Figure 3.20. The bright flowers of Blakea scarlatina (Melastomataceae), which occurs in Penas
Blancas, at the Poco Sol field station, observed by botanist William Haber. Photograph by Nathaniel T.
Wheelwright.spicuous along the main tourist trails in the MCFP. A
booklet on common ferns of Monteverde is also avail-
able (Bigelow and Kukle 1991; see Bigelow and Kukle,
"Ferns," p. 89).
Technical treatments are available for some fami-
lies in the Fieldiana series Flora Costaricensis (e.g.,
Burger 1977, 1980, Burger and van der Werff 1990,
Burger and Taylor 1993). Resources for orchid iden-
tification include the Icones series from Selby Botani-
cal Gardens (Atwood 1989,1992, Mora de Retana and
Atwood 1993), which includes descriptions and de-
tailed line drawings of many Monteverde species, the
country-level species list of Mora de Retana and Garcia
(1992), the Field Guide to the Orchids of Costa Rica
and Panama (Dressier 1993), which offers color plates
exemplifying one species for each genus and keys to
species, and the treatment of the tribe Maxillariae by
Atwood and Mora de Retana (1999). For trees with
compound leaves, Holdridge et al. (1997) is useful.
Flora Arborescente de Costa Rica (Zamora 1989) de-
scribes and illustrates selected families of trees with
simple leaves. The most useful identification guide
for woody plants at the family and genus level is Gen-
try (1993). Keys and descriptions for the neotropical
palms are provided in Henderson et al. (1995), and
for the large monocot families (Bromeliaceae, Cyper-
aceae, Poaceae), keys are in Davidse et al. (1994). The
first volume (Monocotyledons) of the Manual de las
Plantas de Costa Rica project (B. Hammel, M.
Grayum, and N. Zamora, principle investigators) is
expected in 1999. Morales (1998) describes 80 spe-
cies of Costa Ricanbromeliads, Rossi (1998) includes
descriptions of Costa Rican Cactaceae, and Lellinger
(1989) is a useful technical resource for identifying
Costa Rican ferns. Several publications useful for the
identification of Costa Rican bryophytes are Cole
(1983,1984), Gradstein et al. (1994), Griffin and Mo-
rales (1983), Reed and Robinson (1971), and Sillett et
al. (1995). A reference collection of laminated, photo-
copied herbarium sheets is maintained at the Estacion
Biologica. A reference herbarium at Monteverde is
available to botanical specialists. An arboretum at
Bajo del Tigre has 70 species of trees with name tags.3.2. Seasonality3.2.1. Phenology
The study of the timing of flowering, fruiting, and leaf
production is called phenology. Biologists document
these patterns to understand the reproductive adap-
tations of plants in relation to climatic factors and the
life cycles of pollinators and seed dispersers. Most
plant species in the Monteverde area exhibit a distinct
seasonality in the production of flowers and fruits,64 Plants and Vegetation