Trees of Costa Rica's Pacific Slope
Costa
Rica is a small, Central American country located in the tropics
at a latitude of about 10 degrees North. Straddling the land bridge
between two immense continents and subject to warm tropical sunlight
and generally abundant rainfall, the country boasts an exceptionally
high diversity of plant and animal life. Furthermore, Costa Rica
is well known for is efforts in nature conservation, boasting
over 22 national parks and nature reserves.
I have studied the arboreal flora of Costa Rica's Pacific slope for some 20 years (and have recently published a field guide to the trees of Manuel Antonio National Park). With the help of the National Biodiversity Institute (INBIO) and the National Herbarium, I have collected and documented the major anatomical and behavioral characteristics of hundreds of tree species. Much of this material is visual - photographs of flowers, trunks, etc. - and difficult (or impossible) to find. The purpose of this web site, then, is to make some of this data available to the public at large.
In order to make this site as useful as possible, the trees have been organized by three different criteria: in alphabetical order by family, in alphabetical order by species name, and in alphabetical order by the national park in which they have been located. This latter distinction is especially important, for the pacific coastal plain becomes progressively wetter as one moves from north to south. The most northerly parks (e.g. Santa Rosa National Park) encompass tropical dry forest, those near the middle sustain tropical humid forest (e.g. Manuel Antonio National Park), and the parks located furthest south protect tropical very humid forest (e.g. Corcovado National Park).
National Park