THE National Biodiversity Institute (INBio) has released several new bilingual (English/Spanish) books on plant life in different areas of the country.“Trees of Manuel Antonio National Park,” by U.S. author Patrick Harmon, contains 400 pages of information on the trees found in the country’s smallest national park, on the central Pacific coast. Harmon holds a Master’s in environmental sciences from the Yale School of Forestry in Connecticut, and has lived in Costa Rica – and worked on this book – since 1984. Illustrations include 78 color photographs and more than 150 blackand- white drawings.Written by Barry Hammel, director of the “Costa Rican Plant Guide” project, a collaborative effort of INBio, the National Museum and the Missouri Botanical Garden in the United States, “Native Ornamental Plants of Costa Rica” is a small field guide aimed at the general public. With descriptive and natural-history information complementing color photographs, it facilitates the identification of 86 species of Costa Rican ornamental plants, and includes an appendix of 41 additional species, in 62 color photos.“Common Plants of the Hitoy Cerere Biological Reserve of Costa Rica,” by José González, is a field guide containing ecological and ethno-botanical information on the flora found in the southern Talamanca region, in southeastern Costa Rica. The book is illustrated with 141 color photographs.The above books are available in bookstores around the country and at INBio’s online bookstore at www.inbio.ac.cr/editorial.
Today in Costa Rica
