Lankester Gardens is very nice, best known for its collections of orchids.  I walked around the grounds and lo and behold I found a species I had never seen before - the beautiful Costus montanus.  That species was not in general cultivation in the USA.   I asked permission from a Mexican botanist who was working there, and cut off an inflorescence, detailed the flowers, then collected some seeds.

Normally, to import any plants or plant parts into the USA you need to have an import permit and you need to get phytosanitary certificates from a government official in the country of origin.  But just a month or so before this trip, the USDA had promolgated a new regulation allowing the import of small lots of seeds without requiring the phytos.  I had obtained the Small Lot Seed Permit so this trip I was able to bring back seeds of any unusual Costus I might find.  The regulation was so new that when I came back in through Atlanta and declared the seeds, the inspectors there knew nothing at all about it.  Fortunately I had made a copy of the Federal Register containing the new regulation, and they permitted my entry with these seeds.  So I am now growing Costus montanus from seeds collected at Lankester Gardens.

After my morning experiences with Costa Rica bus drivers, I was not ready to try to flag down a bus along the highway to get to Orosi, and I knew it was only about 10 km, so I asked at the Lankester desk to call me a taxi.  I stayed in Orosi at a comfortable little hostel, Montaña Linda. 

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May 4, 2006 - Orosi Valley
My second day in the Orosi Valley I walked to the village of Rio Macho and then up a small mountain trail to the access road overlooking the valley.  Along that road, I saw Costus montanus, but not much else of any special interest.  The highlight of that day was the scenery, especially the views of the valley below.

The Orosi Valley is well known for coffee growing, with many coffee fields on the steep slopes overlooking the valley.  When finally I was ready to return to Montaña Linda, I had to either backtrack or find some alternative route back down the mountain.  So when I could see the town of Orosi below, I simply guessed and worked my way down along a private driveway, then a trail that seemed to go in the right direction, through the coffee fields and back to the hostel.

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May 5, 2006 - Tapantí National Park
The next morning I went to the Tapantí National Park to begin my search in earnest for Costus barbatus.  This park entrance is located on the eastern side of the mountains at elevations above 1000 meters. The scenery is beautiful and the area is known for its high annual rainfall.

One of the INBio records for Costus barbatus indicated a collection along the trail Arboles Caidos, so that is where I headed first. Along that trail I saw lots of Costus curvibracteatus, but nothing I could identify as C. barbatus.  It is certainly possible that I missed it, but I think it is more likely that someone incorrectly identified the former. The two species are superficially similar in appearance and C. curvibracteatus was not even described and named until 1976, so would not have been readily available in the literature. Nonetheless, it was exciting for me to find this species because I had never seen it before even in cultivation - much less in the wild.  And there is further confusion that was created by yet another error in identification of the cultivated species that are popular in the gardens of the USA.  The species you will usually see in botanical gardens under the name Costus curvibracteatus is actually a Peruvian species - Costus productus.  It has been my mission to try to get these incorrect identifications corrected wherever possible.

Other species I saw at Tapantí included C. pulverulentus and another plant that I am unsure of the identification, could be C. guanaiensis or possibly C. allenii or maybe something altogether new.

NOTE: We have now included this in Costus sinningiiflorus, but I believe it is an undescribed species.

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May 6, 2006 - Biking to Purisil
The next day I wanted to go to the Parque Purisil which was about 8 km up the valley.  I had seen a little shop in Orosi that had bicycle rentals so I made that my mode of transport that day.  I cycled up to Parque Purisil but could get no ones attention at the park entrance, so I just continued up the road a ways and then hid the bike back behind some bushes and headed back into the forest.  The trails there were very primitive once you got beyond the improved park. I was glad I did not still have the bicycle with me when I came to a narrow bridge. I saw lots of Costus curvibracteatus in that area at all stages of maturity and got some very nice photos, then retrieved the rented bycicle and returned to Orosi.

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May 7-10, 2006 - Rancho Mastatal and Parque La Cangreja
The buses for my travel to the next location, Rancho Mastatal, were pretty easy to figure out until I arrived at Santiago de Puriscal.  From there I was told to go wait in front of a certain grocery store in town and the bus would be there later that afternoon.  So there I was, a gringo with backpack and all in a town that does not see many tourists.  One by one, taxi drivers would come up to me and ask if I was looking for a ride somewhere.  Finally, not knowing how much longer it would take for the bus, I asked one of them for the price to take me there.  I knew it was about 30 km and on a very poor road once leaving the main road.  But the driver must have been hurting for business and quoted me a good price so I took it.  It turned out to be well over an hour and he had trouble finding the place but eventually we got there. Rancho Mastatal is the name of a small village and also the name of an environmental learning and sustainable living center, started by Tim O'Hara and Robin Nunes, former Peace Corps volunteers.  It has all the atmosphere of what we used to call a "hippie commune", but only in the positive aspects of such.  They make their own soap, bake their own bread and build the houses there out of sustainable materials (like cow dung).  Here is Timo, standing in front of the main house and a large clump of Costus villosissimus.

