Customer Reviews

A Guide to Tropical Plants of Costa Rica

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

This is the book I've been waiting for! Well-researched and well-written, intelligently organized and beautifully photographed, it stands apart from the dozens of other resources on Costa Rica for its depth and thoroughness. Zuchowski's book features the most common plants encountered in Costa Rica, and if you have even the slightest interest in tropical plants and ecology, you'll be happy to have it along. What makes it particularly useful is how the plants are categorized (gardens,

tropical fruits and foods, major habitats, etc.), which makes it

applicable beyond Costa Rica's borders--to much of Central America and in many of the Caribbean Islands. The text is a pleasure to read and the photographs are terrific, nicely highlighting key features for identification and aesthetically portrayed! Hopefully a Spanish version will appear soon.

I ordered a "Guide to Tropical Plants in Costa Rica" from any_books for $152.
They sent me a different but somewhat similar book that cost $22.
And on the back of the book, the price was blacked out with a black Sharpie in two places.
So, they charged me $130 over the real cost of the book and tried to hide that information from me.
When I looked up the real price for the book and complained, they offered to give me a 20% discount on the book.
That would mean that the $22 book would then cost $100 -a ridiculous offer.
They never seemed to read my e mail replies which explained my concerns in detail.
Then they offered a 50% discount on the book which would mean that the $22 book would cost me $76.
When I rejected this second stupid offer, I was then again offered the 20% discount.
Again they were not reading my e mails, but Amazon was.
I finally got a full refund through the Amazon A-Z Guarantee which did not cover the cost of sending the book back - $15.
Amazon suggested that I submit this information to their Fraud Investigation Department which I did.
Needless to say, I will never again order from this company.
I feel that they did their best to cheat me out of a fairly large amount of money and never made an honest effort to make things right.
So, I am not unhappy with Amazon and from now on, I will be sure that my purchases are covered by the A to Z Guarantee.

Disgusted

The illustrations are excellent and the coverage broad. Plant families and habitats are emphasized. Special subjects, such as traditional and medicinal uses, fruit crops, the fig-wasp relation, and deforestation are discussed. On almost every page there is a photograph or bit of text to catch the eye. For the traveler with a botanical interest who wishes an introduction, this book is outstanding.

I saw this book all over Costa Rica but bought it when I got home (slightly cheaper). It's the best one out there for accurate photos and descriptions!