The forests of the Peninsula

by

Karsten Thomsen

Nepenthes Aarhus, Denmark 1998 Karsten Thomsen: The forests of the Osa Peninsula

© Karsten Thomsen & Nepenthes

1st edition

Nepenthes PO Box 5102 Odensegade 4 B DK-8100 Aarhus C Denmark Phone +45-86135232 Fax +45-86125149 Email [email protected], [email protected]

Supported by Danida. Contents

Foreword

Introduction The giant forest ...... 1 How do you measure the height of a ? ...... 2 How do you measure the diameter of a tree? ...... 4 A wealth of ...... 5 Species richness in different neotropical rain forest regions . . . . 8 Species that are special ...... 10 Species new to science ...... 12

Descriptions of some woody species The twisted (Aspidosperma myristicifolium, Apocynaceae) ...... 14 Spiny usefulness ( standleyanum, ) ...... 15 Mightiest of neotropical trees ( Ceiba pentandra, Bombacaceae) ...... 16 Medicine for men and coatis ( Trattinickia aspera, Burseraceae) ...... 18 A medicinal stairway ( Bauhinia guianensis, Caesalpinaceae) ...... 19 Diesel, & precious medicine in one ( Copaifera camibar, Caesalpinaceae) ...... 21 A source of beer and stinking toes ( courbaril, Caesalpinaceae) . . . 23 A suicidal tree ( Tachigalia versicolor, Caesalpinaceae) ...... 26 too delicious to get ( Caryocar costaricensis, Caryocaraceae) ...... 29 The tree of the yellow wax ( Symphonia globulifera, ) ...... 31 A against all evil ( Merremia discoidesperma, Convolvulariaceae) ...... 32 Jewels from a tree ( Ormosia paraensis, ) ...... 33 An endemic fence post ( Caryodaphnopsis burgeri, Lauraceae) ...... 34 A unique little snail ( caracolito, Lepidothryaceae) ...... 35 Bitter of the forest ( guianensis, ) ...... 37 The largest of guabos ( Inga alba, Mimosaceae) ...... 39 Cow milk and bark cloth ( Brosimum utile, Moraceae) ...... 40 The first natural rubber ( Castilla tunu, Moraceae) ...... 42 Candlenuts ( Otoba novogranatensis, Myristicaceae) ...... 43 The golden fruit ( Virola koschnyi, Myristicaceae) ...... 44 The real ( staminodella, ) ...... 46 Bitter drops for your health ( Simaba cedron, Simaroubaceae) ...... 48 The nuts that named a country ( Sterculia alleni, Sterculiaceaceae) ...... 50 Foreword

This text has been written for use by results of other similar studies. the Tropical Youth Center in Agua- I am grateful to Richard Donovan buena in the Osa Peninsula. for inspiring me to do the project, to It is based on information Danida for financing the work, and to gathered from local people in the Osa Leonidas Azofeifa, Rafael Barrantes, during my field work from 1992 to Eliecer Ortíz, Luís Quirós, Alfredo 1995, in relation to a PhD project Quintero, don Augusto Rodriguez and financed by Danida, Danish foreign aid, Leonidas Serracín for providing local and from literature describing the names and information.

Karsten Thomsen, Aarhus 1998 The forests of the Osa The giant forest

The rain forest of the Osa Peninsula is reach by car. Moreover, the declaration of the largest remaining tract of forest on the has pro- the Pacific coast of , and tected some 50,000 hectares of forest probably of the rest of Latin America, since the mid-seventies, and an equivalent too. The coasts of Ecuador and area of surrounding forests has received once had extensive forest covers, but only some protection through the establish- fragments remain today, and even these ment of the Golfo Dulce Forest Reserve, are threatened. totalling some 67,000 hectares. There are two reasons why so much Thus, for the standards of the of the Osa forests have been saved to Pacific regions of Tropical America, the this day: The topography of the area forests of the Osa are unusually large in makes it difficult to colonize, and the terms of area alone. And in terms of Costa Rican governments have quite early individual sizes of the trees and lianas of chosen to protect the Osa forests the forest, they are even more impres- through legislation. sive: The Osa forests seem to have larger Most of the Osa Peninsula is trees than all other neotropical forests. dissected by numerous steep ridges and There are several ways to describe deep gullies, and the rivers are water-rich the size of a tree. The simplest is height. and have been very difficult to pass until How high is the highest above the recent years when permanent bridges were ground? Another way of describing size is constructed. Therefore, the peninsula was by thickness, or diameter. What is the basically inaccessible by land until the direct distance from the surface of the late 1980es where a series of bridges bark on one side of the tree to that on were constructed. Still today, only the the other side? From diameter and height, eastern and southern parts are easy to you can calculate other measures that are

– Page 1 – The forests of the Osa descriptive of the tree’s size. For one hectare, and get an idea of how example, the diameter allows you to massive the entire tree vegetation is. calculate basal area, that is, the area of a Foresters will often describe the horizontal transection of the trunk, like “commercial height” of a tree. This refers if you had cut the tree and examined the to the height of the part of the trunk area of the cut surface. Counting just the that may serve as good timber. When you number of trees per area tells little, have this height and the diameter, you can since you do not know whether they are estimate the volume of timber in the tree. large of small. Summing up all diameters When botanists describe the tropical makes no sense, since you do not know how rain forest’s structure, they often many trees the sum of diameters come measure one hectare of forest and from. But the basal area of trees may tell register all stems with a diameter of 10 how much living there is per area in centimeters or more, to be able to the forest. You can sum up the basal compare different sites. The number of areas of many trees, for example all in stems, the basal area of stems, and the

How do you measure the height of a tree?

Measures of tree height are very hard to obtain in natural rain forest because usually you can't reach the top of the tree, except with the greatest difficulty. Usually height is calculated indirectly from a combination of measures of 1) the angle under which you observe the base and the top of the tree from a given position, and 2) the horizontal distance from this position to the tree. In the Amazon, a friend and I discovered that it was much faster and just as accurate to substitute the measure of distance to the tree with a measure of the angle under which you view a pole of known length (6 meters at least), placed vertically next to the tree. For both calculation methods, you should observe from a distance in the size-order of the height of the tree. A closer position makes it difficult to decide what is the top of the tree, and then the angle measure will provide a less reliable basis for calculation. A farther position makes it difficult to see the tree. Binoculars are recommended to spot the tree. In most cases, kicking the stem will make the of even large trees shiver enough to recognize the tree top. 1

– Page 2 – The forests of the Osa height of the tallest tree are among the one-hectare plots in the neotropics and measures that are easy to compare from found that 10 plots in the Osa had an site to site. average basal area of 38.4 square meters In the mature forest in whereas those outside the Osa averaged we made four square hectare plots of one 28.8 square meters. In other words, the hectare each. All four had trees of 60 Osa forests had 33 percent more basal meters height or more. The tallest tree area per hectare than other neotropical was a Dilodendron costaricensis, locally forests. known as iguano or cascarillo, with 67 This may seem less impressive than meters. Other similar studies have found the extraordinary heights in the penin- heights of 73 meters in Aguabuena, and 65 sula. But it is not: Since the Osa trees meters at Punta Llorona. I compared the are bigger, there are fewer of them per Osa measures with reports on the highest hectare than in other forests. Therefore, trees in 29 other one-hectare plots made each tree in the Osa has even more basal in rain forests from Mexico to Southern area than trees in the other regions, Brazil. These plots outside the Osa had actually 67 percent more on the average. an average of only 40 meters for the All these figures tell us that the highest tree. Just one plot outside the Osa trees are both much higher and Osa had a maximum tree height of more thicker than in other forests in tropical than 50 meters, namely 55 meters in America. This means that they are truly Eastern Brazil. In contrast, the Osa gigantic. plots had an average maximum height of It also means that the forests 65 meters. contain lots and lots of valuable wood, a Tree heights in the neotropical rain fact that makes it more difficult to forests are rarely measured, so we still protect the forests from felling. do not have very firm evidence. But the Like the trees, the lianas in the information available so far shows that Aguabuena forest seem to be unusually the canopy tops of the Osa may be more large. I found reports from 58 rain than 60 percent taller on the average forest plots outside of the Osa Peninsula than those of other neotropical forests. where lianas had been registered. In 17 of Much more information is found on these plots, there had not even been found basal areas. I compared reports from 92 a single liana among stems of 10

– Page 3 – The forests of the Osa centimeter diameter or more. The incomplete picture of this lifeform. But proportion of stems that were lianas was the evidence so far indicates that the 58 percent larger in Aguabuena than in lianas may be just as much larger than in the other plots. However, a few plots had other regions, as are the trees. more lianas than the Aguabuena plots. Unfortunately, there is much less information available on the climbing lifeforms than on trees and palms. For example, the sizes of the lianas is rarely reported. So far, we still have a quite

How do you measure the diameter of a tree?

