Dave Looks for Plants

Pocosol is on the eastern (Atlantic) side of the Tilarán Mountains – opposite from the well known tourist area of Montverde.  At about 800 meters, it is just north of the Rio Peñas Blancas.  There are several trails around the research station there, but not particularly well maintained and the place is seldom visited except by a few researchers.

Four different Costus were seen there, including one that has me a bit mystified.  It was very tall with non-appendaged bracts and open flowers looking somewhat like Costus glaucus except that the young shoots and the bracts did not have the characteristic powdery white covering.  It is similar to a plant I saw in 2013 in the gardens at the University of Georgia research station at San Luis near Monteverde, and along the upper Rio Peñas Blancas.  This plant will probably be distributed under the name Costus ‘Red Baron’.

I also saw lots of Costus malortieanus which I had not seen in habitat before then.

The most interesting plant seen was similar to Costus curvibracteatus except much shorter and compact with nearly pure red bracts and much larger yellow flowers.  I have registered a cultivar name for it, not very original, Costus aff. curvibracteatus ‘Pocosol’.

When I returned to Rancho Mastatal and the Parque Nacional La Cangreja, I did see many more Costus plants in flower, as expected.  There was lots of Costus laevis as well as others including Costus villosissimus, Costus glaucus, Costus pulverulentus, Costus guanaiensis, and Costus scaber.  Below is the C. guanaiensis form seen along the road a short distance from Rancho Mastatal.

One day Chepo and I took the long, strenuous hike to the summit of Cerro Cangrejo.  Along the trail to the top the only Costus I saw was C. pulverulentus but the view was fabulous, with the rainforest of the National Park in the foreground and the Pacific Ocean in the distance.

and monkeys.

There was an unusual looking form of Costus laevis at Leo’s place, with predominantly orange flowers instead of red.

The form of C. pulverulentus found at Leo’s place was very hairy whereas others in the area were nearly totally glabrous.  This exemplifies the fact that the indument (hairiness) on Costus spp. tends to be variable within a species.

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
• Costus sp. aff. allenii or guanaiensis
• Costus pulverulentus
• Costus laevis
• Costus villosissimus
• Costus ‘Rancho Sunrise’
• Costus ricus
• Costus glaucus
• Costus scaber

Click on the links to go to the plant datasheets on these plants and see more photos and information on the Gingers R Us website.

The next morning I climbed in the saddle and off we went up the mountain.  I am not an experienced horseback rider, and my horse only knew Spanish, so we were in a bit of trouble from the start.  Fortunately the horse had a pretty good idea where we were going and if the horse didn’t, Carlos did.  

When we got near the top, I spotted what I was looking for — the plant that had been (incorrectly) identified as Costus barbatus turned out to be Costus ricus.   As it turned out this species which is endemic to Costa Rica and known mostly from the Osa Peninsula was very common there at Cerro Nara.  Costus ricus is the only species of Costus I have found that flowers ONLY in the DRY SEASON.  It starts flowering in January and continues into the early part of the rainy season.  After about August, you will no longer find any new flowers — only the colorful red bracts from the dry season inflorescence.  This worked in my favor for the timing of this trip because I saw hundreds of these plants in full flower at Cerro Nara.

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.

As for the plants, there was a beautiful specimen of Costus glaucus growing right in front of the lodge….

and a nice form of Costus scaber growing behind the lodge with longer, showier flowers than I have normally seen.

(No, this has nothing to do with the Ritchie Valens song – you are probably thinking of La Bamba.)

The “Tropenstation La Gamba” is a biological research station operated in cooperation with the University of Vienna, Austria.  The director is Werner Huber, and although I have never met him (he has not been there at the same time I have) we have corresponded by email and I have written three chapters in a book he will soon be publishing on the Zingiberales of the Golfo Dulce Region.

The rooms in the main cabin are quite comfortable and meals are provided.

The facility is located on the edge of the Piedras Blancas National Park, so there is plenty of good forest nearby with well maintained trails.  Also nearby is a more luxurious lodge, the Esquinas Rainforest Lodge, just a km or so down the road.

During my stay there I walked all the marked trails as well as some that were not marked at all, as described in my next post “Hiking Rio Bonito”.