huatulco, which now falls under the aegis of the state and municipal governments.

The Grid

La Crucecita, even though a relatively new town (1985), was not laid out on a precisely north-south axis; the street grid runs northwest/southeast beside Blvd Chahue as it runs up to Route 200. It is easier, however, to think of the streets as being north-south and east-west. The grid is centered around the main square (zocalo) with its prominent kiosk, and fronts the town church, the Parroquia Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe y de la Santa Cruz.

There are four major north-south streets – Jazmin on the west (two-way), Gardenia on the west side of the zocalo (one-way south), Bugambilia on the east side of the zocalo (one-way north), and Carrizal on the east (one-way south). There are 16 east-west streets, and then there a few small streets that continue bigger streets or have names of their own.

The Street Names, Explained

Of course, walking is an outdoor sport, and so you should be thinking of the actual trees that the street names represent. The following is a very brief summary of the plant characteristics, a little natural history, and some interesting factoids. For the nerdily inclined readers of The Eye who are interested in botany, the common name of the tree, shrub, or flower is followed by the scientific name – Genus – followed by the name of the species. When genus is followed by the word “species,” it means that there is more than one species or type.

North-South Streets (West to East)

These streets are all named for ornamental plants.

Violetas (Viola species). This refers to violets. The Violaceae family does not have any native representatives on the coast, as the climate is too hot, nor have I (yet) seen any ornamental plants in the local nurseries. If you go farther north and higher up, the Ponderosa violet (Viola umbraticola) ranges from New Mexico in the U.S. to the state of Tlaxcala, east of Mexico City.

Plumbago (Plumbago species). This is a very common tropical ornamental plant with numerous species. The classic blue plumbago’s scientific name is Plumbago auriculata. It is native to South Africa (as is the calla lily, made famous by Diego Rivera, and agapanthus, the Lily of the Nile); all three are common around Huatulco. Plumbago does well in clay pots (macetas) and attracts pollinators, such as butterflies and bees, but all parts, including the bark, fruit, pollen, roots, sap, and seeds irritate the skin and eyes and can be harmful if ingested.

Jazmin (Jasminum grandiflorum is the most commonly planted), or jasmine in English. This vine is native to southern Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, northeast Africa, and the Yunnan and Sichuan regions of China, although it grows well in many tropical and semi tropical climates. Its flowers are white and aromatic, and the vine appears delicate.

Gardenia (Gardenia jasminoides). This aromatic, evergreen, ornamental shrub is spelled just as it is in English. A fun factoid, it is in the same family with coffee. It is a small shrub and does well in macetas. It is native to tropical and subtropical regions of Africa, Asia, Pacific Islands, and Australia.

Bugambilia (Bougainvillea glabra). English speakers call and spell it by its scientific name Bougainvillea. This plant is native to Brazil, and it has an interesting French connection. It was first described by Philibert Commerçon, who was the first botanist sponsored by a national government to accompany an exploratory voyage. The voyage, intended to circumnavigate the globe, was led by the French admiral Louis Antoine de Bougainville, so the newly-discovered plant was named for him. The name was included in the Genera Plantarum, the first published classification of plant materials, put together by the French botanist Antoine Laurent de Jussieu in 1789; the name was finally codified in the 1930s in the Index Kewensis Plantarum Phanerogamarum, the reference work maintained by Kew Gardens outside London.

Another interesting story – it is possible that the first European to describe this plant was actually the botanical expert Jeanne Baret, Commerçon’s partner and assistant. Because women were not allowed on ships, she disguised herself as a man and thus became the first woman to circumnavigate the globe. Women were at the time forbidden to be botanists, as plants are primarily identified and described by their reproductive parts, and that was considered scandalous.

Bugambilias thrive in full sun and sandy, well-drained soils. The colorful petals are not petals at all but bracts, or modified leaves; the central flower itself is small and inconspicuous. It has been cultivated for decades, with over 300 varieties available. This versatile, thorned plant can be pruned as a hedge, bush, or tree. Here in Huatulco, I planted two called sorpresa (surprise) since bracts are both pink and white. Although it is a tough plant, like many tropical ornamental plants, it is vulnerable to predation by leaf-cutting ants, known as hormigas arrieras, or muleteers, since they carry a burden of chewed off bracts and leaves back to their nests.

