ANNOTATED CHECK-LIST OF PLANTS OF LOWLAND GUANACASTE PROVINCE, COSTA RICA, EXCLUSIVE OF GRASSES AND NON-VASCULAR CRYPTOGAMS

Abstract

Since 1961 a series of field biologists and field ecology courses have used the lowlands of Guanacaste Province, Costa Rica, as a natural laboratory. With the firm establishment of Santa Rosa National Park and various other protected areas (Palo Verde National Park, Cabo Blanco National Park, Finca La Pacifica, Monteverde Reserve, Rinc6n National Park), and with a growing enlightenment of the Guanacaste populace, we anticipate much further use of the Guanacaste lowlands by biologists. Almost all of these studies will use plant names. There has been considerable ambiguity in past use and determinations of plant names for this area. We would like to aid in avoiding further situations such as the recent exemplary study of the ecology of Stemmadenia donell-smithii (Rose) Woodson (McDiarmid, Ricklefs and Foster 1977, Biotropica 9:9-25), a rare local plant in Guanacaste, where most readers thought they were reading about the widespread common Stemmadenia obovata (Hook. and Arn.) K. Schum. which has been consistently misidentified as S. donell-smithii by biologists working in Guanacaste.