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| Tropical Plants of Costa Rica: A Guide to Native and Exotic Flora | 
 enlarge | Author: Willow Zuchowski
Creator: Turid Forsyth
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $35.00
Buy New: $23.06
You Save: $11.94 (34%)
Buy New/Used from $20.28
Avg. Customer Rating:  (5 reviews)
Sales Rank: 101359
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 532
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.2
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6 x 1.1
ISBN: 0801473748
Dewey Decimal Number: 580
EAN: 9780801473746
ASIN: 0801473748
Publication Date: March 29, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Book Description
Ranging from miniature epiphytic orchids to towering trees, and from mangrove forests lining coastal waterways to high-elevation cloud forests, Costa Rica's rich and varied flora dazzles visitors and botanists alike. Tropical Plants of Costa Rica, the first popular treatment to include plants from all regions of the country, is an indispensable guide to native and exotic species found in the neotropics. This book is beautifully illustrated with more than 540 full-color photographs taken in the field, each depicting an entire plant or a closer view of flowers, fruits, or seeds. 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. Tropical Plants of Costa Rica is a wonderful resource for naturalists, students, and researchers, as well as both experienced and first-time visitors to Costa Rica and the American tropics.
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| Customer Reviews:
Wonderful, but too large general field use June 3, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is an outstanding publication. I was able to identify virtually everything I saw on our course to Costa Rica. I also appreciated the natural history under comments.
My only complaint is the weight of the book. If you are anything like me you will likely have other field guides, birds, herpes, etc. This book is pretty hefty and when added up makes travel cumbersome.
Tropical Plants of Costa Rica September 13, 2007
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
Willow Zuchowski and Turid Forsyth have created a beautiful overview of Costa Rican vegetation. The photography is wonderful, giving enough detail of individual plants that readers get an accurate sense of what they are looking at. The text has an interesting diversity of information, ranging from plant taxonomy to medicinal uses to pollination strategies. I used the book with a Tropical Botany class, and the students not only loved the book, but found it to be an excellent size which is easy to carry in the field or store in a backpack. The habitat descriptions are well-written and provide the reader with a good idea of what to expect in different parts of Costa Rica.
A very handy plant guide for visitors to Costa Rica September 6, 2007
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
I picked up a copy of this guide (published in San Jose by Zona Tropical) at La Selva last year and consider it a worthy addition to the small library I carry in Costa Rica. I would recommend it as the most useful single volume work on Costa Rican plants.
The guide is aimed at the amateur rather than the professional botanist: photographs are the prime means of identification, plants are presented out of family order (more below) and there are no keys. Nevertheless, it is quite possible to identify a good many of the country's commoner plants using this guide.
The order of the plants is:-
1. colourful-flowering trees
2. non-colourful-flowering trees
3. roadside and garden exotics
4. crop plants
5. living fences (so characteristic of Costa Rica)
6. special habitats, e.g. dry forests, cloud forests, beaches & mangroves
7. quintessentially tropical groups, e.g. bromeliads, palms & orchids
8. grasses
There is emphasis on those plants that are likely to be most conspicuous to the visitor. This often means a bias towards exotic species rather than natives. However, this does mean that the book is useful outside Costa Rica and I will be referring to it throughout the American tropics.
Once a plant is identified a comments section provides a host of useful information.
Well worth the price! I will definitely be taking it back with me on my next trip.
Chris Sharpe, 3 August 2007. ISBN: 0801473748
very useful book August 8, 2007
2 out of 11 found this review helpful
As the author of a travel guide to Costa Rica (Explore Costa Rica, Fifth Edition), which covers flora and fauna (in detai)l, I can attest that this is a great book to take with you and makes a superb companion to Explore Costa Rica (which will be a great help with the rest of your trip). Explore Costa Rica, 5th Edition (Explore Costa Rica)
Great looking book, with tons of info! June 6, 2007
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
Okay, I've only just received this book and have not had time to test it "in the field". However, I know people who have, and they say it's a great book, and that is my impression from just looking it over, as well.
It has tons of color photos and the pages aren't super thin, either. It looks like it will hold up well over time, and it is exactly what I was looking for!
I'm sure as I use it I will probably find things that could be better (maybe not?), but all I can say is it's a really big book with tons of info and lots of photos and it looks like it is just what I was looking for.
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