Plants and Vegetation
William A. Haber3.1. Distribution and Diversity
3.1.1. Overview of the Vegetation
The vegetation at Monteverde is characterized by two
features that are immediately noted by visitors. The
first is the overwhelming abundance of mosses, epi-
phytes, and tree trunk climbers in the cloud forest
(Fig. 3.1). The second is the striking variety of veg-
etation types, and consequent very high regional plant
biodiversity, cramped into a small area by the nar-
row elevational zonation of habitats along the upper
mountain slopes. This luxuriance and diversity have
been important factors in the attraction of biologists
to Monteverde.
Lawton and Dryer (1980) described the character-
istics and distribution of forest types in the upper
Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve (MCFP), empha-
sizing the effect of the northeast trade winds on for-
est structure. With exposure to the trade winds and
the accompanying heavy mist and clouds, the forest
is reduced in height, has a more broken canopy, and
supports greater epiphyte loads. Areas in the lee of
the winds develop a forest with less abundant epi-
phytes and mosses and much taller, straighter trees,
forming a closed canopy and more open understory
while the strong winds apparently limit the stature
of the forest on the exposed ridges, the mist and rain
carried in from the Atlantic side during the dry sea-
son maintain the diverse epiphyte community of the
upper Pacific slope. In contrast, a short walk down
the Pacific slope during the dry season leads to pro-
gressively drier vegetation zones where ferns, epi-
phytes, and climbers nearly disappear. Hartshorn
(1983) described vegetation in the zones below the
cloud forest, with a description of the Holdridge life
zone system (Holdridge 1967) and the life zones in
Monteverde.
In this chapter, the focal area of the vegetation is the
study area of the Monteverde Flora Project, which is
more extensive than the area covered in the references
cited above. The aim of the Monteverde Flora, a project
of the Missouri Botanical Garden in collaboration with
the Manual to the Plants of Costa Rica Project, is to col-
lect and identify the flora of the Monteverde area and
produce identification guides. The study area extends
from the peaks and ridges on the Continental Divide in
Monteverde (1500-1850 m) down to 700 m on both the39 Plants and Vegetation3