The best way to measure trunk diameter, or thickness, is to do it directly with an instrument looking like a ruler with two long arms that allows you to touch the bark at opposite sides at the same time and measure the distance between the touching points. The instrument is called a tree caliper, or pie de rey in Spanish. A different and often faster method is to measure the tree’s circumference with a measure tape, and then calculate diameter by dividing the circumference with pi (ca. 3.14159365). However, this will only give a correct result if the tree trunk has an entirely regular, cylindric shape. This is rarely the case, and the more irregular the trunk is, the more overestimated the diameter will be. An incorrect measure of diameter will provide even greater errors in calculations of basal area and volume of the tree. With the caliper you can take one measure where the trunk is broadest and another where it is most narrow. Taking the average of the two measures ensures that you get a very good estimate of the true diameter. Since the diameter of a tree normally varies with height, being largest close to the roots and decreasing upwards, it is almost always measured at “breast height” – where it is also easy work with a measure tape. Since breast height is not an exact figure, the convention is to measure 1.30 meters above the ground. Still, diameter is usually referred to as “diameter at breast height,” or “DBH.” 2

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A wealth of species

All tropical rain forests are rich in East Amazonia, and Coastal Brazil are species – much, much richer than the poorer. But as we shall see below, it is broadleaf and coniferous forests of not a simple matter to compare species temperate regions. But the forests of richness in a fair way. different tropical regions are not equally How do you measure richness of rich. The Asian island of Borneo and the woody species? To measure and compare Western part of Amazonia share the figures on numbers of species may be very reputation of having the most diverse or deceptive. For example, the National species-rich forests in the world. For Institute of Biodiversity in , years it has been known that in these INBio, on their internet-homepage areas one may find more than 200 (http://www.inbio.ac.cr/es/biod/Biod.html) different woody species in a single illustrates the biological richness of the hectare of forest. In recent years, country by the number of tree species in numbers of 300 and even more have been Costa Rica with those of Colombia and encountered in one-hectare plots in Brazil, correcting for the great differ- Amazonian and Ecuador. Although the ences in national territory. INBio finds forest of the Osa does not reach these that for every 6 tree species in Brazil impressive numbers of species, it turns there are 35 in Colombia and 295 (!) in out that it is still among the richest of Costa Rica. This comparison, however, is forests in Latin America. completely misleading. You must compare Only some forests in Western only what is truly comparable, and in this Amazonia and Pacific Colombia are more case, you can only compare the forest species-rich than the Osa forest, whereas diversity in Costa Rica, Colombia and all of Mexico and Central America north Brazil by taking similar sizes of samples of the Osa, Northern , from the various countries, for example

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The increase in number of tree species with increasing sample

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0 0 50000 100000 150000 Number of stems choosing Brazilian and Colombian prov- the species richness, or diversity, of inces of the same size as Costa Rica. tropical rain forests is to count all the The figure from (above) species that you find among all the living illustrates how the number of species stems of 10 cm diameter or more in one increases as you include more and more hectare of forest. This measure has to trees – in this case up to 122.000 this day scored up to 307 species, a individual trees with diameter of 1 figure encountered in Cuyabeno, Ecuador. centimeter or more. Increasing your In Costa Rica, the highest count is 178 sample of trees, the number of species species, in one of our hectares in grows rapidly at first, but then you will Aguabuena. This sounds as if the Osa get fewer and fewer additional species. forest is much less diverse than the This shows that in order to make sense, a Amazonian forests. But this is not so. It measure of tree species richness must turns out that only a limited part of refer to a given number of trees. Amazonia is actually richer. The most common way of describing Comparing one-hectare plots has

– Page 6 – The forests of the Osa among scientists for decades been an stems, but until some 20 years ago it was accepted way of evaluating the differ- common to include only free-standing ences in species richness between trees and palms, and not lianas and different rain forest ares. But one must climbers. Early studies did not even NOT rely on this alone. The reasons are include palms. Generally, if you in a several: 1) Stem density varies between locality include lianas you will get higher regions, and the number of species are number of species per number of stems naturally a function of number of stems, than if you only registered free-standing NOT of the area as such. If you happen stems, because lianas always belong to to expand the area of your sample plot different species than the trees. In without including additional trees, the contrast, inclusion of palms is likely to number of species will obviously remain lower the number of species per number of unchanged. In contrast, if you within your stems since palms are often very abundant sample discover additional trees belonging in a given locality, but represented by few to species not registered in the plot species. before, these will add to the number of Does this sound complicated? species without changing the area of the Possibly, but let us see how it works! Let plot. 2) The shape of the plot influences us take a critical look at one seemingly the diversity of the plot. The more rich Amazonian forest: compact the shape, the more uniform is At the Juruá River there was the forest. The longer the plots is, the reported 224 species in one hectare of more variation is included. Many rain forest, considerably more than in one-hectare plots are shaped as transects Aguabuena (153 to 178 species per 10 meters wide and 1000 meters long. hectare, average 162). But it turns out Recently, a study revealed that this shape that the Brazilian plot was a 1000 meter includes 10 percent more species than a transect. Considering that such a plot shaped like a square of 100 by 100 transect gives 10 percent higher diversity meters. Likewise, a plot of 20 by 500 than a square, only 204 species would be meters includes 5 percent more species expected in a square hectare. Further, the than the square. 3) The lifeforms included number of stems was very high, 849. The in the study also influence the number of number of species per 500 stems would be species. Today, most studies include all no more than 164 at Juruá, almost

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Species richnes in different neotropical rain forest regions

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200 Number of species

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Aguabuena species curve West Amazonian plots Aguabuena plots East Amazonian plots Other plots outside Amazonia

Number of species against stem density for 61 one-hectare plots in neotropical rain forest. The graph shows the average number of species as a function of number of stems in Aguabuena. Plots above the graph are more species-rich than the average for plots in Aguabuena, and plots below are poorer. Of 57 plots, only 18 are richer than the Aguabuena plots. Almost all of the richest plots are from Western Amazonia (triangles) which has also the highest stem density.

– Page 8 – The forests of the Osa identical to the average in Aguabuena. (triangles) which has also the highest Likewise, when we counted 849 stems in stem density. Hardly any other forests our Aguabuena plot, we found 199 species, than the West Amazonian ones appear to close to the 204 at Juruá. This shows be as rich as the Aguabuena forest. that the forest at Juruá is not richer, If you want to tell how rich a forest just denser than the Aguabuena forest. is, and want to be truthful, you are faced The figure of species richness (page with a challenge: In itself, it does not 9) shows the numbers of stems and mean much to tell that there are so many species for the four Aguabuena plots and thousands of different trees in Costa 57 other neotropical one-hectare plots Rica or in the Osa Peninsula, because how where lianas are included. For transects, do you compare such figures to those of the number of species has been reduced to other tropical areas? And if you will give the equivalent number for a square plot. an exact and meaningful figure from one The figure shows that most locality, you must remember to tell how neotropical rain forests has fewer large an area you refer to, what shape species than the Aguabuena plots, shown your forest area has, how many stems as squares. The graph shows the average there are and which lifeforms you include. number of species as a function of number Finally, you must realize that the diver- of stems in Aguabuena. Plots above the sity varies very much locally. Just one graph are more species-rich than the hectare is not necessarily representative average for plots in Aguabuena, and plots – look for example at the four symbols below are poorer. Of 57 plots, only 18 – for the Aguabuena plots. They are placed less than one third – were richer than the adjacent to one another in the forest and Aguabuena plots. Almost all of the richest yet they vary greatly in density and plots were from Western Amazonia diversity.

– Page 9 – The forests of the Osa Species that are special

What does it mean that a species is rare? It may seem as a paradox that it is There is no universal criterion for so common to be rare, yet the vast describing rarity. But one can for example majority of tree species in the world’s define woody species that occur rain forests are rare. This is a simple with one or fewer individuals per hectare consequence of the huge number of tree as rare. According to such a definition, species that are crowding in these the 60.8 percent of the species in our four richest forests of Planet Earth. hectares in Aguabuena were rare – that Among the many species in a tropical is, they occurred with four or less rain forest region like the Osa Peninsula individuals. These rare species made up some will differ from the lot. But there 15.0 percent of all living stems. If we had are different ways to be different: looked at only one hectare, fewer rare species would be detected, since we would not register species rarer than one RARE species. When a plant species is individual per hectare. On the average, we said to be rare, it usually means that it found 43.2 percent rare species per occurs in low numbers, at least locally. A hectare, accounting for 12.4 percent of rare species may also have a rather the individuals. limited distribution, but it does not need If we had made a much larger to be the case. The guapinol (Hymenaea inventory than the four hectares of courbaril) is an example of a species that forest in Aguabuena, there would have is widespread, but locally rare in almost been an even larger proportion of rare all of its huge range from Mexico to species – easily 80 percent – because Coastal Brazil. It is often forgotten that every extension of the sample would widespread species may be rare and even include ever less frequent species. threatened by extinction.

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ENDEMIC species. When a species is groups of ). It takes long experi- endemic to a region, it means that it does ence and much work to describe a species not occur elsewhere. The term is used scientifically, because one has to describe mainly when the region where the species enough of its distinctions from closely occurs, is quite limited, for example an related species to make recognition island, a country, or another well-defined possible for other specialists. A scien- area of land. To be endemic does not tific description is only valid when it has necessarily imply that the species is been printed in a scientific publication. locally rare, or uncommon. The ajo A “new” plant species may be unknown (Caryocar costaricensis) is locally common to science, meaning that it is not familiar in the Osa Peninsula, much more than for to any taxonomists; local people may or example guapinol. But where the guapinol may not know the plant very well. This is is widespread, the ajo is only found in a scientifically undescribed species. Even Costa Rica, Panama and Pacific Colombia – when a species is known by some taxono- it is endemic to those countries. mists, it may remain undescribed as long It is never easy to be sure that a as no taxonomist has acquired sufficient rain forest species is endemic, that is, time and knowledge to describe the not occurring elsewhere. An example of species. this is the Osa pulchra. This is a small Since publication takes time, a tree which once it can not be species may even be described, but still mistaken with any other species; its white remain unpublished. In this latter case, flowers are unique in being trumpet- the proposed scientific name may be used shaped and 35 centimeters long. It was with the end-note “ined.” meaning that it long thought to be endemic to the has not been published, or “nom. prov.” northern part of the Osa. Yet recently it meaning “provisional name.” has been found as far away as Tortuguero An unidentified species may or may not be at the Atlantic coast of Costa Rica. new. It will usually turn out to be identified as a described and well-known NEW species. A species may be called species, but the more efforts one has put ‘new’ when it has not yet gotten a into identification without being able to scientific name by scientists called plant name the species, the larger the chance is taxonomists (because they name ‘taxa’, or that it is an undescribed species.

