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.
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. While looking for a URL to link on this page I found yet another explanation, translated here from the Spanish at http://areasyparques.com/areasprotegidas/parque-nacional-la-cangreja.
The Indianstory tells ofa largecrab thatlivedon the mountainand preventedthe passage ofthe localstowardsthe other villages, until onetimea warriorfought himand managed tocuta legunleashinghis fury.Finding himselfvanquished the crab decided to becomestone; therefore,the top of the mountain isa rockyformation.
In the waters of the Quebrada Grande, I saw another possible reason for the name.
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.
Here is a short film clip showing the area along Quebrada Grande in the park, with Chepo in the lead.
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’.
