The world we think of as the earth is a very small fragment of its true extent. Vegetation and oceans sit at the top, a thin layer over a deep bed of solid rock that itself becomes molten and penetrates thousands of kilometers further down. Rarely do we get to experience this subterranean world, though…

It rains a lot in the Luquillo mountains – more than three meters each year. The earth’s gobal circulation means that clouds blow in from the east, are pushed again the mountains, rise up, cool down, and then lose the capacity to hold water vapor – causing precipitation. What that means is that a lot…

Not all the diversity of a forest is easy to see. Today I want to show you some of the smaller and more elusive creatures we’ve found over the last few weeks in El Yunque. First, here’s one of the forest’s more common but hard-to-see species. This is the coquí frog, Eleutherodactylus coqui. Its loud…

I’d like to introduce you to a very distinctive tree, straight out of Dr. Seuss. In the Puerto Rican rainforest here, you will often see Cecropia schreberiana (Urticaceae) with its long spindly branches and ringed white trunk spiraling up to the highest points of the canopy. It reminds me of a long metal hose with…