Introduction

Entire monographs have been written on the bark of the Maya and Aztec codices (Van Hagen 1944). And there are plenty of scholarly botanic studies of Ficus trees of the family Moraceae.

But on the Internet there is usually total confusion in popular web sites about the differences between strangler figs and normal fig trees. It is unclear to which degree the bark paper comes form a strangler fit tree, or also from another Ficus species which is a normal tree (not dedicated to wrapping its roots around a host tree). But all this needs further research since 90% of the books and about 99% of the books and about 99% of the articles in Aztec, Maya and other cultures).

Since we are in the middle of projects studying flavorings for cacao, Aztec and Maya ingredients for tobacco (more than just tobacco), colorants from local plants to dye native cotton clothing, and also trying to locate all the hundreds of medical plants of Guatemala, it would require funding to track down and study every species of Ficus. But since we are interested in all utilitarian plants of Mesoamerica, we wanted at least to prepare an introductory tabulation and a brief bibliography to assist people to understand that

stranger figs strange other trees; these are very common in Guatemala

But there are many fig trees which are not strangers

Figs for candy and cookies come from fit trees to other parts of the world

Not all bark paper comes from just amate (Ficus) trees.