Travel Story--Costa Rica, 2019

Native to the rainforest of Costa Rica, heliconia or lobster claw
(genus Heliconia, heliconia family, Heliconiaceae)

I first went to Costa Rica in February 1972; this year I had the opportunity to go back with a Cal Discoveries trip (Preserving Paradise: Parks and Reserves of Costa Rica (link), run within Costa Rica by Holbrook Travel (link)).

I’d been back to some places (1970s, 1986, 2013) but this tour hit many of the places I went in 1972 and had a focus of Costa Rican conservation. 

It was quite an eye-opener.

Winter Escape--Costa Rica

Beach, Costa Rica

The days are getting short and the wind is chilly. So I daydream about sunny warm places.
For example, Costa Rica.

I had never been in the tropics when I went there in 1972. It was magical. I have been back five times since.  It remains wonderful.

Visiting Costa Rica--Very Seasonal Guanacaste Province

Costa Rica has been a destination for ecologists since at least the 1970s, well before it had ecotourism infrastructure--one of its strengths today. The attraction of Costa Rica to professional biologists was having so many different tropical habitats in a small area. Naturally, at 9 degrees north of the Equator, there is tropical rainforest. A line of mountains runs down the center of Costa Rica, so while the rainforest as sea level is always very warm, as you go up there are a whole series of fascinating very wet montane forests.  Cross over the mountains and lowland rainforest is there but it is not quite the same.

lowland rainforest, Costa Rica

Finally Costa Rica has dry tropical forest, a region that is very rainy half the year and rainless the rest of the year.  This a climate extends along the Pacific coast of Central America, ending in Guanacaste Province, in northwestern Costa Rica. Many elements of that community are shared with Mexico and even Arizona.

I had imagined the tropical rainforest but tropical dry forest was quite unexpected.

Plant Story--The Beautiful Horrible Water Hyacinth

Floating water hyacinth, Eicornia crassipes

The water hyacinth is one of the plants I treasure because I learned about it before I knew what it looked like. Therefore, one day I had a moment of joy when all things I knew about it came together.

You see, there was Eichhornia crassipes with the complex breeding system, water hyacinth the terrible weed of subtropical lakes and streams and that handsome aquatic plant for sale at garden shops.

What? They're the same plant?

Yes indeed!

Plant Story--Coral Trees, the Erythrina species

Pretty red flowers on a small tree, the flowers upturned or curved like crescents. Called coral trees or coral bean, the genus is Erythrina in the pea family, Fabaceae, and they are found all around the tropical world.

My most recent encounter with a coral tree was with Erythrina crista-galli, the cockspur coral tree (crista-galli is Latin for cock's comb) in Argentina, where, called ceibo, it is the national flower. Cockspur coral tree is native to northern Argentina and nearby areas in Paraguay, Uruguay and southern Brazil. It is the national flower of Uruguay, as well.

Which tells you how spectacular the cockspur coral tree is in flower.

Plant Story--The Dramatic Heliconias

Heliconias, Bali

I traveled halfway around the world, to tropical Asia, and the iconic plant I saw everywhere is one I associate with the American tropics, heliconia.

In Bali, the gardens there were glorious with heliconias.

But heliconias, also called crab's claws and even Japanese canna, are plants in the genus Heliconia, native to the New World tropics. I first met them in Costa Rica, and admired them where they grew in open spots in and along the lowland rainforest.

Reminiscing--Hiking the Costa Rican Rainforest

Thirty years ago yesterday, I was picked up at the end of a backpack trip in the Costa Rican rain
forest.

I grew up in suburbia, it was love of plant ecology that drew me into strange activities like a week's trek in the rainforest.

Plant Wonders--10 Tropical Plants Not to Miss

Looking into the Costa Rican rainforest

Ew! The tropics! Deadly snakes and poisonous plants! I tip-toed through the vegetation as if every leaf would bite!

I first encountered the tropics in 1973, when I took an Organization for Tropical Studies course, Tropical Ecology, which introduced U.S. graduate students to the tropics, in Costa Rica. At the beginning of the course, they gave us a safety orientation: these snakes are poisonous, these ants have a sting that will incapacitate you, these leaves cause welts...

Suitably intimidated--having experienced only the northern United States--I stayed in the middle of the path and tried not to get close to the leaves.

Visiting Costa Rica—A Rainforest Walk

looking back at the beach, Costa Rica

My Betchart/Lindblad expedition last month took me to Costa Rica (see earlier post). We sailed north along the Pacific Coast, stopping at Corcovado and Manuel Antonio National Parks, before disembarking to fly home from San Jose.

I first visited to Costa Rica in 1972, with the Tropical Ecology course of the Organization for Tropical Studies, did Ph.D. research there, and have been back several times since. 

Costa Rica is about the size of West Virginia. Within that small space it is very diverse. The mountains down the center create a whole series of different ecosystems, varying in temperature and rainfall and more. There is tropical rainforest on both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, but, cut off from each other by the mountains, they have different plants and animals. On the Pacific side in the northern half of the country, severe drought from December to June combined with heavy rain the rest of the year has created a distinctive tropical dry forest. 

In Costa Rica's southwest corner, I had a terrific time hiking in the lowland rainforest at Corcovado National Park.  

Pacific lowland rainforest, Costa Rica