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When you walk in the forest in Aguabuena, species accounted for 75 (3.3%) of the you can be fairly sure that about one in trees, and unidentified 43 (1.9%). every twenty trees you see belongs to a The figures above imply that when we species still to be described by science. made the plot in 1992, somewhere between The same is true for about one of every 6.5 and 14.1 percent of all species must ten of the tree species. have been new, accounting for between 3.3 The quantity of undescribed species and 5.1 percent of all living stems of 10 is difficult to establish in a rain forest. centimeter diameter or more. This gives a This is what I did with the woody plants: basis for the rough estimates that of 10 After having made the four-hectare percent of all woody species are new plot in Aguabuena in 1992, I identified all species and that 5 percent of all trees the registered stems – it took years! The belong to new species. stems belonged to 291 different species. Yet not all of these species were possible to give a full name (see next page). It The new and possibly new turned out that 19 (6.5% of the total) (se lists next page) were new, that is, unpublished at that time (1992). Ten (3.4%) were still List of new (unpublished or undescribed) unpublished in 1998, and six (2.1%) still and unidentified woody species in four undescribed. Another 20 species (6.9%) hectares of forest in Aguabuena. For species published after 1992, author and could not be identified to the level of year of publication is indicated. species, despite all efforts by consulted Collection numbers refer to botanical specialists. These unidentified species material deposited in herbaria in San could either be already known scientifi- José and Copenhagen. cally, or new species. Confirmed new

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Family Species Individuals Coll.#

Unpublished when registered in 1992 Annonaceae Duguetia confusa Maas 1996 3 KT 169 Boraginaceae Bourreria grandicalyx James S. Mill. & Sirot 1998 2 KT 380 Dichapethalaceae Stephanopodium costaricense Prance 1995 1 KT 743 Elaeocarpaceae Sloanea latistipula D. Smith ined. 2 KT 630 Elaeocarpaceae Sloanea sulcata D. Smith ined. 1 KT 539 Lepidobothryaceae Ruptiliocarpon caracolito Hammel & Zamora 1993 19 KT 953 Melastomataceae Mouriri tuberculata Morley & Thomsen 1997 2 KT 297 Moraceae Naucleopsis capirensis C. C. Berg 1996 1 KT 525 Myrsinaceae Parathesis costaricensis Ricketson 1998 4 KT 876 Rubiaceae Chomelia venulosa W. Burger & C. M. Taylor 1993 5 KT 895 Sapindaceae Vouarana anomala Acev.-Rodr. 1997 3 KT 443 Sapotaceae Pouteria costaricensis Penn., Sánchez & Jiménez ined. 1 KT 662 Sterculiaceae Sterculia alleni E. Taylor ined. 15 KT 674 Total 13 species 37

Undescribed, possibly unknown Annonaceae Guatteria sp. nov. 1 KT 941 Burseraceae Protium sp. nov. 7 KT 1286 Chrysobalanaceae Licania sp. nov. 1 KT 834 Clusiaceae Garcinia sp. nov. 1 KT 287 Lauraceae Licaria sp. nov. 3 KT 1264 Sapotaceae Sideroxylon sp. nov. 3 KT 555 Total 6 species 16 Unidentified, possibly new Elaeocarpaceae Sloanea sp. 12 KT 467 Flacourtiaceae Casearia sp. 1 KT 735 Lauraceae Beilschmiedia sp. 1 KT 610 Lauraceae Lauraceae sp. 1 3 KT 774 Lauraceae Lauraceae sp. 2 1 KT 503 Lauraceae Lauraceae sp. 3 1 KT 634 Lauraceae Licaria sp. 1 4 KT 747 Lauraceae Licaria sp. 2 1 KT 791 Lauraceae Pleurothyrium sp. 1 KT 567 Loganiaceae Strychnos sp. 4 KT 414 Malpighiaceae Mascagnia sp. 1 KT 825 Myrtaceae Eugenia sp. 1 1 KT 378 Myrtaceae Eugenia sp. 2 1 KT 783 Myrtaceae Eugenia sp. 3 3 KT 702 Myrtaceae Eugenia sp. 4 1 KT 231 Myrtaceae Myrcia sp. 1 KT 701 Nyctaginaceae Neea sp. 1 KT 369 Sapotaceae Pouteria sp. 1 3 KT 468 Sapotaceae Pouteria sp. 2 1 KT 758 Total 20 species 43

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The twisted trees

Scientific name: Aspidosperma myristicifolium : Apocynaceae Local names: care tigre, cara de tigre, costilla danto, cruácrie

In the forest, the care tigre may be found Most trees in the Osa forests have among the highest emergents. In Aguabuena, ordinary shapes, that is, their stem i we measured one of 62 meters height. The cylindrical and smooth. But an unusually high trunk rises straight towards the sky. number is more or less twisted like the care Nevertheless, a closer view reveals a very tigre. This is particularly true for costilla irregular stem: It is twisted and sculptured danto (Lecointea amazonica), but also for a in an incredible pattern, braided by con- number of other trees, for example torted ridges mixing with deep channels and Bourreria sp. nov., Chomelia venulosa, furrows, much like a strangler fig, a Gloeospermum diversipetalum, Pouteria matapalo. The care tigre is a genuine tree all durlandii and Sloanea guianensis. Local people right, but if a large trunk is cut, the often give names to these oddly shaped trees transect of the stem looks very different that relate to their twistedness or sharp from most trees: It does not appear like a edges: trenzillo, filometoso, gambito, costilla round plate, but consists of meandering arms danto, torcido etc. (nicknames translating of varying thickness. Still, the stem is very roughly to ‘braidlet’, ‘sharpling’, ‘buttressie’, strong because the wood is hard and rigid. ‘tapir’s ribcase’, ‘twisty’) Because of their strength and strange None of these twisted trees are closely beauty, young stems are often used in open related to each other. What has made so ‘ranchos’ to carry the roof. many mutually unrelated tree species in the The care tigre is closely related to the Osa develop shapes like this, is a good amargo (Aspidosperma spruceanum), a tree question. Maybe the shape has no function well-known in the Osa because of its good but is neither an obstacle to survival. In any timber. Unlike its cousin species, the amargo case, the twisted trees call upon our tree has an ordinary shape. fascination.

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Spiny usefulness

Scientific name: Astrocaryum standleyanum Family: Arecaceae Local names: pejibaye de montaña, tubuó

A number of the many palm trees in the Osa from Ecuador as early as 1872. Still today, forests are locally called pejibaye de that country exports hats, hammocks and montaña. The name is appropriate. When you mats in small quantities to Peru and Japan. encounter a wild pejibaye palm, you will In Chocó, Colombia, baskets of leaf fibers probably notice that it does look quite are sold locally. In other regions, other similar to to the true ‘pejibaye’ or peach species of Astrocaryum provide leaf fibers palm (Bactris gasipaes), commonly grown in for similar commercial products. the lowlands of Costa Rica: The trunk is As it is true for many palm species, densely covered with long, black spines, the virtually all parts of the pejibaye de large leaves are split up in numerous strips montaña may serve some use. The rather pointing in many directions, and the ripe scanty fruit pulp is reported to be sweet and fruits are orange-colored. But pejibaye de edible, and widespread subsistence use montaña is much more stocky than the true includes exploitation of its edible fruits and peach palm, with a thicker stem and much palm heart. The beautiful and very hard wood larger and more rigid leaves, and the two may be used, for canes, fishing rods, palm species are only remotely related. ornamental boxes inlaying, and archery bows. When you pass a very young pejibaye de A few timber trees in the Osa are also montaña, pay much attention to the long, flat called pejibaye, for example Maranthes spines of the leaves. They are not only panamensis and Licania hypoleuca – both pointed, but also razor sharp, and will easily relatives of the cultivated sonzapote fruit plunge two centimeters into your flesh. tree. This is not owed to the appearance of In the Osa, people know this palm for these trees, but to the smell of the fresh good palm heart and for leaf fibers for hats. wood and bark which is reminder of the Elsewhere, the leaf fibers are a renowned rather heavy smell of the boiled fruits of resource. Fiber products have been exported peach palm.

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Mightiest of neotropical trees

Scientific name: Ceiba pentandra Family: Bombacaceae Local names: ceibo, ceiba

The ceibo tree is the largest of the many the reason why you may see this monumental giant trees found in the Osa Peninsula and tree so often. even in all of tropical Latin America. A ceibo The enormity of the ceibo implies that of 80 meters height has been reported from this tree may shape the landscape more than Costa Rica. The ceiba's enormous buttresses, any other plant species in America. In sometimes reaching 20 meters up on the Amazonia, the ceibos often stand close to trunk, give the reminder of a moonrocket. the large rivers. In Ecuador, one such tree – And the crown spreads like a half-sphere La Torre (“The Tower”) – became a tourist with horizontal branches themselves the size attraction with a wooden spiral staircase of huge trees. This makes the ceibo embraze built up to a platform in 45 meters’ height a huge volume of the sky. where the crown began spreading its huge Let be that some conifers of Western branches over the forest. When the meander- North America may be taller and that ing river sometimes reach the roots of trees California’s redwood trees may be even like this, it may fall into the river and block thicker. But a large ceibo probably takes up off many floating trunks and branches. These more space than any other American tree, pile up as a damn and eventually the river is and certainly than any neoptropical one. forced to change its course. Since it thrives on flat, moist land and is The ceibo is native to America, but often left in the open pastures when the cultivated in Asia for oil and seed forest is turned into farmland, you may see fibre. The seed is surrounded by silky hairs the this giant tower over the landscape as a called kapok, or ceiba in Spanish. Earlier in living monument of the disappeared forest. the century, it was used extensively for To the Mayas the ceibo was a holy tree. stuffing in mattresses, cushions and life Today, people in the Osa think that it may jackets. So, the ceibo’s silk may save the cause evil to fell it, and this is supposedly lives of drowning people! Today, however,

– Page 16 – The forests of the Osa kapok fibres are of little commercial same family as the ceibo, the Bombacaceae. importance. Because ceibo trunks are so large, they In several regions of Costa Rica, the have been used for making sea-going boats. seed oil of the ceibo is used for illumination The same is true for the second-largest tree and for soap-making. One more of the tree of the Osa, the espavel (Anacardium species in the Osa provides seed fibres that excelsum). may be used like kapok: the balsa tree (Ochroma pyramidale), which belongs to the

– Page 17 – The forests of the Osa

Medicine for men and coatis

Scientific name: Trattinickia aspera Family: Burseraceae Local names: caraño, nundócrie

Like many other species of the Burseraceae that these are from other Burseraceas, (often called copalillos on the Osa), the since this name is used in Central America caraño is a middle-sized tree with for various other species of the family. pinnate-compound leaves and a fragrant, There has actually been registered use transparent exudate – a resin – in the bark. of this tree species outside the Osa. It is a Since the species is known only from surprising one, however, because it is not southwestern Costa Rica and Panama, it is carried out by human beings: In Panama, little studied, and local people’s use of the coatis (Nasua narica) have been observed species has only been investigated in the Osa using the resin for grooming their fur, so far. possibly to deter ectoparasites or to smell In the Osa, the caraño tree is a source good! of medicine. Decoctions of the bark are Observing the animals’ use of plants is taken against ulcers, stomach aches and for a very new discipline in biology. But just as strengthening of the blood. The caraño resin the registration of man’s use of plants may is extracted from cuttings in the bark help us identify valuable products in the during 2-3 days in the dry season. This resin large plant kingdom, so may the experience of may be boiled and taken for coughs or applied wild animals give us clues. In Africa, gorillas on the forehead for headache. The Guaymie and chimpanzees have been observed eating Indians use decoctions of caraño leaves for certain plants when they are sick. In this baths against epilepsy. way, these creatures may unknowingly show In San José, medicinal barks are sold on us where to find new aspirines or other herb markets as caraño, but it is possible useful drugs!

