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

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.

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.