Costa Rica is one of the few tropical countries that have catalogued the flora present in its territory, which is backed up with samples identified by our specialists.
The intensive exploration developed by the National Institute of Biodiversity (INBio) since 1989, has revealed a considerable number of new species, new data and endemic species contributing to Costa Rica´s 9,360 species of native and naturalized vascular plants.
Based on the characteristics of the country and its botanical richness, we have designed the course ?Natural History and Plant Identification? with the objective that participants obtain the skills needed to recognize and identify the most common families of plants found in the country, as well as the most relevant aspects and characteristics of their natural history .
GENERAL OBJECTIVES 
By the end of this course you will:
-
Analyze the most important characteristics of the plants and recognize structures used in the field identification.
-
Identify the features and structures that characterize the main plant families and species of Costa Rica with the objective of relating them to our natural history.
-
Analyze the processes that generate the botanical richness of the country as well as the characteristics of the flora by geographic zone.
Through a five day training, participants will gain a general vision of each ecosystem visited and the families of plants that characterize them. Students will visit the facilities of the National Institute of Biodiversity and will learn the process specimens follow in order to get into the Herbarium collections.
The Botanic Unit has worked intensively on the Costa Rican plant inventory, in a project developed with the Missouri Botanical Garden and Costa Rica´s National Museum. Many international specialists from different institutions and countries support the activities related to the plant inventory with their extensive knowledge of the country's flora.
All the course work is based on the philosophy of ?learning while doing? and is complemented with activities and adventure, with the goal of developing a different way of appreciating the forest for the students.
STUDENTS PROFILE
Participants must be nature lovers who desire to expand their knowledge of plants and natural history. Participants ahould be in physical condition for field work and hiking.
METHODOLOGY
The course will begin with an introductory lecture about the Costa Rican Flora in the National Institute of Biodiversity. Later on, participants will visit the Herbarium of the INBio to learn the procedure that specimens follow after being gathered in the field.
The group will visit a biological station, where the rest of the course will be carried out. The training consists of theoretical and practical sessions developed completely in the field, through which participants will practice the acquired knowledge on the identification and relationships present between plants and other organisms in the forest.
At the end of the day, there will be a conference and round table discussion in order to discuss the knowledge acquired during the day.
THEMES
- Taxonomy and classification
- State of the knowledge of the flora of Costa Rica and phytogeography.
Introduction to botanic classification
- Vegetative structures of plants.
- Reproductive structures of plants.
- Main plant families and their natural history
1- Bryata: non vascular plants, their important ecological life cycles and diversity in Costa Rica will be discussed.
- Filum Hepatophyta ( Liverworts )
- Filum Anthocerophyta ( Hornworts )
- Filum Bryophyta ( Mosses )
2- Tracheata: Vascular plants
- Filum Lycophyta ( Oldest existant living vascular plants: clubmosses, vasculars with no seed)
- Filum Psilophyta (ancestors of ferns and clubmosses, vasculars with no seed)
- Filum Sphenophyta ( horsetails and scouring rushes , vasculars with no seed)
- Filum Pteridophyta (Ferns, vasculars with no seed). Economic important, diverse and easy to find groups will be mention in each site, as well as the life cycle and other curious information.
- Filum Cycadophyta (Cycads, vasculars with naked seed)
- Filum Ginkgophyta (ginkgos, vasculars with naked seed)
- Filum Coniferophyta (confieras, vasculars with naked seed)
- Filum Gnetophyta (gnetofitas, vasculars with naked seed)
- Filum Antophyta (Plants with flowers, vasculars with covered seed)
- Principal families of each visited ecosystem.
- Biological richness
- Short phytogeographical description of the country (Volume I of the Manual of the Flora of Costa Rica).
- Stage of the flora of Costa Rica: Brief history about scientific studies, herbariums, number of recollected, expected and endemic species, and endemism reasons.
TEACHERS
The instructors are curators of INBio, specialists in Systematic and Taxonomy.
Juan Francisco Morales Quirós
Forest Engineer, who has worked in the Department of Botany of INBio since 1993, where he has published more than 50 scientific articles, books and field guides. He is one of the main authors of the project "Costa Rica´s Manual of Plants " whose first volumes are already published. He is specialist in the Apocynaceae family of the Neotropic and has contributed to the treatments of this group of plants in diverse projects in Latin America. He has carried out field work in Nicaragua, Panama, Colombia and Bolivia and has participated as instructor in several botany courses and in systematic taxonomy within and outside of Costa Rica.
Armando Soto
Has worked at INBio since 1994 in the Plant Unit of the Herbarium of INBio. He has wide experience in the identification of the tropical flora in the field and has received training in topics such as Botanical nomenclature, Taxonomic Classification and Biology of Conservation. Currently, he works as a curator at the Herbarium of INBio and has been an instructor in different training programs developed by INBio during the last three years.
Costa Rica Rural Travel
PO Box 2535-3000 Heredia, Costa Rica
(506) 237-3400 from USA / (506) 262-1891 fax