– Page 18 – The forests of the Osa

A medicinal stairway

Scientific name: Bauhinia guianensis Family: Caesalpinaceae Local names: escalera de mono

The escalera de mono is probably the most stems of up to 30 cm diameter! In old, famous liana in Costa Rica. It has gotten its undisturbed forest, it is also the most name escalera de mono – and ‘monkey ladder’ frequent one: In Aguabuena, we found 50 in English – because of a peculiar shape of lianas of 10 cm diameter or more in a four the stem. However, the fame of the liana is hectare inventory. Of these, 13 were not owed to its shape, but to its medicinal escalera de mono. In secondary forest or properties. forest that has been logged for timber, large Let us take the appearance first: The lianas are rare, maybe because they are young stems are hanging abundantly in old, tangled with the crowns of many of the mature forest, looking like long, tiny stairs largest trees which are precisely the ones with regular, bulging steps. The characteris- that often are cut down during logging. tic stair-like shape develops because the Probably, it takes the lianas too long time to growth occurs mainly on two sides creating a grow thick to keep up with frequent logging. flat stem. The new growth layers are After all, the liana has to reach as high as shorter than the older ones, causing the the top of the canopy to get to the light and stem to shorten up and the middle to buckle survive. out. The older escaleras become more Wherever this conspicuous vine occurs contorted with many deep, narrow furrows, in Latin America, people use it to treat sometimes embedding the steps completely. kidney ailments. It also has a reputation in Still, they are easily distinguished from all treatment of diarrhea, diabetes and body of the many other lianas of the forest by pains, or rheumatism, and for strengthening their fluted stems and smooth, light yellow- the blood. On markets in Managua and San ish bark. José you may easily recognize the cut pieces The escalera de mono is one of the of the young stems – the ‘ladders’ – which largest lianas in the Osa. You may encounter are sold for making medicinal infusions or, in

– Page 19 – The forests of the Osa plain words, tea. The price in San José was although not Caesalpinaceae, but the 150 ¢/250 g in 1994. Fabaceae. Its stem looks a bit like that of In the Osa, escalera de mono is known Bauhinia, growing a contorted stem by to be used for kidneys and body pains. shortening up during growth and by having Another vine in the Osa share the name light yellowish bark. Yet Oxyrhynchus does escalera de mono and may even share the not develop the regular ladder-shape. medicinal qualities of Bauhinia guianensis. Nevertheless, local people claim that it may That is Oxyrhynchus trinervius, which is, be used in the same way as its famous name like Bauhinia, of a leguminous family, kin.

– Page 20 – The forests of the Osa

Diesel, perfume & precious medicine in one

Scientific name: Copaifera camibar Family: Caesalpinaceae Local names: camíbar, má beségere

This graceful tree is one of the rare America. Internationally, it is known by its wonders of the Osa. The stem is regular Brazilian name copaiba. Both terms are used with very finely furrowed bark, and the in the Scientific name of the Osa species foilage consists of tiny leaflets ordered in Copaifera camibar, which is known only from beautiful flat, horizontally layered mosaics a few areas outside of the Osa, in Venezuela towards the light. But the trees’ most and mainland Costa Rica. But a number of precious property is hidden deep in the stem: other Copaifera species are utilised in the The heartwood contains a fragrant liquid same way all over tropical Latin America, for with a color like amber. It is an oil-like their resin. In Sirena en Corcovado has been resin called camibar which will ooze out of found another species of camibar, Copaifera the tree if the wood is cut. This is probably aromatica. the most valuable plant medicines of the Osa The copaiba resin from the various and the adjacent mainland. Copaiferas was introduced into Europe in the Some people extract and sell the 16th century. It is used locally in treating camibar at good prices – up to 15.000 colones bronchitis, catarrh of the pulmonary region, a gallon (in 1994). It is said that you can buy bladder and uterus, inflammations of the it in every Costa Rican pharmacy, and that it urinary tract, leucorrhea and gonorrhea. Its is used on the umbilicus of all newborn use is very frequent in the Amazon on all infants in Costa Rica. In the Osa, the resin types of wounds, to obtain fast healing. It is used on skin wounds and cuts against may be used against psoriasis, and even to inflammation. Among the Guaymie Indians, treat sores from chronic gonorrhea. the women may drink a tea made of the resin Besides being used medicinally, the to increase fertility. resin is employed commercially as a fixative Camibar resin, or balsam, is famous not in perfumery and as an ingredient in var- only in Costa Rica, but in most of Latin nishes. It is often called an ‘oil,’ but it

– Page 21 – The forests of the Osa contains no oil at all. It consists entirely of drilled, one above the other, to the core of sesquiterpenes and copalic acid. Although the trunk. After emptying the tree´s fluid, it is chemically similar to the hard deposits, the hole is plugged with a wooden resin of guapinol (Hymenaea courbaril). bung. This operation do not cause serious In the Osa, the traditional method of harm to the tree and can then be repeated harvesting the precious camibar resin was to later. cut a large hole in the trunk and burn the I tested the drilling method on one tree base of the tree to make the resin run. This in the Osa, but hardly a single drop came out! method is said to provide up to 50 liters, but Even plugging the hole and waiting several it will only happen once, since the treatment days gave little resin. I was told by locals kills the tree either immediately or within that the moon’s phase had to be right. Later less than a year. I have read that in Guyana people extract at Today, the camibar tree has become crescent moon. rare in the Osa. Only in isolated places, like Copaifera trees got a sudden worldwide the watershed of the San Juan river, it is publicity in the 1970es when Brazilians still abundant, being among the ten most showed that the resin can be taken directly dominant tree species. from the tree and run a diesel engine. Fossil In Amazonian Brazil, the copaiba resin oil had become expensive with the ‘oil crisis’, has long been an important source of income and copaiba was seen as a potential new from the forest. Also here, destructive source of energy. However, the trees can not extraction has made the tree scarce. produce nearly enough “oil” to our consump- Fortunately, better harvest techniques tion. The world´s diesel engines would exist. Both in Brazil and Venezuela some rapidly burn up all that fragrant medicine of wise extractors obtain the resin by drilling each and every Copaifera tree! holes in the trunk. Usually two holes are

– Page 22 – The forests of the Osa

A source of beer and stinking toes

Scientific name: Hymenaea courbaril Family: Caesalpinaceae Local names: guapinol, zácrie

The guapinol tree represents the most useful nutricious and good for the health. Some find and the most vulnerable part of the Osa rain their taste delicious, while others detest forest at one and the same time. The wood is their smell. Most of the year, you may come one of the most precious timbers of the Osa, across the fruits as large, woody, but all other parts of the tree provide indehiscent pods under the tree, but they equally valuable and useful products. The will then be empty or filled with useless, tragedy is that the tree gets hardly any black dirt. This keeps most people that walk offspring, so when the beautiful colosses are only occasionally in the forest unaware of felled to be turned into timber, the forest the quality of the fruits. The good fruits looses one of its most useful trees. fall very suddenly in the middle of the dry The guapinol is an awesome sight in the season. In five weeks, one of our trees in forest. Superficially, its trunk may look like Aguabuena threw 364 kg of healthy fruits, that of another large tree, the abundant and another one 606 kg. A number of fruits vaco (Brosimum utile), having a thick, fails to develop fully on the tree because of cylindrical bole, and smooth bark without insect attacks. These failed fruits are not epiphytes. But seeing the two together, you able to let go of their branch as are the will sense the strength of the hard, slowly healthy fruits, and will therefore go on grown guapinol against the soft-wooded vaco: dropping down over the rest of the year, The vaco will often be damaged and visibly giving a poor impression of a truly marvel- hollow at the base, and the whole trunk may lous fruit. be a bit curved from its own weight. The And how is the guapinol fruit? It guapinol stands straight and has no irregu- differs from most other fruits of the forest larities nor buttresses. It leaps off the in being dry and very well conserved. The ground directly like a huge column. edible part is a dry powder of and The guapinol fruits are highly starch surrounding the black seeds within

– Page 23 – The forests of the Osa the hard, resinous shell that is shaped like a molds will destroy the fruit in few days. thick sausage, ca. 15 cm long. The powder has All the above makes guapinol one of the a quite heavy, papaya-like smell. Since some few fruits that would be easy and worthwhile people find this disagreeable, it has gotten collecting for consumption and sale: The the English nickname ‘stinking toe.’ In spite fruits are very light, 50-100 g each, and of the smell, the taste is very rich and therefore easy to collect and carry out. You fruit-like. If you eat the powder of four can store them almost indefinitely, trans- pods, you will feel very full and quite port them without damage. Furthermore, they thirsty! already have a market, and could get an even You may also use the fruits for making larger one if introduced in snacks, bakery cakes and cookies: simply substitute some of and softdrinks. the sugar and wheat flour in a recipe, and The resin is composed of the same you will get tasty things that have flavors chemical compounds as camibar resin and very much like a mix of chocolate and fruit. serves a long series of medicinal purposes. Even a kind of beer can be made: The But where camibar is fluid, guapinol resin is dry pulp is used in some Central American hard and brittle. On the trunk, you can break countries to ferment a beerlike, tasty it off like glass. From the soil at the base of refreshment called pinol. The name guapinol’ the tree, you may also dig up several pounds may come from Nahuatl cuahuitl-pinolli, of old resin, even many years after the tree meaning ‘pinol tree’. has perished. Particularly the old resin is Usually the rain will begin before the good for producing and lacquers. It guapinol has finished fruiting. But even is used commercially for this under the name after three, four weeks of fruit fall and ‘South American ’ or ‘Demarara Copal.’ many days of rain, you will still find All parts of the tree contain resin, so undecayed, edible fruits under the tree. This even bark and leaves may be used as medicine. is unique in this hot and humid climate. Most Guapinol resin is particularly reputed for fruits contain a lot of water and/or oil, and treatment of kidney ailments, but also of therefore get rotten or moldy very rapidly, respiratory problems, diarrhea and colic, and but the guapinol fruit is not only protected of wounds, skin irritations and vaginal by being dry; also the resin of the hard shell infections. The resin is also burnt as incense protects the nutricious powder against molds – and the smoke is good for asthma and and fungi, except when the fall from the tree hysteria! has created tiny fissures in the shell. Then In Aguabuena we were lucky: Three

