Tropical Plants of Costa Rica: A Guide to Native and Exotic Flora (Zona Tropical Publications)

"Tropical Plants of Costa Rica" is just OK. It is not a book for identifying an unknown plant. It's just OK for looking up a plant whose name you already know.It has several drawbacks:1. If you have a flower and want to look it up, you'll know the flower's color and number of petals, but there is no way to easily look it up by these features in this book. There is no color index or groupings.2. Most of the photos of trees will show the entire tree. This means that the flowers will be just a blur of color in the photo with no flowers shown up close. The same is true of the leaves. In most cases you won't be able to see the leaf shape in the photos. Several of the entries may include a black and white line drawing of some of these features, but not for all entries. That means you'll have to locate a photo that vaguely resembles what you're looking for and then read the text. This will be a slow and agonizing process. "A picture is worth a thousand words" and you'll be stuck with reading the thousand words instead.3. Photos of non-trees have similar issues. They may show the flower, but not the entire plant, or not the leaves. Or it may show the leaves up close, but not the flowers, or not the entire plant. So many flowers look so similar. So many leaves look so similar. Having closeup photos of the flowers, separate closeup photos of the leaves, and separate photos of the entire plant would have made this book so much better.4. In most cases, there is no photo of the plant's seed or fruit. Such photos would often help to distinguish one plant from another that otherwise have similar flower or leaf shapes. There is an entire chapter on fruits and crops. While it is focusing on the fruits, the leaves in the photos are sometimes out of focus, or there might not be a photo of the entire plant to provide a better perspective for the fruit's size.5. Sometimes a plant will have other unique or distinguishing features. Some of the entries in this book include these features in the photos. Other times these features aren't obvious in the photos. You'll have to read the text. You'll not find "thorns" in the index. You'll only find the plant names in the index, not useful features like "thorns" or "poisonous" so you can avoid touching them when searching for something found in this book.

Chapters are by habitat - trees, garden plants, fruits and crops, special places, living fences rather than plant families. This makes it easy to use for the non-botanist. It's very heavy, so hard to use in the field, and I saw some plants that were not in the book. On the whole, there's a lot of useful information to be perused at home.

Okay, I've only just received this book and have not had time to test it "in the field". However, I know people who have, and they say it's a great book, and that is my impression from just looking it over, as well.It has tons of color photos and the pages aren't super thin, either. It looks like it will hold up well over time, and it is exactly what I was looking for!I'm sure as I use it I will probably find things that could be better (maybe not?), but all I can say is it's a really big book with tons of info and lots of photos and it looks like it is just what I was looking for.

I live in Chiriqui, Panama which is very close to the border with Costa Rica. Considering the scarcity of information about this subject, the book is worth having along with The Field Guide to the Plants of Costa Rica by Gargiullo, Magnuson and Kimball. Both books lack keys and neither have the plants arranged in taxonomic order. Both have nice color photos but sometimes a good line drawing by a botanical artist is more useful in identifying an unknown species. In any case if you are interested in the flora of this area I would buy both of these books.

I don't like the non-taxonomic arrangement, nor the somewhat scattered and irregular use of identifying features. The arrangement by habitat is helpful at times, but not as the only order for a book, in my opinion. A book this size and weight should be able to identify more plants, too, especially for such a diverse region. Unfortunately, I have not found a better book yet, as I do not have the time, space, or money to use a multi-volume taxonomic key. However, Even a pseudo-key or arrangements into families with a more systematic approach to identifying features would be helpful. Then, I wouldn't mind an additional section on breakdown into habitats. I'm very particular and hard to please when it comes to plant books, but some examples of ones that have been useful to me are Newcomb's guide (good example of useful pseudo key), the Pojar book for the PNW (my favorite for beginners and advanced users alike with key and photographs), and most of the Peterson's guides are OK, too. I wish there was a guide like one of those for central America.

I love this guide. I found it very useful when going to Costa Rica. The author was very thorough, adding interesting and sometimes humorous stories to the different plants listed. I thought the organization of the book was brilliant, unlike the animal book by the same publisher. I was able to see many of the plants in the guide, so she was smart about the ones she included. It really is a nice book, I have read it cover to cover many times.

Very informative. We use this book as a reference often! I wish it had info on how to care for the plants since we have many of them at our house in Costa Rica, but it's still a good reference for identifying plants.

Beautifully organized, well-written, and nicely photographed. Congratulations to Ms. Zuchowski on her fine book on Costa Rica's remarkable plants. We looked at several field guides to the plants and chose this one as the best. Clear and easy to use. Fun to explore.

If your a naturalist or an amateur botanist, traveling to Costa Rica and are interested in plants beyond the pretty colours, than this book is for you. Whether your traveling in a group or alone, if your the type of person who has more questions than the guide can answer, than this is for you. If none of the above applied to you, you might still like it as a souvenir. I like it and would love an app on the phone instead. It is a book I never use again, but not something I could easily sell, for me it is a sovenir from a wonderful trip.

Very useful but it would be better with more wild plants. A bit heavy to carry. There are very few books on plants of Costa Rica and this is one of the best I have found.

Brilliant book, quick delivery. Essential if you are visiting Costa Rica and like nature.

arruved quickly and is in very ggod condition, and i am really enjoying the book, its wonderful. Thank you

Worth buying for reference, even if too heavy to travel with.