As part of my research into the cultural ecology of a community in the North Guatemalan Highlands I collected plant names and uses from several Maya-K'ekchi' speaking informants. To make up for my scant academic background in botany I made ink outline drawings from fresh specimens and used colored pencils to make these look as life-like as possible, with sections and enlargements to capture details that I trusted would be sufficient to let practicing taxonomists identify each plant to species or even variety level. It later transpired that Dr. Louis O. Williams of Chicago's Field Museum was in my research area and took an interest in my ethnobotanical work; I shipped a collection of pressed specimens to him and later worked with him and his staff to identify these and add them to the Museum's collections. He continued to offer advice and encouragement until his death in 1991.

Digital scans of my drawings are provided here, including text for taxonomic and linguistic identification. The former is given in the latest form available at the time, e.g. Poaceae at the family level rather than Gramineae. The latter is given in the orthography in common use in Guatemala in the index entries below (with italic in place of overbars on lengthened vowels), and in a simplified linguistic orthography on the drawings themselves.