– Page 24 – The forests of the Osa guapinol trees were found in a four hectare natural tree fall gap large enough for these inventory of forest that apparently had species to reach full height before regrowth never been logged. But all trees were old has closed the forest opening again. But giants, measuring more than 90 cm diameter. contrary to guapinol, the three others have The strange thing is that the ground under tiny seeds that are easily dispersed to open these trees are covered with seedlings once areas. Therefore they are all abundant in every year – but within a few months they all pastures and regrown forests, or tacotal. die from lack of light. One single young The guapinol remains as a typical resident of guapinol tree was encountered in the whole the old forest – the heavy fruits rarely get area, and after two years this one too died far away from the parent tree. from lack of light. In the whole northern The irony is that nobody considers Osa Peninsula the guapinol is becoming very Hymenaea courbaril a threatened species, rare. Only in the Aguabuena and San Juan because it is naturally widely distributed. watersheds there are still good populations, From southern Brazil to Mexico you may find but only of very large, old trees. it in forested areas where there is at least Like the guapinol, a number of other a short dry period. But the guapinol is tree species have natural populations in threatened, becoming scarce everywhere, for mature forest that consist of large individ- the same reasons as in the Osa. The wood is uals and little offspring. In the Osa, this is excellent, and there is hardly any natural true for trees like pilón (Hieronyma regeneration to counter the logging. The alchorneoides), lagartillo amarillo seeds are plenty, and easy to germinate, so (Zanthoxylum ekmani) and balso (Ochroma this is really one tree that would deserve a pyrimidale). All these trees are dependent on helping hand from people, planting it for the very good light conditions to grow up. In the future! mature forest, there will only rarely be a

– Page 25 – The forests of the Osa

A suicidal tree

Scientific name: Tachigalia versicolor Family: Caesalpinaceae Local names: reseco, alazán, tostado, bu tain

The reseco is the only tree in the world that the reseco reaches a favorable place in the is known to commit suicide. Why it does it, is sunlight, builds up a huge bole of wood, still an enigma. stocky branches and innumerous leaves in the Reseco looks like many other rain midst of competition with the rain forests’ forest trees. A smooth stem with straight, countless different tree species, and then slender buttresses at the base. The most gives up everything! conspicuous feature is the bright orange This reproduction strategy makes the color of the bark. The wood is good for reseco a unique ecological mystery to timber, and since the tree grows rather scientists. What could possibly be the large and tall, it is much sought by benefit of dying at the very peak of your timbermen. vigor and dominance? Among the many trees in the rain The mysterious fate of the reseco forest, it is a great achievement to grow up trees was discovered only after many years in the strong competition for light and of study in the world’s most intensively become an emergent – for a tree in the Osa, studied patch of rain forest – a 50 hectare this implies growing considerably taller than plot in the Barra Colorado Island in the 45 meters – and then finally produce flowers Panama Kanal. Here, every tree of more than and seeds in sufficient numbers to maintain a one centimeter thickness is measured and continuous supply of new treelets of the mapped. In this way, scientists continuously same species. Most tree species are designed scrutinize the development and fate of to spend the major part of their long life almost a quarter of a million individual cycle producing offspring, thereby ensuring trees. the survival of the species. The reseco One year, a number of large trees of an produces flowers and seeds just once in its unknown species blossomed simultaneously. lifetime. Then it dies. As absurd as it seems, The scientists described it as a new

– Page 26 – The forests of the Osa

Tachigalia. During flowering, the trees lost trees improves survival of the offspring, one their leaves. After nine monthts, no new way or the other. The most obvious explana- leaves had appeared. The fruits were large, tion seemed to be, that the mother trees flat, green pods that had maintained used all of their accumulated energy to photosyntesis. But the fruits became dry and produce more seeds than competing species. ripe and flew off the trees, leaving them all This is what a will do. It may grow to die. for 40 years and then dies in a cascade of A beetle unknown by the scientists flowers and seeds. But calculations showed appeared by numbers of tens of thousands, that in this Tachigalia the amount of flowers eating up the dying trees. From the trees’ and seeds were not substantially larger than roots, the fruiting body of an unknown in other trees. fungus popped up, ending its mycorrhizal Foster published an article describing coexistence with the Tachigalia. It turned the suicidal deaths of the Panamanian out, however, that there were still many Tachigalias and suggested that their younger Tachigalia trees that had not sacrifice of life provided extra light to flowered. None of these died. their offspring, leaving a hole in the canopy An experienced tropical ecologist, Robin that gave the new trees a good start. But Foster from Chicago, studied the mysterious soon counting revealed that nine of ten fate of the reseco trees in Panama. He had seedlings would germinate in the shade – and never seen anything like this quiet, ecologi- have just as good survival as those in the cal drama. No other dicotyledonous perennial light. plants in the world was known to do this. The Tachigalia seeds turned out to have Monocotyledonous plants like palms and a high seed survival compared to most trees could do it, but not ordinary trees. – 70 percent would germinate in the forest. It turned out that every four years, a Since fungi were considered to account for new cohort of the largest Tachigalia trees about 80 percent of deaths of all seeds and blossomed simultaneously, and the collective seedlings, Foster thought that Tachigalia suicide was repeated. Why did they do it? seeds had to have a better natural resis- How could they maintain a population in this tance to fungi than other species. Now, his way? The species was obviously successful, idea was this: The seeds inherit a rather because it ranked as the 15th most common efficient fungicide from their parents. The among some 300 tree species on the island. interval of four years between seed falls The key had to be that the death of the will in itself keep specialized

– Page 27 – The forests of the Osa

Tachigalia-attacking fungi at low numbers. checked in some 40 years’ time. But if each new crop of seed contains a To this day, Foster has not come up slightly different variety of fungicide, it with an explanation that satisfies himself – will further make it difficult for fungi to the best answers to apparent enigmas in overpower the defences of the seeds. To ecology usually turn out to be very simple. ensure that the seed crops is different, But Foster’s best answer so far is not a there must be no genetic cross-over between simple explanation. the parent generations. One way to ensure In the Osa, I saw the phenomenon of this would be to die. reseco suicides in 1993: Here and there, you Foster speculated that Tachigalia would spot a large and conspicuous, pink versicolor really consists of a series of crown – flowering for some months. The year variants that are genetically separated and after, the trees were dead. A herbal healer distinct, and that their flowering in simulta- told me with a laugh that the broken neous cohorts maintain their difference. At branches of the dead trees smelled like ‘pure a high cost, the trees keep fungi at a shit.’ Later, I learned that scientists in this distance from their seeds. tree have encountered scatole – a strongly This theory depends on one detail: A smelling compound also occurring in human cohort of flowering trees have to be of the feces! same generation, to have germinated the The only suicide tree in the world is same year so long before. The age of the still quite common in most regions of the trees can unfortunately not be checked, as Osa, being most frequent at altitudes below they do not develop revealing annular rings in 300 meters. In Drake it is particularly the wood like temperate trees. So if the common. But its timber is much appreciated, trees always at, say, the age of 60 and once felled for timber, a reseco is sure years, there might be 15 different cohorts in to die leaving no offspring. a locality. In Panama, this can only be

– Page 28 – The forests of the Osa

Fruits too delicious to get

Scientific name: Caryocar costaricensis Family: Caryocaraceae Local names: ajo, doboin crire

This giant tree is among the many species of green fruits. the Osa that have this peninsula as the When I went to the Osa, I was asked northern extreme of their distribution and by a Caryocar specialist to pay attention to Western Colombia as the southern extreme. Caryocar costaricensis, because unlike the Most of these species are considered other nine known Caryocar species, nothing endangered because of their limited natural was known scientifically about the uses of range. this species which occurs in an area where Ajo means garlic, and the ajo tree owes it few studies have been made of the uses of name to a garlic-like smell from its yellow wild plants. Several of the other species flowers when they at times cover the ground provide edible seeds (‘butter nuts’ or ‘pequia under the tree. nuts’) or fruit pulp, or both. The fruits of The tree itself is characterized by a these species are collected from the wild in thick, bulging stem, often one and a half several South American countries, particu- meter thick, with a dark, slightly fissured larly Brazil. The fruit pulp is oil rich and a bark. The leaves are characteristic too. source of a fine oil. Where a majority of rain forest trees has Specialists consider the whole simple, alternate leaves with smooth margins, Caryocar to be of great utility for their the ajo leaves are opposite and trifoliate fruits, and that – in the words of the great with serrate margins and two large glands at ethnobotanist Robert Schultes: “we may the top of the (the stalk of the leaf). confidently expect that the future will see When you dig in the soil at the base of plantations of one or several species of a large tree, you will find old shells with Caryocar... for the betterment of life in the many slender and very hard spines. These are tropics in general.” the almost imperishable remains of a hard So, how about the poorly described ajo shell surrounding the seed inside the fleshy in the Osa? I tried hard, but nobody knew of

– Page 29 – The forests of the Osa the fruits. When finally the trees in my Latin American forest regions, only few inventory began fruiting, I came across the Costa Ricans eat monkeys. This is a handicap explanation: When the fruits get ripe , you for those who would like to collect and try do not find a single good fruit below the the rich fruits of the Osa forests: little is tree. The monkeys eat them all. I spoke to a left by the monkeys. After three years of forest researcher from CATIE in Turrialba study of the potential for collecting wild who tried unsuccessfully to get hold on seeds fruits in the Osa, I had to conclude that in the Osa for growth trials. He found none. only in a few cases do the animals leave Finally, he built a platform in a huge ajo in enough to make an effort worthwhile. This is order to get to the fruits before the the case with fruits of guapinol (Hymenaea monkeys. Unluckily, all seeds on that coubaril) and caobilla (). particular tree happened to be attacked by But the forest’s most delicious treats are insects. not left for very long by our hairy cousins! Unlike what is the case in many other

