Casa Orquideas and Esquinas River, Golfo Dulce, Costa Rica
Our first day in Costa Rica could hardly have been better! We started our morning visiting a privately owned garden called Casa Orquideas – the Orchid House – owned by Ron and Trudy McAllister, who established the garden some 20 years ago. It has been a colossal ordeal, but they have done a wonderful job. Aroid plants, bromelias, heliconias and orchids were on the menu for us.
The aroids are a large family of mostly herbaceous plants, with a great variety of vegetative habit. In general they are herbaceous with aerial stems or underground tubers or rhizomes. The roots of all species are adventitious and most of the climbing and epiphytic forms develop two types: one of which is absorbent, growing downwards towards the soil and another not influenced by gravity which grows away from the light and clasps firmly as it grows in crevices in the branches of the supporting tree.
The bromelias are a large family of plants that include the pineapple, the Spanish moss, and various green house ornamentals and house plants. Most of them are short-stemmed herbaceous plants with basal rosettes of stiff, often spiny, leaves, which frequently have colored bases. The least specialized plants are terrestrial, the more specialized tank types have still larger leaf-base tanks. These tanks may hold up to 5 liters (over a gallon) of water and contain a considerable amount of flora and fauna including tree frogs and various species of insects.
The heliconias are a large family of Neo-tropical plants that look very much like birds of paradise, but are not even related to them. Their most notable characteristic is that some of their leaves have been modified to attract pollinators. These modified leaves, known as bracts, are hard and colorful in order to call the attention of hummingbirds, which are their main pollinators, to the otherwise drab colored flowers. Heliconias are of rather economic importance as ornamentals, but are important in the forests as pioneer plants in open areas and gaps.
Distributed throughout the world, except for a few isolated island and Antarctica, orchids are developed from seeds so small, some are only a couple of cells big. These minute seeds require the help of a fungus in a special symbiotic relationship to germinate. Even so, it can take an inordinate amount of time for a flowering-size orchid plant to appear. About half of the species are terrestrial with normal roots, most of the remainder, all tropical or subtropical, are epiphytes. Many species have special water and nutrient storage organs called “pseudobulbs.” The work orchid comes from the Greek root “orchis” which means testicle, because of the testicular appearance of paired tubers. Bees, wasps, flies, ants, beetles, hummingbirds, bats and frogs have all been observed pollinating orchids. Despite of their fame, orchids are of little economic uses, except for vanilla, “salep,” and the floricultural industry.
The afternoon found us a little bit further northwest of Casa Orquideas, at the mouth of the magnificent Rio Esquinas – Esquinas River – basically the river in the middle of nowhere. We took our Zodiacs up the river, through fantastic mangrove forests which in a way reminded us of ghost forests, due to the intricate root systems of mangrove trees. As we left the mangrove forests behind, pastureland, beautiful forest covered hills, and a sky with various patterns of clouds welcomed us. Heading back to the ship, the clouds allowed for an-out-of-this-world sunset. Among the orange and yellow streaks of sunlight, we boarded the Sea Voyager looking forward to the following day.
Our first day in Costa Rica could hardly have been better! We started our morning visiting a privately owned garden called Casa Orquideas – the Orchid House – owned by Ron and Trudy McAllister, who established the garden some 20 years ago. It has been a colossal ordeal, but they have done a wonderful job. Aroid plants, bromelias, heliconias and orchids were on the menu for us.
The aroids are a large family of mostly herbaceous plants, with a great variety of vegetative habit. In general they are herbaceous with aerial stems or underground tubers or rhizomes. The roots of all species are adventitious and most of the climbing and epiphytic forms develop two types: one of which is absorbent, growing downwards towards the soil and another not influenced by gravity which grows away from the light and clasps firmly as it grows in crevices in the branches of the supporting tree.
The bromelias are a large family of plants that include the pineapple, the Spanish moss, and various green house ornamentals and house plants. Most of them are short-stemmed herbaceous plants with basal rosettes of stiff, often spiny, leaves, which frequently have colored bases. The least specialized plants are terrestrial, the more specialized tank types have still larger leaf-base tanks. These tanks may hold up to 5 liters (over a gallon) of water and contain a considerable amount of flora and fauna including tree frogs and various species of insects.
The heliconias are a large family of Neo-tropical plants that look very much like birds of paradise, but are not even related to them. Their most notable characteristic is that some of their leaves have been modified to attract pollinators. These modified leaves, known as bracts, are hard and colorful in order to call the attention of hummingbirds, which are their main pollinators, to the otherwise drab colored flowers. Heliconias are of rather economic importance as ornamentals, but are important in the forests as pioneer plants in open areas and gaps.
Distributed throughout the world, except for a few isolated island and Antarctica, orchids are developed from seeds so small, some are only a couple of cells big. These minute seeds require the help of a fungus in a special symbiotic relationship to germinate. Even so, it can take an inordinate amount of time for a flowering-size orchid plant to appear. About half of the species are terrestrial with normal roots, most of the remainder, all tropical or subtropical, are epiphytes. Many species have special water and nutrient storage organs called “pseudobulbs.” The work orchid comes from the Greek root “orchis” which means testicle, because of the testicular appearance of paired tubers. Bees, wasps, flies, ants, beetles, hummingbirds, bats and frogs have all been observed pollinating orchids. Despite of their fame, orchids are of little economic uses, except for vanilla, “salep,” and the floricultural industry.
The afternoon found us a little bit further northwest of Casa Orquideas, at the mouth of the magnificent Rio Esquinas – Esquinas River – basically the river in the middle of nowhere. We took our Zodiacs up the river, through fantastic mangrove forests which in a way reminded us of ghost forests, due to the intricate root systems of mangrove trees. As we left the mangrove forests behind, pastureland, beautiful forest covered hills, and a sky with various patterns of clouds welcomed us. Heading back to the ship, the clouds allowed for an-out-of-this-world sunset. Among the orange and yellow streaks of sunlight, we boarded the Sea Voyager looking forward to the following day.