Carrizal means “place where the carrizos grow,” which would be a wetland or floodplain. And what indeed is carrizo? This is a type of large, stout grass and may have referred to several different plants, including grasses, rushes, cattails, and bulrushes, found primarily along riverine or riparian areas. Was this area indeed at some point a wetland? Not from what I have seen and read. It is considered an invasive plant in the U.S., controlled by fire and flooding along the Rio Grande.

East-West Streets (South to North)

Acacia (Acacia species). Acacias are a large group of trees and shrubs in the pea family, characterized by fern-like leaves and small ball-like white or yellow flowers. Plants in the pea family generally have a pea-like pod called a vaina in Spanish. There are a number of native species in Huatulco; some have spines, like the common Acacia cornigera (cuernitos, or “little horns”), which occurs at slightly higher elevation than the coast. This tree has prominent hollow spines in which resides a tiny ant with a nasty bite; they protect the tree from other plant-eating predators (herbivores) while receiving nutrition from the tree.

Ceiba (Ceiba pentandra). The ceiba tree, aka kapok, is in the same family with the pochote and the bailador (dancer), which we know in English as the shaving brush tree. In some places in Mexico, the ceiba is also known as pochote, but botanists see them as distinct in both genus and species, although both are in the Malvaceae family (see Pochote below).

The ceiba tree described here is a huge tree upon maturity, with a spiny, stout, single trunk, large fruits with tasty corn-like kernels/seeds that mature into a cotton-like fluff. The leaves are palm shaped. It was sacred to the Maya of eastern Mexico and Central America, as they believed it connected the heavens to the underworld through the earth. Along with the Guanacaste, this is one of the first trees you see in the median when approaching Huatulco from Highway 200. It is bat-pollinated and can live for hundreds of years. It is the national tree of Guatemala.

Cocotillo. I could not find a plant that corresponds to this common name, although it can be argued that it means “cultivated coconut.” Coco for “coconut” and tillado for “tilled” or “cultivated.” Might be a stretch.

Colorin (Erythrina coralloides). Like the acacia, this plant is in the pea family. It has a lovely almost tubular red flower that attracts butterflies and hummingbirds. The seeds are very poisonous.

Chacah (Bursera simaruba). Chacah is the Mayan name for this tree, aka gumbo limbo, with its peeling bark. This is a very interesting family of trees represented by 13 species in the Cacaluta watershed. They can often be distinguished by their peeling bark and berry-like red fruits, and large featherlike leaves. They are easily spotted in the landscape. The whimsical Oaxacan sculptures known as alebrije are from a related species, copal; the word copal originates from its Náhuatl name Copalquahuitl.

Flamboyan (Caesalpinia pulcherrima or Delonix regia). Like many common names, this one could be referring to two different plants. I am assuming it is the Caesalpinia pulcherrima, also known by another common name, tabachin. This colorful native tree has red/orange flowers and fern-like leaves, a long pea-pod fruit, as it is in the pea family. It attracts many pollinating insects and birds.

Guamuchil (Pithecelobium dulce). As the species name implies, this pea-family native has a sweet (dulce) fruit, pinkish on the inside, which attracts many species of birds, squirrels, and insects. It tends to grow near drainages and riparian areas. It can be found growing next to the huaje (Leucaena leucocephala) trees across the street from the Bladu’Yú restaurant near the entrance to Chahue beach.

Guanacastle (Enterolobium cyclocarpum). Also spelled guanacaste, this is a very large tree with a huge, broad, saucer-shaped canopy seen when entering La Crucecita south from Highway 200. It has a smooth bark, and unique ear-shaped fruits. With difficulty the seeds can be removed from the fruit and ground to produce a flour and then baked into delicious cookies (if you have a lot of free time). It is illegal to harvest here without a permit, and the wood can only be obtained through supposedly legal means and after natural senescence. The wood is beautiful, very hard, and bug resistant, even to termites. When cut and sanded it produces a somewhat toxic sawdust. It is the national tree of Costa Rica. Pura Vida!

Guarumbo (Cecropia obtusifolia). Although there is one in the garden of the Binniguenda hotel in Santa Cruz, this tree generally begins to appear in the next ecosystem north and away from the coast at a higher elevation, where vegetation is tropical and green all year (siempre verde = always green, like the Italian or Mediterranean cypress, Cupressus sempervirens). For house plant fans, it looks like a schefflera on steroids; if you visit Hagia Sofia or Pluma Hidalgo, you will see the tree shortly after leaving Santa María Huatulco on your way north. It is tall, with large leaves, and is easily distinguished from the surrounding landscape.