– Page 30 – The forests of the Osa

The tree of the yellow wax

Scientific name: Symphonia globulifera Family: Clusiaceae Local names: cerillo, trobó

The cerillo is one of the most common trees In Amazonian Brazil, the latex is taken in the Osa and particularly so in Aguabuena. orally by Ka’apor Indians as a contraceptive. It is middle-sized and rarely gets taller than It also serves a number of technical 40 meters or thicker than 70 cm. It is easily purposes in domestic use: making candles, recognized in the forest by its irregular, torches, glue and shoe tar, and caulking of soft, orange bark and conspicuous prop-roots boats. It is reported to yield an of varying thickness sticking out from the amonia-soluble khaki dye used in Belize to stem up to some half a meter’s height. When give a rich brown color to leather, and the it flowers, you may see the bright red, round fresh latex may be used as brown skin paint on the forest floor, and notice that lasts for several days. hummingbirds visiting the tree. In the Osa, the latex is heated and Even a slight damage to the bark or applied against skin problems like ‘carate’ roots will reveal the waxlike, bright yellow and fungi. It may also be applied onto the latex that gives the tree its local name, chest for 1-2 days against cough. It can be which translates to ‘little waxy’ (cera = stored in free air. wax). Bees appreciate this similarity, too: The ripe, green fruits of cerillo are often you will see them picking up the latex rich, much like a juicy, very sweet-acid plum, to use for their hives. hence one of its English names: ‘hog plum.’ I The copious, sticky latex must offer have never had the good fortune of finding it the tree a good protection, because every- ripe in the Osa, but in Amazonia we came where in tropical Latin America it is used to across them once in one and a half years, and prevent infections in ulcers and deep wounds. we could hardly stop eating.

– Page 31 – The forests of the Osa

A fruit against all evil

Scientific name: Merremia discoidesperma Family: Convolvulariaceae Local names: contraveneno, digué cøi

The contraveneno is the most expensive which reason it also has its legends attached amulet you can buy in the streets of San at latitudes far from the tropics. José. It protects you against “snakebites, Few have seen the actual plant that mothers-in-law and all other evil.” produce the fruit, and even during 18 months It is a fruit in the shape of a hard of field work, I never succeeded in spotting , about 2.5 cm across and 1.7 cm high, it in the tree crowns, although I kept finding with a cross-shaped depression on its top. the fruits on the forest floor in two places. When it is new, it is densely covered with Contraveneno is apparently among those very short, erect, shiny black hairs, giving lianas that climb to the highest parts of the the fruit a beautiful, velvet-like appearance. forest canopy. When you find its peculiar When you find the fruit in the forest, its fruit, keep it for good luck, or for selling it fine black fur will often be dry and com- for a buck... pletely protected form dirt inside a thin, A number of other lianas from the Osa stiff, transparent membrane slightly larger forests are sources of beautiful adorns that than the fruit. may be used for amulets or for necklaces and Once the fruit is peeled free of its earrings. The large, dark, disk-shaped seeds paperlike membrane, the black hairs fall off of ojo de buey and ojo de venado (Mucuna quite easily, but the capsule itself is almost species), and the smooth and shiny, grey indestructable. Even in Northern Europe you seeds of the vine Caesalpina bonduc are may find this tropical fruit washed up on the examples of jewels from the forest that you beach after a long journey over the sea, for may buy in the streets of San José.

– Page 32 – The forests of the Osa

Jewels from a tree

Scientific name: Ormosia paraensis Family: Fabaceae Local names: nene, má

The nene tree is only recognized by the best Ormosia paraensis and coccinea, the latter ‘vaqueanos’ (in the Osa a term for local having slightly smaller seeds than the people that have knowledge of the forest former. In San José, you may also buy nene trees, mainly from working for timber seeds that are only half as large as the usual logging companies). The tree is very anony- ones. I have never seen these in the Osa, but mous in its appearance with a grey and a friend told me that he once came across rather smooth bark and no buttresses. But one in the Osa that was more than twice the when people see the seeds under the tree, usual size. So keep an eye out. There may be everyone will recognize it: The seeds are more kinds of nene around. In the Atlantic shiny beans, half red and half black, and a Zone of Costa Rica, a new species was little more than one centimeter long. recently discovered. It has entirely black Because of their beauty and durability, these seeds. seeds are appreciated as amulets, and sold as Because of the value of the seeds, nene such. trees may provide a local forest owner with In San José you could buy nene seeds a stable income from his forest. Unfortu- for 100 colones each in 1994. They are also nately, the tree is popular among the sold as beads in earrings, bracelets and timbermen, too, and today the tree is not necklaces. But few people are aware that very common. You will mainly find it at buying these seeds is buying jewels from a altitudes above 300 meters height in remote rain forest tree. places like Bajo San Juán. One more reason Actually, nene seeds in the Osa stem to protect the forest trees. from at least two closely related species,

– Page 33 – The forests of the Osa

An endemic fence post

Scientific name: Caryodaphnopsis burgeri Family: Lauraceae Local names: cirrí, quira, sarnillo, urono mogare

The cirrí is a tree best recognized by its better than all other timbers. However, when leaves. They are very similar to the leaves trees are planted for timber, such local of the cinnamon tree, being opposite and usefulness is rarely considered. glabrous and having three main nerves Cirrí belongs to the genus Caryodaph- running from base to tip of each leaf. The nopsis in the family Lauraceae which underside is pale, much like the leaf of the comprises many hundred tree species in avocado. The tree is middle-sized. In the Osa Costa Rica. Most of them are very fragrant it is not uncommon, but it is not known and typically have a smell of avocado (Persea outside of the Pacific side of Costa Rica. It americana), the family’s most famous member. is endemic to this region. Actually, the wild ancestor of the avocado is The cirrí is a very valuable timber, and also growing wild in the Osa! particularly so for locals in the Osa. The The family Lauraceae comprises many reason is that in contrast to most timbers it species that are still not described by do not perish in the ground, but may last as science. Until the last few decades even the fence posts and poles in the soil for many whole genus Caryodaphnopsis was known only years. In this respect, it is only surpassed from Southeast Asia. Then somebody by manú negro (Minquartia guianensis) which discovered a species in Central America, then is even more renowned among farmers for its another was found in Amazonian Peru, then a durability. third in Coastal Ecuador, and so on until Such trees are examples of timbers today, when about a dozen American species that may not be worth a lot on World has been described. Locals always knew the markets because the do not have a fashion- cirrí for its special qualities. But scientists able color. But locally they are in high had a harder job realizing what particular demand because the serve specific purposes kind of tree it is.

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A unique little snail

Scientific name: Ruptiliocarpon caracolito Family: Lepidothryaceae Local names: caracolito, cedro caracolito, rugá chelerécrie

The caracolito has its name (‘little snail’) reminder of raw with blood and fat. from the egg-shaped, 3 cm long fruit that “How many pounds would you like today?” my dry and break up at maturity in a pattern informant asked me with a laugh, imitating a reminding of a snailhouse. The Scientific butcher selling meat. name of the genus, Ruptiliocarpon, likewise The leaf appears indistinguishable from refers to the way the fruit cracks open. all the other tree leaves at first sight, This tree is a living testimony of how being simple and glabrous with smooth poorly known the American rain forests are margins and a little tip. But like most leaves, to this day. Although the tree is abundant, it does have distinctive features: Between well-known among timbermen, and relatively the simple petiole (the stalk attaching the easy to recognize in the forest, it has leaf to the branch) and the base of the leaf turned out as a great novelty and surprise to is a slightly swollen tissue called a pulvinus. botanists. This you find almost exclusively in the The tree is middle-sized for Osa compound leaves of leguminous trees. standards, usually not reaching heights of Together with the broad, roundish shape of more than 45 meters or diameters of more its leaf, this separates the caracolito from than 80 centimeters. The stem has a surface the innumerous other species in Central bulging slightly like a muscular underarm. America. The bark is rather smooth with rows of tiny When I came to the Osa in 1992, I was pieces of cork in the depressions between told by botanists about the caracolito tree the ‘muscles.’ Cut off the outer, dry part of that this was one new species that was so the bark, and you will see the illusion of unique that they could not find any known muscles completed: the color is a mix of pink botanical family where it fit in. Rutaceae, and red, marbled with light yellow, much Meliaceae and Fabaceae had been tried, but

– Page 35 – The forests of the Osa experts of these families assured that the of the Osa forests, and is even among the characteristics of the caracolito made it too most common and dominant trees. Overall, it different to belong to any of them. The only is the 18th most dominant tree species in the logical solution would seem to be the Osa – among some 1.000 different tree creation of a new family, the ‘ species. Moreover, as the botanists have Ruptiliocarpaceae.’ This would have begun re-examining their collections in Ruptiliocarpon caracolito, as the caracolito herbaria around the World, it turns out that was to be baptized, as the only member. the species has been collected in both Panama Finally, a decisive piece of the puzzle and several South American Countries, too. was found when it was discovered that the The lack of botanical insight in the tiny green flowers in the crown of each composition of the diverse Osa forests is caracolito were all unisexual, that is, either also illustrated by another large, locally male or female. Technically this is called a well-known tree, the sapotón. In size, this dioecious species. Each tree is either male tree is comparable to the caracolito, yet it or female. This uncommon feature led to a grows even taller and is much more conspicu- comparison with an African tree, ous with woody fruits the size and shape of staudtii which was found in oranges. In recent years it was identified as 1950 and placed in its own family, the Pouteria laevis, a species from the family . It turned out that these Sapotaceae. This species was in 1990 known two widely separated species shared so many only from a few collections west of Manaus features that the number of species in the in the middle of the Amazon. An examination family was doubled, from one to two! of forestry inventories in the Osa has now Now, since such a unique tree species shown that the sapotón is even more could be overlooked for so long, you would abundant than the caracolito, being the 8th expect that it was quite uncommon and hard most dominant tree species in the peninsula. to find. Not so. Every ‘vaqueano’ you come So common and well-known to people who across may show you the tree in a forest live and work in the forest, so unknown nearby. It is actually found in every region scientifically.

