Costa Rica - plants and flowers

I had hoped to put these into some sort of logical order - but then I thought the order in which I took the photos was as good as any.


Beaucarnea recurvata - Pony Tail Palm. In the National Botanical Gardens. Now that's what I call a proper one (or two).


Socratea exorrhiza - The Walking Palm Tree. It is said that this palm tree can move, growing new roots on one side and allowing the old roots on the other side to wither and die. However I watched it for 5 minutes and it did nothing.


Musa velutina with its pink bananas.


Bambusa gigantea - Giant Bamboo. This was in the garden/grounds of an orchid nursery where the owner said that the stems were over 80 feet tall. Each year some new stems grow and take about 6 months to reach 80 feet. That's over 5 inches a day.


Pachystachys lutea.


Strongylodon macrobotrys - Green Jade Vine. This was in a private garden


In the same garden we saw this Cyrtostachys renda - Red Sealing Wax Palm. It is said to be the most beautiful of all the palms, and we saw several as we toured around. It's something you won't see in the UK. Its said to be too demanding in terms of winter temperature and humidity to even be cultivated under glass over here.


The best garden we saw belonged to the first hotel we stayed at. And the next few pictures came from there. This was a magnificent specimen - and I am sure someone will know its name.


Bougainvillea was everywhere, of course.


I have no idea what this was. Its clearly an epiphyte. Anyone?

 

Really good collection of pictures @PeterS , good sized plants

Got a feeling that blue fan palm might be Bismarckia?

The last one looks possibly some kind of orchid.

 

@Marley Farley I had lots of pics on photobucket, but I always kept the originals.
Sad you have lost some.

 

You know I'm not that well up on technology, but my external hard drive went dodgy a while back.
I've now got it sorted, but from now on I'm using the external hard drive, but my pics all get backed up on DVDs, I dont trust those silly flash drive things either.

 

I think its a fear we all have - of losing all our pictures. They need to be backed up more than once, but how often do we remember to do it.


Still in the garden of the first hotel - Thunbergia mysorensis.


There was a long wall of this Pyrostegia venusta - Orange Trumpet Creeper mixed in with bougainvillea.


A large bush of Tibouchina. I have seen pictures on the internet of good sized trees of this lining a road in Australia. It was an amazing sight.


Gomphocarpus physocarpus. The green balls are largely empty, but contain the seeds at the centre.


An Alpinia, a member of the Ginger order. We saw these everywhere.


Unknown orchid.


Streptosolen jamesonii - Marmalade Bush. The lighting was not good for this, its far brighter and more impressive in the reality.


Impressive - anyone?


Dichorisandra thrysiflora - Blue Ginger. Actually it is a member of the spiderwort family and not a ginger at all, but it likes a hot and humid climate like the gingers. You can't get hold of this in the UK, but I managed to bring a small plant back from Madeira last year, along with a few other things.

 

They get better Peter, Really like next to last, very impressive, but dont have a clue on that one

 

Wonderful pictures of fantastic plants PeterS. Thanks for showing them

 

I assumed those overgrown House Leeks were a sort of Agave, but there were no pictures on the internet that looked similar. Hopefully someone will know.


La Paz Waterfall Gardens, shttp://www.waterfallgardens.com/la_paz_waterfall_gardens.php , claims to be the most visited nature attraction in Costa Rica. This was just part of a passage way.


Not sure about these. Alpinia I think.


No idea.

There were plenty of animals and humming birds etc to photograph, but as I didn't have my camera charger on this trip (wrongly assuming it wouldn't work on 110 volts) I was saving the battery for mostly pictures of plants.


Yes I can recognise this one. Its an ornamental, which may or may not account for its colour.


True to its name the Waterfall Gardens had a waterfall.


No idea.


A three toed sloth. We saw quite a few sloths. The green colour is algae that grows in its coat.


Cacao seeds from which chocolate is produced.


Big leaves


These were rooms for one of the hotels. Most of the hotels were very smart, aimed at American tourists. But this must have been the cheapest hotel by far and very rustic, and most people said this was their favourite. It was set in a sort of cultivated jungle.


Wandering around this jungle, I came across this - Clerodendrum paniculatum. I had seen pictures of it, but was delighted to see it in the flesh.