Macuitle. This appears to be a Hispanicized version of the Náhuatl word macuahuitl, which was a weapon of war, a wooden club with several embedded obsidian blades; the name means “hand-wood.” It was effectively used by the Mexica (Aztecs) against the invading Spaniards, as chronicled by Bernal Díaz de Castillo, a soldier in the army of Hernán Cortés, and the author of Historia Verdadura de la Conquista de la Nueva España (The True History of the Conquest of New Spain). Although I do not find that it corresponds to a particular tree, it was no doubt made of hardwood. According to Díaz and several other commentators, Aztec warriors could kill a horse with a single slash of the macuahuitl.

Macuil (Handroanthus impetiginosus, Tabebuia chrysantha, Tabebuia rosea). Ay yay yay yay. There are at least three of these magnificent flowering trees native to the area, all known as macuil, also spelled maquil, and all members of the Bignoniaceae family. They bloom at different times, with the yellow flowering trees lining Blvd Benito Juarez in the vicinity of La Bocana in January, and the pink/purplish flowering tree (Tabebuia rosea) dominating in March. The bright pink Handroanthus impetiginosus blooms in late October to mid-November. It is the national tree of Paraguay. All of them attract birds, particularly orioles.

Ocotillo (Cordia eleagnoides). This tree is locally known by another common name, parota, and is not to be confused with the cactus-like plants of the southwestern deserts of the United States of America. This native, moderate-sized tree lines Benito Juarez Blvd. east of La Crucecita from approximately Balcones de Tangolunda to La Bocana. It has a broad canopy with white flowers, and blooms twice a year. The wood, sometimes known as bocote, is hard, heavy, and insect resistant and is used in construction, particularly for the support structures of palapas.

Palma Real (Roystonea regia). As its common Spanish name implies, we know this tree as the royal palm, a tall, stately palm with a whitish trunk. It is native to the Caribbean, Mexico, Florida, and parts of Central America. It is the national tree of Cuba.

Palo Verde (Parkinsonia aculeata). The name means “green stick” in Spanish. Here we go again with confusing common names. Referring to my bible, Cátalogo de Nombres Vulgares y Cientificos de Plantas Mexicanas by Maximino Martínez (México: Fondo de Cultura Económico, 1979), there are eight trees that correspond to this name. The La Crucecita street name Palo Verde is most probably the one that grows in hot areas of Oaxaca, and not the one commonly found in southwestern United States. What the species have in common are the green trunks and branches, where photosynthesis occurs, providing essential carbohydrates (sugars) when the leaves drop from this deciduous plant.

Pochote (Ceiba aesculifolia). The multiple stemmed trunks have spines, but they are not as prominent as those of the ceiba. The flowers are large and before they emerge, the buds resemble those of the shaving brush tree, to which it is related.

Sabali. This was a tough one. Saba or sabal is a type of fan palm tree, or palmetto, found in tropical and subtropical climates (South Carolina, US, is called “The Palmetto State”). Sabalí, with an accent over the ‘i’, may be referring to a species of fig, or Ficus. The street name is NOT Sábila, so forgive me while I digress – you are sure to encounter sábila plants in Huatulco.

Sábila is Aloe vera (Aloe barbadensis miller), native to the Arabian Peninsula but happy in many tropical surroundings. “Aloe” comes from the Arabic alloeh, which means “bitter and shiny substance,” or from the Hebrew אוהלים ahalim, the aloes mentioned in the Old Testament. Aloe vera has medicinal properties and is applied externally to heal skin due to its mucilaginous texture and antiseptic properties. Taken internally it may improve digestion and support healthy blood sugar levels, but it can also cause digestive problems. It can also be used to seal cuttings of woody tropical plants, prolonging their storage, until they can be propagated directly in soil or in water.

Note: Mostly unrelated, but I wonder whether readers of The Eye have noticed that the National Park (Parque Nacional) has a new name. Recently big green signs have appeared along Highway 200 and other major thoroughfares with the new name for the park, Ricardo Flores Magón. Flores Magón was a well-known anarchist, socialist, activist, writer, and a major figure in the Mexican Revolution. Look him up.