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Bitter seeds of the forest

Scientific name: Carapa guianensis Family: Meliaceae Local names: caobilla, cedro macho, cedro bateo, bateo, rugá boló

The caobilla is one of the most dominant any,’ and the exporters keep very quiet about trees in mature forest everywhere in lowland another famous trade name, ‘crabwood.’ Costa Rica. It belongs to the family of As so many other trees, the caobilla mahogany, the Meliaceae, which is reflected may also provide a number of other useful in its local name caobilla means ‘little products than timber. The seeds contain a mahogany.’ Caoba is the true mahogany, bitter, brown oil which is extracted in many Swietenia macrophylla. countries and is known as andiroba oil, from The caobilla is easily recognized by its the Brazilian name for caobilla. very large, pinnate-compound leaves and large Some botanists have received the trunk with irregular orange-brown bark with information that caobilla seeds are eaten by circular, lighter scars left when large flakes the Awá-Coaiquer Indians in Ecuador, but of bark fall off. The fruit is a woody capsule hopefully that is a misunderstanding. Even the size of a small grape fruit. It usually in the forest hesitate to eat this contains between four and eight seeds of seed! And no wonder: it tastes terribly, and varying sizes. The seeds are large and contains terrible compounds, like “7 cinnamon-brown with flat, angular surfaces. deacetoxy-7-ketogedunin” and “the furanoid Often you will see then in great quantity tetranortriterpene andirobin (C27H32O7) under the tree. 89.” The wood is not the best timber in the The seed oil is not edible, but has both world, but “better than espavel” (Anacardium practical and medicinal uses. It is used by excelsum) as some put it. Still, because the local people for lamp oil and gives a clear, tree grows large – in the Osa usually up to smokeless flame. The oil is used as a 55 m tall and one meter thick – it is among mosquito repellent and on the the head to get the most sought timbers. It is exported rid of lice. Employed as a lotion, it is used under the English trade name ‘royal mahog- for skin diseases. In Trinidad, it is mixed

– Page 37 – The forests of the Osa with camphor and rubbed on the body if one collected in the forest in Aguabuena. The has a severe cold. Industrially, andiroba oil seeds weigh almost 50 g on the average. It is used for preserving furniture against turned out that by daily collecting, one could insect damage and for soap-making. It gives get more than one ton of fresh seeds from a light-brown soap which will lather more one hectare of mature forest. This varied freely if made with potash rather than over the year from an average of almost 6 kg caustic soda. per day per hectare in March in the middle of The caobilla has oil-producing relatives the dry season, to less than half a kilo in on other continents: and May. Seeds could always be found. In steep indica in Tropical Asia and Carapa gullies of the hilly terrain, seeds sometimes grandiflora, native to Uganda in Africa. All accumulate, making them easy to find. produce a bitter seed oil. In the Osa, a cooperative of former The bark is also very bitter and may be gold diggers at Dos Brazos de Río Rincón used for tannins. Decoctions of the bark are sells mosquito repellant made from caobilla used against fevers and intestinal worms, oil and achiote, the red fat from Bixa and for washing ulcers and other skin orellana. This practise is also known in troubles. In Guyana, the bark decoction is French Guiana. With the growing number of taken to halt diarrhea and alleviate rheuma- nature tourists in the Osa, it would probably tism. be possible to sell several such products Because of the usefulness of the seed from this bitter oil – skin lotions, repel- oil, we examined how many seeds could be lents, soaps, oil lamps, etcetera.

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The largest of guabos

Scientific name: Inga alba Family: Mimosaceae Local names: guabo colorado, guabo ron-ron, cotoguó bucrie

The guabo colorado owes it name to the often see several wild species of guabo bright, light brick-red color of its bark. growing in open pastures. None of the 36 Since the bark of the guabo colorado always different species of Inga registered in the peels off in thin, long strips, the color forests of the Osa so far provides any remains fresh in contrast to that of most useful product other than the fruit. Except trees’ bark which appears rather uniformly for one, the guabo colorado. grey-brown-green due to tiny epiphytes This species has an edible fruit like all (algae, lichens and mosses) growing on the other guabos – in Brazil, the fruit is even bark. There are numerous different guabos in sold on local markets. Also, the guabo the Osa, and most are very hard to distin- colorado provides timber. The name guabo guish from one another. This one stands out, ron-ron refers to the wood’s similarity with not only because of its conspicuous color, one of the finest timbers of the Osa, the but also because it is the largest of the ron-ron (Astronium graveolens). guabos. It is quite straight and tall and may In the Osa, guabo colorado is con- reach 50 meters height and more than one sidered the only guabo with medicinal use. An meter diameter. No other of its many extract of the bark is used against a skin cousins can match this. affliction called carate. In French Guyana, The guabos are known to everyone in the Indians use bark decoctions against diarrhea Osa, because their fruits are good to eat. and mouth blisters in children. The fruit, the guaba, is always a long legume Finally, a black dye may be made from with white, sweet and juicy pulp surrounding the bark. In Ecuador this colorant is used in the seeds inside. These trees are often some parts of Amazonia for painting gourds, grown for their fruits (mainly Inga bows and arrows sold for souvenirs. spectabilis) and for shadow, and you will

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Cow milk and bark cloth

Scientific name: Brosimum utile Family: Moraceae Local names: vaco, lechoso, tain guata

The Osa has some one thousand different plywood. tree species. A great number are very rare, Although it does not have very good and a few are very common. A single tree timber, the vaco is a tree of many uses, the species is the far most dominant one in all of most famous one being – milk! Northern Osa’s species-rich forests: the The latex has given this tree its local vaco. The vaco has a cylindrical bole, and is names, and also the English name ‘cow milk usually among the thickest trees, but is tree.’ It has great similarity with milk and rarely more than 50 meters tall. The base of also possesses some of the virtues of true the tree has thick visible roots, but no milk. Paul Allen, an early explorer of the buttresses. The bark is smooth and reddish forests of Golfo Dulce, reported: “The fresh without epiphytes, and the leaves are simple milk has been tried in coffee and can and quite long, up to 30 cm. From every part scarcely be distinguished from good cream, of a vaco tree, thick, white latex will ooze while chilled it can be whipped and flavoured out from cuts. with sugar and vanilla extract and served to The vaco is both abundant and one of unsuspecting humans. Dogs and cats, however, the largest trees of the forest. This means will not touch it. In Guyana, a kind of cheese that the largest volume of wood of any single is said to have been made from it.” kind in the Osa is vaco wood. The reason for How many of Allen’s stories are true is this dominance may in part be an effect of hard to tell. But appparently the latex is timber logging. The most precious timbers both edible and nutritious. The explorer have been cut in the Osa for more than 40 Alexander von Humboldt reported the use of years, and these are often hard and the latex as part of the routine diet of slow-grown trees. Not so with the vaco. It slaves on the north coast of Venezuela. It grows rapidly and produces soft wood of may even serve as medicine. In the Osa, the little value. Today, it is cut for making white latex is taken for gastric acid and

– Page 40 – The forests of the Osa ulcers. Likewise, the Indians of the upper more recent time, it has been used in rural Río Vaupés in Colombia eat the latex to areas as a kind of thin mattress, in the Osa correct indigestion. In Venezuela, the latex called pastate. Also Indians have has been taken as a remedy for asthma. Costa used it for bark clothes, called mastate. The Ricans are also said to employ it as an Guaymie name tain guata means ‘red bark astringent to halt diarrhea. cloth’ and refers to the same quality of the The latex was formerly added as an vaco. adulterant to natural Hevea rubber, and also A number of other species found in the to chewing gum. Osa, all relatives of the vaco, have been The fruit pulp is sweet and edible, and reported as sources of bark cloth: hule the seed may be eaten as emergency food, (Castilla tunu), chilamate espinoso (Poulsenia ground as flour for bread. armata), higuerón (Ficus maxima) and quiubra One final product may come from the (Pseudolmedia spuria). A few species from vaco: cloth. The inner bark of the tree may other families are sometimes called ‘mastate’ be doubled and beaten into a soft tissue much in the Osa, suggesting that they too have like thick, soft paper. Such bark cloth was in served for making cloth: Cordia lucidula from former days used for clothes by indigenous the family Boraginaceae, and Mortionioden- peoples in many parts of Latin America. In dron anisophyllum from the Tiliaceae.

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The first natural rubber

Scientific name: Castilla tunu Family: Moraceae Local names: hule, yos

The hule tree is quite common in secondary Costa Rica and in Coastal Ecuador. forest and other disturbed areas in the Osa. The salvation of the Castilla trees was It is easy to recognize with long, soft, the discovery of Pará rubber, which is hanging branches and large, alternate leaves, extracted from Hevea brasiliensis. This tree all covered with soft hairs. The bark is is abundant in swampy parts of Amazonia, and brown and fissured, and filled with white latex can be extracted from it repeatedly latex, the hule, or rubber. without the tree dies. Today, Hevea is When Colombus came to America, he saw planted all over South East Asia and is indians playing with rubber balls. This almost the sole source of natural rubber. material came from Castilla trees and Left in the forest is the original hule, became the natural rubber of commerce. once the World’s only source of the prized Rubber extraction led to overexploitation of rubber. A gold digger in Aguabuena showed me hule trees in all of Latin America, because a far more humble, nowaday use: a little lump extraction required the killing of tree. To of hule latex was used to pic up tiny grains maintain rubber production, plantations were of gold from the stream where the gold was made, for example in the Atlantic Zone of washed.

– Page 42 – The forests of the Osa

Candlenuts

Scientific name: Otoba novogranatensis Family: Myristicaceae Local names: bogamaní, fruta dorada

The bogamaní tree is closely related to trees Christmas tree, reddish bark, red sap, good known as fruta dorada (‘golden fruit’) in the red timber, and an oil seed looking much like Osa and elsewhere in Costa Rica. The a nutmeg. bogamaní is distinguished by large, broad and The seeds are rich in useful oil. They hairless leaves with a pale underside and a have been used for candles for a long time by reddish bark without fissures. Still, it small-farmers, and are therefore called shares so many important characters with candlenuts. The Kuna Indians in Panama the true fruta doradas that most people pierce a dozen nuts on a string, each nut include it under this name. This is under- burning for five minutes. standable, because although the bogamaní The seeds are also collected for belongs to the genus Otoba, – not Virola, the commercial extraction of the oil, particular- genus of the frutas – and has a mature fruit ly in Colombia. This product is called Otoba that is not golden, but smooth and green, is Fat, Otoba Butter or American Nutmeg shares with fruta doradas a rather unique Butter. It is mainly used for soap-making. crown structure reminder of that of a The name bogamaní stems from Chiriquí.

