Valentine’s Day – why not celebrate with flowers? Here are two species from the cloud forest, photographed in a spirit of love and friendship. First, a plant in the Melastomataceae family, with four-petaled flowers. And second, Begonia decandra (Begoniaceae). This latter flower is interesting. What you might think are petals are actually sepals, which normally are…

How should a tree invest its resources in branches and leaves? These are expensive tissues to construct, and must return their carbon investment through photosynthetic returns. Some species have leaves spread throughout the canopy to capitalize on sunflecks (short bursts of sunlight from the high canopy) or shady conditions. Others have leaves only at the…

Saturday night in the forest – who’s out and about? Reptiles and amphibians! One species of frog makes most of the noise in the forest, best described as a two-note high pitched call: ¡coquí!, for which it is named. Eleutherodactylus coqui is the source of these noises, which are almost painfully loud, up close. Surprisingly the…

Night in the forest – what is this tree, filling a gap in the canopy? Though it may look like something out of a Dr. Seuss book, it is actually Cecropia schreberiana, locally known as yagrumo. This is one of the more common species in the Neotropics, easily identified by its distinctive leaves: many lobes, with…