Casa Orquideas, Golfo Dulce, Costa Rica
Today, our first day in Costa Rica, has been incredible! For those of us who love gardens, gardening or simply flowers, we had the ultimate experience. A couple, Ron and Trudy McAllister, have been working on their backyard for the past twenty-three years or so, to produce either the garden of our dreams or the greatest frustration of our lives, seeing their garden and comparing it to ours! Hibiscus, prayer plants, giant tree ferns, walking palms, pink and red gingers, vanilla orchids, pepper plants, lupha plants, ylang-ylang trees; the list is endless. Nevertheless, the most attractive plants have to be the bromeliads, heliconias and orchids.
The bromeliads are a large family of plants that include the pineapple, the Spanish moss, and various greenhouse 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 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 islands and Antarctica, orchids develop from seeds so small, some are only a couple of cells large. 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. Under laboratory conditions, this can be reduced to about three years. 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 word 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. Another characteristic feature of orchid flowers is the great range of scents produced as an integral part of the pollination mechanism – from rotting carrion to sticky sweet vanilla-like odors to very pleasurable perfumes. Despite their fame, orchids are of little economic uses, except for vanilla, “salep,” and the floricultural industry.
For us, just a promise of another wonderful day tomorrow in paradise!
Today, our first day in Costa Rica, has been incredible! For those of us who love gardens, gardening or simply flowers, we had the ultimate experience. A couple, Ron and Trudy McAllister, have been working on their backyard for the past twenty-three years or so, to produce either the garden of our dreams or the greatest frustration of our lives, seeing their garden and comparing it to ours! Hibiscus, prayer plants, giant tree ferns, walking palms, pink and red gingers, vanilla orchids, pepper plants, lupha plants, ylang-ylang trees; the list is endless. Nevertheless, the most attractive plants have to be the bromeliads, heliconias and orchids.
The bromeliads are a large family of plants that include the pineapple, the Spanish moss, and various greenhouse 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 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 islands and Antarctica, orchids develop from seeds so small, some are only a couple of cells large. 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. Under laboratory conditions, this can be reduced to about three years. 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 word 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. Another characteristic feature of orchid flowers is the great range of scents produced as an integral part of the pollination mechanism – from rotting carrion to sticky sweet vanilla-like odors to very pleasurable perfumes. Despite their fame, orchids are of little economic uses, except for vanilla, “salep,” and the floricultural industry.
For us, just a promise of another wonderful day tomorrow in paradise!