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The golden fruit

Scientific name: Virola koschnyi Family: Myristicaceae Local names: fruta dorada, candelo, nibigara murúcrie, nibigara

Fruta dorada is one of the most abundant seed nutmeg, and when cut, its coloration is trees in the Osa. It belongs to the genus also the same, being a mix of white and Virola which is represented by at least five brown. This is no coincidence, since Virola species in the Osa, the most common one species are almost identical to the nutmeg probably being Virola koschnyi. (Myristica fragrans) which comes from The fruta dorada trees are very Indonesia and belongs to the same family, the straigth-stemmed with slender buttresses Myristicaceae. and reddish, fissured bark. The branches are The fruta dorada is felled as a timber straight and horizontal and placed in whorls tree, but it is more renowned for a number on the main stem. Such a pattern of the of other uses in Latin America, mainly branches is almost unique to the family of related to the oil which is called Virola fat the frutas, the Myristicaceae, and therefore or Ucuuba fat. called ‘myristicaceous branching.’ When you The seed contains so much oil that dry see a fruta dorada in the open you may notice seeds have been used as candles, for example that the branching is much like in a Christ- by Indians in Panama. The same kind of use is mas tree. probably the reason for its local name The fruit is a yellow capsule with two candelo (‘candle’) in the Osa. The seed oil or valves that open at maturity and expose a fat has been used to make candles and soap in 1-2 cm long, egg-shaped seed covered by a much of Latin America. The oil is tradi- plastic-like, red layer with a peculiar, tionally separated from a paste of the dried braided shape. seeds by boiling. The substance is scooped up The seed is rich in oil. This makes it from the surface, hardens and is separately popular among large birds like toucans. melted down, sieved and made into candles When you examine the seed, you will find which burns with a pleasant odour. that its shape is identical to the In Guatemala, the dried seeds were used

– Page 44 – The forests of the Osa as a flavouring for chocolate and offered in from the water as they float downstream. markets for this purpose. A red sap exudes when the bark is cut. The oil is rather bitter and spicy. It This is a watery resin which may be dried may have a potential in cosmetics, since has into a powder and serve a number of very been shown to contain a compound called different purposes. In popular medicine it isopropyl myristate which is used in cosmetic may be used to cure trush, a fungal infection manufacture. of the tongue and the roof of the mouth. In Supposedly the fruta doradas produce , the resin is used as red pigment lots of seeds. Figures of 50 to 100 kg seeds in paints. Perhaps most peculiarly, it may be per tree per year have been reported, and used as a hallucinogenic snuff. This use is seeds contain 60 percent oil. But off course known among shamans of a number of Indian it is not easy to collect so many small seeds nations in Amazonia, but in the Seventies it before they are eaten by wild birds or also became popular among jetset North mammals. In Brazil, however, many of the Americans and was known as ‘business man’s trees grow close to the rivers near the drug,’ supposedly because the effect was mouth of the Amazon river. Here, the seeds rather swift. tend to fall into the water and are collected

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The real chewing gum

Scientific name: Manilkara staminodella Family: Sapotaceae Local names: chicle, níspero chicle, nomóncrie cote

The chicle tree has a fascinating story. This centimeter deep in the end of the log and huge forest tree has in its characteristic, find the wood red and undamaged by the hot rough bark a white latex which is the source and wet climate. of the original chewing gum. Today, most The wood was used in the construction chewing gum is synthetic, but the latex of of the Maya temples. I have been told that chicle trees has been used for chewing by the today it is not important commercially Aztecs and other people ever since. because it damages the timbermens saw. The tree itself is majestic. The trunk is a About a century ago, it was thought conspicuous, straight column that reaches 60 that chicle latex could be a new source of meters above the jungle floor and often has natural rubber which was in great demand. no branches for more than 30 meters. It is But chicle did not work at all as rubber. clad in an unusual bark, rough and deeply Then, somebody was inspired by the habit of furrowed where barks of most other rain local Central Americans who simply chewed forest trees are rather thin and smooth. the latex for relaxation. Sugar was added, The wood of the chicle tree is even and soon European pharmacies sold chewing more unusual. It is beautifully dark red, gum as a new, harmless pill for nervous hard, and very heavy. Even dry, it will sink in people! water. It is also extremely durable. A dead Today, chewing gum is used everywhere. chicle giant may stand in the forest for If you could collect all the used pellets of years, and once fallen, it will last for chewing gum in the World during a whole year decades. In Aguabuena, a 6 meter long and and put them in a straight line, they would 140 cm thick log had been too heavy to drag reach around the Earth more than 40 times! out for the tractors. It was therefore left Synthetics have now substituted most lying next to an old logging road. After more of the original chewing gum, because natural than 25 years, you could still cut one trees can not provide nowhere near that

– Page 46 – The forests of the Osa consumed amount and because labor costs by staminodella, the Osa species, provide lower extracting natural chicle are high. quality. A number of unrelated tree species While chicle has been extracted found in the Osa are among the many that throughout Central America, the largest have been used to adulterate the real chicle concentration of high grade chicle is found in latex: vaco (Brosimum utile), lagartillo negro the Maya Bioregion in Guatemala. Though (Lacmellea panamensis), and quiubra relatively expensive at US$1.70 per pound (Pseudolmedia spuria). (1990-91), chicle is a high quality latex. The fruit is also very delicious, like Demand declined due to rising labour costs marmalade. Commercially, it is known as and cheaper synthetic and natural substi- sapodilla. Since it takes about 40 years for tutes, leaving the industry nearly dormant in a chicle tree to produce fruits, it is not the early 1980es. It is said that chewing gum directly useful for cultivation. However, was also produced in near the Osa, this problem has been overcome by taking but that the factory was closed in 1977. branches from mature trees and grafting With recent interest in natural then on young stems, thereby creating a sustainably produced products from tropical young tree for cultivation and harvest of forests, the market for chicle has rebounded sapodilla fruits. Although a native American considerably. Virtually all buyers are species, the is grown as a Japanese. fruit tree in Asian countries, like Thailand The best species for chicle is Manilkara and Malaysia. zapota, whereas Manilkara chicle and

– Page 47 – The forests of the Osa

Bitter drops for your health

Scientific name: Simaba cedron Family: Simaroubaceae Local names: cedrón

In the dry season of the Osa (February to flowers, it is also reminder of some palms May), you may come across a wonderful fruit since the appears from the top smell in the forest, like a very fragrant of the tree as a huge fountain, more than a peach or apricot. If you find the source of meter high, and consisting of large, green, the smell, you will see a fruit much like a fragrant flowers. slender peach, some seven centimeters long. The cedrón seeds were one of the You have most likely not found a good lunch, earliest American rain forest medicinals to since the pulp may be fragrant, but it also reach European pharmacies. The seeds were perish very rapidly in the high temperatures. exported to Europe already in the 16th But a far more interesting and less perish- Century and known in the pharmacopea under able part of the fruit is just beneath the the Latin term semen cedronis. rather thin pulp: a large, egg-shaped seed Still today, you may buy it in Costa with a shell a little like a seed. Break Rican pharmacies as an extract called gotas the shell open and taste the seed, and you amargas, bitter drops. will encounter one of the most bitter tastes As with other very bitter plants, the you have ever known. Also, you have tasted a cedrón is used medicinally to fight fevers famous medicine. and snake bites. Also, it is powerful enough The tree is very small for Osa stan- to kill off intestinal amoebas. dards. Usually, you find the tree being only Almost all species of the cedrón family, some 10-12 meters tall, although it occa- Simaroubaceae, are bitter to some extent. sionally reaches more than 30 meters. Best known in the Osa is hombre grande Although it is a genuine tree, the cedrón (Quassia amara), another tree which provides looks almost like a palm: a slender, a renowned bitter medicine. Other bitter unbranched pole with a crown of pinnate cousins are the aceituno (Simarouba amara), leaves up to 1.5 meters long. When it and the shrubby Picramnia. Angostura bark

– Page 48 – The forests of the Osa from Venezuela also comes from a the Osa that are sources of bitter medicines Simaroubaceae tree. It is used in bitter are quina (Naucleopsis spp.), caobilla (Carapa tonic and drinks. guianensis), cedro amargo ( amarga) Bitter plants are often medicinal. and amargo (Aspidosperma spruceanum). Examples of species from other families in

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The nuts that named a country

Scientific name: Sterculia alleni Family: Sterculiaceaceae Local names: panamá

The nuts of this tree, the panamá, have only small buttresses. The leaves are probably given name to Costa Rica’s neigh- undivided, but those of Sterculia apetala are bour to the southeast, Panama, since people lobed and look a lot like the leaves of there used to eat a lot of the nuts. chumico (Pourouma bicolor), whereas There are three kinds of panamá trees Sterculia recordiana has smooth leaves with in the Osa. The three kinds are species that hairy underside. The one encountered in look quite different from each other, but Panama is probably Sterculia apetala. since the fruits are much same, they are not In August-September you may come distinguished by name. The most common across numerous open pods on the ground, panamá has only recently been described by some 10 cm long, grey-green on the outside scientists as Sterculia alleni. It has a very and pink inside. These pods contain handfuls smooth, light yellow bark and a peculiar mix of smooth, black seeds, some 2.5 cm long with of slender buttresses and stilt-like roots, a shape like bird eggs. You may eat the seeds making the tree look like it does not want to raw, but traditionally they are eaten touch the ground. Often you can bend down roasted. and see air everywhere under the buttresses When you eat panamá nuts raw, be sure of even large trees. The leaves are to clean them carefully. The seeds and the wheel-shaped and entirely divided. This is inside of the pods are filled with tiny, called ‘digitate leaves’ since the parts of the needle-like hairs that are most irritating in leaves are reminding of fingers (digits) of a the mouth. And do not eat too many! The raw hand. The two other panamá trees are nuts can give you a bad stomach ache if you Sterculia apetala and Sterculia recordiana. eat to many at a time. Both of these have quite ordinary stems and

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