Features
- Cover Type: Paperback with 532 pages
- Published by: Cornell University Press March 29, 2007
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 0801473748
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-0801473746
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Book Dimensions:
8.9 x 6 x 1.1 inches
- Weighs: 2.2 pounds
Book Description
Ranging from miniature epiphytic orchids to towering trees, and from mangrove forests lining coastal waterways to high-elevation cloud forests, Costa Rica's rich and varied flora dazzles visitors and botanists alike. Tropical Plants of Costa Rica, the first popular treatment to include plants from all regions of the country, is an indispensable guide to native and exotic species found in the neotropics.
This book is gorgeously illustrated with more than 540 full-color photographs taken in the field, each depicting an entire plant or a closer view of flowers, fruits, or seeds. Instructive pen-and-ink drawings of botanical details also accompany many of the accounts. The text clearly explains each plant's identifying characteristics and reveals fascinating facts about its natural history, chemical properties, economic importance, and medicinal and other uses. Sidebar features throughout the book highlight conservation, ethnobotany, and ecology; their topics include unusual applications for plants, distinct attributes of certain plant families, and plants of particular microhabitats. Tropical Plants of Costa Rica is a wonderful resource for naturalists, students, and researchers, as well as both experienced and first-time visitors to Costa Rica and the American tropics.
Back Cover Copy
"This attractive book provides a means for visitors to Costa Rica to learn about and recognize 430 of the more prominent plants of the country and to learn about them in a wonderfully exciting way. A 'must' for any ecotourist, and a refresher course about the biology of tropical plants for anyone. I wish such a book had existed when I first visited Costa Rica forty years ago!"--Peter H. Raven, Director, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis
Reader ReviewsI picked up a copy of this guide (published in San Jose by Zona Tropical) at La Selva last year and consider it a worthy addition to the small library I carry in Costa Rica. I would recommend it as the most useful single volume work on Costa Rican plants. The guide is aimed at the amateur rather than the professional botanist: photographs are the prime means of identification, plants are presented out of family order (more below) and there are no keys. Nevertheless, it is quite possible to identify a good many of the country's commoner plants using this guide. The order of the plants is:- 1. colourful-flowering trees 2. non-colourful-flowering trees 3. roadside and garden exotics 4. crop plants 5. living fences (so characteristic of Costa Rica) 6. special habitats, e.g. dry forests, cloud forests, beaches & mangroves 7. quintessentially tropical groups, e.g. bromeliads, palms & orchids 8. grasses There is emphasis on those plants that are likely to be most conspicuous to the visitor. This often means a bias towards exotic species rather than natives. However, this does mean that the book is useful outside Costa Rica and I will be referring to it throughout the American tropics. Once a plant is identified a comments section provides a host of useful information. Well worth the price! I will definitely be taking it back with me on my next trip. Chris Sharpe, 3 August 2007. ISBN: 0801473748
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