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Flowers changed the face of the planet.
Without them, the world we know – even man himself –
would never have existed.
~ Loren Eiseley, American anthropologist, 1907-1997
With over 15 different ecosystems and transitional zones, it’s no wonder Costa Rica is a botanist’s and gardener’s delight. Even if you can’t tell the difference between a heliconia and a jacaranda, you can appreciate the verdancy and color of Costa Rica’s flora. It’s everywhere you look. And so is beautiful impatiens, an imported flower that blankets the floor of shady forests, especially along roadsides. They are wonderfully colorful but are pushing out native plants
Costa Rica Trees
Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps the singing bird will come.
~ Chinese proverb
Costa Rica chose the guanacaste (Enterolobium cyclocarpum) as its national tree, although it had an abundance of other choices. The diversity of trees concentrated in Costa Rica is amazing. You’ll recognize coconut palms on the beach and pine trees at higher elevations, but not perhaps gmelina, or teak, which are grown on lowland tree farms. The hearts of palm tree (from which palm oil is extracted) is the pejibaye palm. An interesting tall tree is the Indio desnudo (naked Indian), whose peeling bark is a deep brick-red. The tree is also known as “sunburned gringo,” for obvious reasons. Its fruit is a favorite of white-faced monkeys.
As we traveled the country, we couldn’t get over “living fence- posts,” a phenomenon attributed to the combination of climate and the properties of native arboles (trees). As they do all over the world, ranchers and farmers here use cut tree trunks or branches to make inexpensive fences. But once these twigs are stuck in the rich Costa Rican soil, the nearly-dead branches take root and grow, creating a row of sapling trees that divide fields. Several tree species perform this amazing task, including Indio desnudo, erythrina (used to shade coffee), fig, madre maton and madre de cacao. Spiny cactus is also used as fencing in Guanacaste and Nicoya.
The giant ceiba is a sacred tree to indigenous people whose beliefs have passed down from the ancient religion of the Maya. Their influence extended this far south. The milk tree in Corcovado has a drinkable milky latex sap and its sweet fruit is edible. Almond trees are commonly used for shade. They are not the same as those in the US, but the nut tastes similar.
Jacaranda are large open-crowned trees with deep purple-blue blossoms in the dry season. Another colorful tree is the African tulip tree, which has deep green leaves and brilliant red-orange blossoms tinged with yellow.
The dangerous manchineel tree (manzanillo) grows on and near beaches. The fruit is highly poisonous and, although the tree’s shiny green leaves and spreading branches give good shade, don’t sit under it.
One of the most important trees in Costa Rica’s history is the cacao, the seed of which is used to make chocolate. The country was once a leading grower and still has a sizeable commercial crop.
Mangroves
Mangroves look more like shrubs than trees, but coastal mangroves (mangle) areas are a critical part of the ecosystem. Their many functions include protecting fish, sponges, coral and marine life under their intertwined roots, and sheltering bird nests in their brushy foliage above ground. Along the sea, mangroves dampen winds, high waves and flooding when storms hit. They trap soil in their mangled root system that eventually fills in to become land. Their importance as a wetland anchor and natural wildlife haven cannot be exaggerated
Rainforest
One of the biggest misconceptions about the rainforest environment is that it rains all the time. Of course, when it does rain, it rains a lot. The designation “rainforest” has several variations, usually distinguished by vegetation and other characteristics. Rainforests are found in regions of low seasonal variations, with at least 1,800 mm (70 inches) of annual precipitation. Yet one type of rainforest doesn’t get much rain at all. A famous example is Monteverde, which is a cloud forest. Cloud forests are frequently smothered in moisture-laden clouds, where most of the water comes from the constant drenching of dew. Another typical characteristic of rainforests is the poor soil in which they thrive. Nutrients that feed the trees come from a sophisticated composting cycle that provides a thin but potent layer of good soil. Once cleared for cattle or farming, the thin soil quickly washes away or is used up, leaving barren ground. What this means is that rainforests cannot be regenerated – they are gone but not forgotten. Only 6% of the world’s rainforests remain and they are disappearing at the rate of over 100,000 acres per day. That’s an area the size of New York State every year! The tragedy affects us all, even when we live far from the rainforest. They are the lungs of the earth, where oxygen is exchanged for carbon dioxide, and they clean and recycle water. Tropical rainforests support at least half of the world’s plant and animal species.
Apart from being important watersheds, rainforests contain medical compounds that can benefit mankind. For example, more than 70% of the plants known to produce drugs with anti-cancerous properties are tropical. Cures for malaria (quinine) and amoebic dysentery (ipecac) are only two of the hundreds of medicines derived from botanical sources. Cortisone is another, and so is diosgenin – the active agent in birth control pills – which is derived from wild yams. Since time began, man has used plants as medicine. Indigenous peoples around the world, including the few left in Costa Rica, still use plants and home remedies medicinally with great effect. The rainforest also provides commercial and edible products, such as rubber, vanilla, coconuts, resins, starch, thatch, dyes and bananas. Undoubtedly, there are thousands of new medicines waiting to be found in the rainforest, yet man is cutting them down at a staggering rate. What a shortsighted legacy for our children. Recently, some agronomists have been theorizing that, because of its topography, volcanic soil and climate, Costa Rica’s lost forests may have a greater ability than other cleared rainforests to respond to managed re-growth. Only time will tell. You’ll probably hear mentioned “primary” forest and “secondary” growth when talking about la selva (the forest). The thick, heavily vegetated woods you see, which may seem as if it should be called virgin forest, has actually been cut and re-grown in the last couple of decades. Primary or virgin forest is rather thin along ground level, its lower level growth restricted by the thick canopy where most of the rainforest life resides.
