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​Jordan R. Brock

Palo Verde Biological Station, Costa Rica

6/29/2016

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I spent the week at Palo Verde Biological Station in Costa Rica for the OTS Tropical Plant Systematics course. This site is a stark contrast to the high elevation, cool forests at Cuericí, but has a variety of intriguing forests and habitat types. Now the wet season, these seasonally dry forests are green and full of life. 
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The biological station looks south on a large marsh, and the Rio Tempisque. One of the class hikes involved examining the diversity of aquatic plants in the waist deep marsh.
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Vachellia collinsii (Saff.) Seigler & Ebinger 
This plant is one of many with a fascinating ant symbiosis biology. This provides to the ants food via nectaries on the petiole, as well as a home in the large swollen thorns. These ants aggressively defend their host, and even weed out the competition in the understory. 
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Guazuma ulmifolia Lam.
Recently placed in the subfamily Byttneroideae of Malvaceae, G. ulmifolia has peculiar stamen-like filaments that are actually modified petals. Relationships between subfamilies in Malvaceae remains obscure, and there is still much work to be done in this group. 
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Polystemma guatemalense (Schltr.) W.D.Stevens
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Tomorrow I'll be visiting a mangrove to do some botanizing, before heading to the La Selva Biological Station. 
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