Galería Dendrológica Virtual

Dendrological library

Illustration of an emergent almendro struck by lightning above a tropical canopy.Canopy ecology

The almendro and lightning: how a storm can favour a giant

Electrical resistance, competition from lianas and the importance of old almendros for the great green macaw.

Illustration of a bat approaching pale ceiba flowers at night.Pollination

The ceiba after sunset: a forest connected by bats

Night-opening flowers, pollen crossing the landscape and wind-borne seeds: ceiba reproduction in Costa Rica.

Illustration of an opened mahogany capsule, winged seeds and a seedling in leaf litter.Regeneration and diversity

Mahogany before it becomes timber

Winged seeds, light and a small shoot borer: the story of Swietenia macrophylla begins long before a harvestable trunk.

Illustration of a pale-trunked eucalyptus plantation on a humid tropical hillside.Landscape and water

A eucalyptus stand is not a forest

Eucalyptus grandis invites a careful reading of plantations: origins, management and water matter as much as tree height.

Conceptual illustration of an open ceiba fruit, kapok fibers and a canvas life jacket.Material history

Before synthetic foam, there was the ceiba

Fiber from its fruits kept aircrews and sailors afloat long before synthetic foams came to dominate life jackets.

Conceptual illustration of a yellow cortez in bloom in a leafless dry forest, with fallen flowers on the ground.Phenology

Five golden days: the yellow cortez and the dry-forest clock

It spends months without leaves, waiting for a signal. When the signal comes, it blooms within days, and each flower lasts only one.

Conceptual illustration: a guanacaste pod in a dry pasture casts the shadow of a gomphothere, an extinct relative of elephants.Seed dispersal

The pods that were waiting for an extinct giant

The curled fruit of Costa Rica's national tree seems made for animals that vanished thousands of years ago. Today, horses and cattle fill only part of that gap.

Conceptual illustration: a green leaf with silver, aluminium-like veins beside a mound of red clay and three yellow flowers on dark slate.Soils and restoration

The chancho blanco and aluminium: a tree made for worn-out soils

Its leaves hold more aluminium than almost any other plant could tolerate. That chemical oddity has made it an ally for reforesting the acid soils of Costa Rica's Caribbean lowlands and northern zone.