Rancho Mastatal is located on the edge of the Cangreja National Park, one of the newest and least well known in the Costa Rican park system.  The province of Puriscal is pretty much deforested and settled, leaving this as one of the last islands of primary forest.  A beautiful creek (Quebrada Grande) runs through the park and there is a peak called Cerro La Cangreja at 1,305 meters in altitude.

La cangreja is Spanish for the crab, and I had heard several different things about the origin of the name for this place. 

The Indian story tells of a large crab that lived on the mountain and prevented the passage of the locals towards the other villages, until one time a warrior fought him and managed to cut a leg unleashing his fury. Finding himself vanquished the crab decided to become stone; therefore, the top of the mountain is a rocky formation.

Tim (not wanting me to go by myself) arranged for Chepo,  a long-time local resident, to go with me through the park looking for my Costus.  As it turned out, it was a little too early in the season to find very many in flower, but I did see a number of species - enough so that I would want to return in just 3 months to catch them more into the rainy season.  In most of the Pacific coastal areas of Central America, the dry season runs from January to April and the rainy season begins late April or early May, continuing until November or December.  Something confusing to most of us "Norte Americanos" is that the word for summer, verano, is used for the hot, dry period of January to April.  Winter, invierno, occurs during the cooler rainy season -- the North American summer.   I have learned that the peak flowering for most species of Costus is about 2-3 months into the rainy season.  One species that is usually found in flower most any time of year is Costus laevis.

One very interesting plant was found along the road just a half kilometer or so from Rancho Mastatal.  It seems to be a natural hybrid of Costus villosissimus and Costus pulverulentus, both of which are common in the area.  I have since propagated it and registered it under the cultivar name Costus 'Rancho Sunrise'.

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May 11-15, 2006 - By horseback to Cerrro Nara
My next challenge was to get to Cerro Nara.  Cerro Nara is a protected area in the mountains overlooking the town of Quepos, part of the corridor of the Fila Costeña, the coastal mountain range of western Costa Rica.  There are no public facilities there but I had somehow on the internet found an accommodation and made arrangements to stay there.  In fact the owner had agreed to let me stay there if I would only provide him with a report of whatever Costus species I might find.  My contact would be at the Posado Quepos (now known as  Posada Natura) in the village of Londres to make my arrangements to get up the mountain.

There was an early morning bus heading back towards Santiago de Puriscal, taking school children to a school along the way, so I was to take that bus about 10 km to the main highway, then get off and flag down the next bus that passed by heading west toward the coast.  There was no settlement there, no bus stop, so I just started walking, with my heavy "luggage" on my back, thinking there must be some little soda (as little Costa Rican restaurants are called) somewhere nearby along the way.  There was, but it was not nearby.   After a few km and up a steep hill I found what I was looking for and waited there for the next bus heading west.  This took me to Quepos where I found the bus to Londres.

The Posada Natura is a beautiful place!  It is associated with an organization called Eco Era which manages the Aquas Claras Reserve at Cerro Nara.  When I was there, they had a beautiful botanical garden with many exotic gingers and a few Costus.  It was too late in the afternoon when I arrived there so the manager made arrangements for me to go by horseback up to the mountain lodge the next morning.  That evening I was given a huge seafood dinner and stayed in the luxury of the posada that night.

At first Carlos wanted me to stay in a small hut because the generator was not working in the main lodge, but after one look I knew that was not suitable, and took the lodge with or without electricity.  It is a huge place with a beautiful view of the coastal plain and the Pacific Ocean below.  My meals were prepared by the caretaker's family who lived about a km down the road. The next three days I spent exploring the trails around Cerro Nara looking for Costus and the afternoons and evenings sitting on the balcony of the lodge watching the sun set over the Pacific and the lights of the settlements below.  Except for my trips down the lane to get my meals at Marielo's house, I was there by myself and enjoying the solitude.

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May 16, 2006 - Parque Manuel Antonio
I went back down to Quepos from Cerro Nara and stayed in a small hostel there.  Then the next day I did a day trip to the very popular Manuel Antonio National Park.  To me, I could as well have gone to a zoo in any big city in the tropics.  The place was packed with tourists, the "trails" were concrete sidewalks, and the monkeys were well trained to entertain the tourists there.  If anyone believes that Manuel Antonio will give you the flavor of a tropical rainforest, forget it! The site itself must have been beautiful before all the tourist development.  There are beautiful beaches and steep Pacific coastal bluffs. I did see a few very common Costus species there but really the highlight of my visit was when I got to see a sloth on one of his (or hers?) weekly trips to the forest floor to relieve himself.
Video clip of sloth at Manuel Antonio

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May 17, 2006 - Back to San José
The next day I took the express bus back from Quepos to San Jose and thus ended my second adventure in Costa Rica.  I had searched for Costus barbatus and although I had not found it I had checked out several potential locations and I had seen several other Costus that I had not seen before that trip in flower and in the wild.  My plant list for this trip is not quite as long as the first trip to the Osa, but a good list none the less.

• Costus montanus
• Costus curvibracteatus
• Possible new species Tapantí
• Costus pulverulentus
• Costus laevis
• Costus villosissimus
• Costus 'Rancho Sunrise'
• Costus ricus
• Costus glaucus
• Costus scaber