Tropical Plants of Costa Rica

Costa Rica’s rich and varied flora dazzles visitors and botanists alike.

An essential guide to the most conspicuous and/or common species likely to be encountered by visitors, this book is also a wonderful resource for naturalists, students and researchers

The author is internationally known for her botanical illlustrations, paintings and photographs.

The text is supplemented by more than 540 high quality full-color photographs taken in the field, each depicting an entire plant or a closer view of flowers, fruits, or seeds, representative of over 430 different plants. 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.

A previous edition of this book was published under the title “A Guide to Tropical Plants of Costa Rica” (2005). The taxonomy has been updated for this new edition.

Also available in paperback.