Tropical Plants of Costa Rica: A Guide to Native and Exotic Flora [Paperback]

Willow Zuchowski (Author), Turid Forsyth (Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 29, 2007

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 beautifully 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.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

"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

About the Author

Willow Zuchowski, a botanist, guide, author, and illustrator, has lived in Monteverde, Costa Rica, for more than twenty years. She teaches plant identification for tropical biology courses and is active in efforts to protect Costa Rica's unique biodiversity. Turid Forsyth is known internationally for her botanical illustrations, paintings, and photographs, which have been published widely and exhibited in galleries in Germany, the United States, and Canada.

Product Details

• Paperback: 529 pages
• Publisher: Cornell University Press (March 29, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801473748
• ISBN-13: 978-0801473746
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #205,732 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #36 in Books > Travel > Latin America > Central America > Costa Rica

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very handy plant guide for visitors to Costa Rica, September 6, 2007

By 

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

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

I 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

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tropical Plants of Costa Rica, September 13, 2007

By 

Marjorie M. Holland "professor of biology" (University of Mississippi) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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

Willow Zuchowski and Turid Forsyth have created a beautiful overview of Costa Rican vegetation. The photography is wonderful, giving enough detail of individual plants that readers get an accurate sense of what they are looking at. The text has an interesting diversity of information, ranging from plant taxonomy to medicinal uses to pollination strategies. I used the book with a Tropical Botany class, and the students not only loved the book, but found it to be an excellent size which is easy to carry in the field or store in a backpack. The habitat descriptions are well-written and provide the reader with a good idea of what to expect in different parts of Costa Rica.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful, but too large general field use, June 2, 2008

By 

D. J Stemke "Argo" (Indiana) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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

This is an outstanding publication. I was able to identify virtually everything I saw on our course to Costa Rica. I also appreciated the natural history under comments.

My only complaint is the weight of the book. If you are anything like me you will likely have other field guides, birds, herpes, etc. This book is pretty hefty and when added up makes travel cumbersome.