Plants of El Zota
Field StationLimon Province, Costa Rica
Station Description:
El Zota is in the Costa Rican lowland tropical rain forest zone on the
Atlantic side of the watershed in the province of Limon, near the town
of Cariari. The station (10o 33.43'N, 83o
44.17'W) is about 30
km from the Atlantic
Ocean. The 1000 hectare property is composed of about 70% mature
forest which contains a variety of reliefs from swamp to small
hills. The station has small lakes and ponds (lagoons) and several small streams (quebradas). The remaining
portion of the station property is in managed tree plantation and open
pasture. Several roads and trails (sendaros) are maintained throughout
the station to allow access to internal portions of the forest and
mapping of plant and animal observations.
Plant collection: Starting in the summer of 2001, I have been introducing myself to the complex flora of the station. Using various INBio publications, Gentry (1993) and others (reference link) my students and I have been photographing and identifying the most common members of the plant Kingdom we come upon. I have been using photographic vouchering because of the difficulties of traditional plant preservation in a 100% humidity environment and the red tape involved in importation into the US. Photographic vouchering is also easier on the environment and easier to disseminate: one specimen can be used by thousands. Many photographs will be replaced by higher quality ones during Summer 2005 as I have upgraded to a SLR (Nikon D70).
Follow the links below to the plant and algal groups that have been identified and photographed to date. New species will be added as they are processed. This is a work in progress and if you have any comments or if you think that there is an error in identification, please contact me by email: jjsmith@po-box.esu.edu.
Plant collection: Starting in the summer of 2001, I have been introducing myself to the complex flora of the station. Using various INBio publications, Gentry (1993) and others (reference link) my students and I have been photographing and identifying the most common members of the plant Kingdom we come upon. I have been using photographic vouchering because of the difficulties of traditional plant preservation in a 100% humidity environment and the red tape involved in importation into the US. Photographic vouchering is also easier on the environment and easier to disseminate: one specimen can be used by thousands. Many photographs will be replaced by higher quality ones during Summer 2005 as I have upgraded to a SLR (Nikon D70).
Follow the links below to the plant and algal groups that have been identified and photographed to date. New species will be added as they are processed. This is a work in progress and if you have any comments or if you think that there is an error in identification, please contact me by email: jjsmith@po-box.esu.edu.
Click on the
image below to open the individual plant list.
Algal flora |
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Ferns and Lycopods |
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| Zingberales |
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| Other Herbaceous Higher Plants |  |
| Palms and Cycads |
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Other Trees and Shrubs |
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References |
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