A Guide to Tropical Plants of Costa Rica [Paperback]

Willow Zuchowski (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2006

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 attracts casual visitors as well as professional botanists. A Guide to Tropical Plants of Costa Rica, the first popular treatment to include plants from all regions of the country, is an indispensable guide to the country's native and exotic species.

This book is beautifully illustrated with more than 540 photographs taken in the field, each depicting an entire plant or a closer view of flowers or fruits. 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, and medicinal and other uses. Sidebars throughout the book elaborate on unusual uses of plants, distinct attributes of certain plant families, plants of particular microhabitats, and other topics of interest.

Product Details

• Paperback: 529 pages
• Publisher: Zona Tropical; 1st edition (December 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0970567847
• ISBN-13: 978-0970567840
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,547,880 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very handy plant guide for visitors to Costa Rica, August 7, 2006

By 

Christopher J. Sharpe "Chris Sharpe" (Caracas, Venezuela) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Guide to Tropical Plants of Costa Rica (Paperback)

I have just picked up a copy of this new guide at La Selva last month and already consider it a worthy addition to the small library I carry in Costa Rica. I would even go so far as to 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.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating details make this plant book come alive, April 7, 2006

By 

Sarah Sargent "Ecologist" (Meadville, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Guide to Tropical Plants of Costa Rica (Paperback)

This is a wonderful book for students, roadside botanists, and anyone else who is curious about the plants most likely to be seen while travelling around in Costa Rica. The book is structured in sections that make sense, and the species accounts are filled with all kinds of fascinating information such as medicinal uses, how the common name came into being, and the original range of the species and how and why it was propagated beyond that range. I kept finding myself browsing through more and more of it, reading about the largest flower in Costa Rica, the drift seeds that have been found as far north as Scandinavia, all about various food crops, which woods are used for what purposes... it goes on and on! While the botanical descriptions and information are excellent, you don't have to be a scientist to get a lot out of this book. The photographs and drawings are beautiful and clear, and really help with indentifying the species.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Guide but lacking for gardeners, October 14, 2006

By 

Theodore Thompkins (Costa Rica) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Guide to Tropical Plants of Costa Rica (Paperback)

Agree with all of the other reviews, but have one criticism due to the fact that I am a foreign land owner here. The book does not provide any information on growing the plant. I realise that it is not a gardener's guide but as one doesn't exist that is dedicated to Costa Rica's incredible plant life, several of us who live here have turned to this book for reference and have been disappointed.

Otherwise it is a well laid out and comprehensive guide, full of interesting information and beautiful photos. Mentioning the local "Tico" name is extremely useful, on first arriving here I had difficulty identifying tress in my huge tropical tree encyclopedia knowing only the local name, now with the assistance of this book I can easily cross reference between different books.