Rainforest Plants of Costa Rica

The Arrowhead plant grows in the shrub layer of the canopy, which extends 15 feet from the forest floor. Its huge leaves turn into drums played by drops of the purest water during rainy season.


This is only one of the countless types of rainforest plants that festoon the forests and mountains from one end of this country to the other. And they grow practically everywhere, from the canopy floor, on the tree trunks and limbs, and even on other plants.


Plants that grow on others but which are not symbiotic are labeled ephiphytes. Moss and lichen are types of ephiphytes, but the most famous is the orchid

RAINFOREST PLANTS

More than 1,500 kinds of orchids grow here. Many can be found growing wild on the trunks of giant trees, while others are grown in viveros, or nurseries. Nearly 1,000 kinds of ferns and even many succulents and a few cacti, such as the San Pedro cactus.


And let's not forget flowers, which bloom in the trees and the front yards and parks of the cities as well as in the outdoors. Flowers are also cultivated commercially for export.