Speaking of butterflies…while perusing the internet yesterday, I came across this interesting news story how biologists are trying to save one of the largest butterflies in the Western hemisphere from extinction.

ScienceDaily (2007-08-15) — The Homerus swallowtail is the Western Hemisphere’s largest butterfly, but researchers say its numbers are so small that conservation and captive breeding efforts are needed to save the insect, found only in two parts of Jamaica. Full story …..

The story hits home as I have been a frequent visitor to JAMAICA over the years. While I have traveled into the mountains - Blue Mountains and the Cockpit Country - where this rare butterfly currently lives, unfortunately I have never encountered one of these beauties. In my opinion, the establishment of a national park or biological refuge in the Cockpit region as well as private butterfly gardens in Jamaica will go a long way towards ensuring the survival of this swallowtail species

The Owl (Caligo memnon) at 6 inches wide is the largest butterfly in Costa Rica. While not considered as glamorous as the blue morpho or some of the other brilliantly colored species in Costa Rica, I think the Owl holds his own in the butterfly beauty sweepstakes. The upperside of the wings (when the wings are open) are two shades of brown – a creamy mocha with dark chocolate fringes. The hindwing underside pattern (when the wings are folded) reveals a large eyespot in the middle of the wing which superficially resembles the eye or face of an Owl, hence the butterfly’s name. There are various theories on the function of the large eyespot. One of the most popular is that the eye pattern confuses or scares away potential predators - mostly small birds or small lizards. I have observed this butterfly in two locales – La Paz Waterfall Garden in Costa Rica and Mindo Butterfly Garden in Ecuador.

Situated at the entrance of Costa Rica’s La Paz Waterfall Gardens is the world’s largest butterfly. This butterfly is gigantic – because it is stationary all day long, you can come at any time and get a real good photograph of the creature. See picture on the left. Actually if you haven’t guess it by now, this isn’t a real live butterfly but a very unique iron sculpture.

Walking into the enclosed butterfly observatory, you will be greeted by many colorful and exotic butterflies flitting about. According to their website, there are over 20 species of butterflies in cultivation here. Located in the central highlands of Costa Rica, I visited this relatively new eco-attraction a couple of years ago and I was quite impressed. I highly recommend La Paz as a must see for nature lovers and for butterfly enthusiasts who’d like to brush up on their tropical butterfly identification skills.

La Paz Waterfall Garden is one of the featured attractions on many of our tours to Costa Rica

I have chased many a butterfly in Costa Rica - as there are over 1200 species of butterflies in Costa Rica, it will take a lot of chasing to sight all of them. In my quest, I have trudged through many locales including humid rainforests and cloudforests in addition to visiting such butterfly friendly venues as La Paz Waterfall Garden and various butterfly gardens scattered around the country. Trying to photograph these beautiful insects is kind of tricky – the best time for a butterfly safari is in the early morning hours before the sun has risen to its peak. During these early hours, the butterflies are warming up and relatively sluggish, hence easier to photograph

Calypso Island Tours offers a special tour to Costa Rica for butterfly and nature enthusiasts – the tour features excursions to the most important butterfly gardens as well as taking you to four distinctly different locales – from the lowland rainforests and jungles of the Northern lowlands to the cloud forests of the rugged central highlands.

I was having breakfast at Girasol Bistro when I noticed a very interesting poster on the wall (see picture). There are a fair number of environmentalists, both Mexicans and Expat gringos, in this small community of ‘Paraiso Secreto’. Earthwatch and other environmental organizations routinely conduct classes and organize field trips to the nearby mangrove swamps for oversea college students and volunteers. There is definitely a concerted effort to protect the environment, wildlife and natural beauty of the area, an area that is currently being threatened by greedy developers. A little further down the coast, there is a beach where olive ridley turtles come to nest. Traditionally, some of the locals believe that eating turtle eggs is a natural aphrodisiac and will give a man extra virility and staying power (Hey, guys just get some Viagra).

The poster addresses the issue of men poaching turtle eggs. Translating into English, It says - Are you a real man? Do not eat turtle eggs. Turtle eggs are not aphrodisiacs. RIGHT ON!

I bet everybody who is familiar with tropical plants and flowers will easily be able to identify this plant of the week. Of course, it is the Bougainvillea, a genus of flowering plants native to tropical South America. Of all the tropical flowers that I have seen, by far the most common is the bougainvillea. I have seen it throughout tropical Latin America, the Caribbean and Southeast Asia as it a very popular ornamental plant. The bougainvillea also thrives in warmer climates throughout the United States - I have even seen this plant in some gardens in the San Francisco Bay Area in California. The paper flower (Bougainvillea glabra) is by far the most popular ornamental species of the Bougainvillea genus; the bracts that surround the small white flower come in many different colors and they look very much like paper, hence the common name ‘the paper flower”. In my travels, I have come across a number of hotels that are named after this popular tropical flower including my favorite hotel in San Jose, Costa Rica , the Bougainvillea Hotel and there is a hotel in Barbados, aptly named the Bougainvillea Beach Resort.

In November 2003 while I was researching botanical gardens in Northern Thailand, one of the venues I visited was the beautiful Bhubing Palace and Gardens, the royal family’s summer home located near Chiang Mai. Meandering thru the immense estate, I happened to notice an unusual looking vine with brilliant ‘flame-like” tube shaped orange flowers growing with abandon as it climbed the chain link fence that enclosed the reservoir. Looking through the color photographs of my flower bible - Thailand Flowering Plants by Patrick McMakin, I could not find a match. Returning to the states, I approached a number of horticultural enthusiasts. Showing them my color photographs, I asked if they could identify this mystery vine with the brilliant orange-red flowers. Unfortunately, nobody was able to make a proper identification.

I came across this vine again while touring Costa Rica in February 2005; walking thru the lovely gardens of the Bougainvillea Hotel located just outside of San Jose, I encountered ‘the mystery vine” climbing the fence in the back of the gardens growing side by side with the Lollypop plant. Running into the hotel with a couple of the blossoms in hand, I asked the young lady in the gift shop and some of the people who worked at the front desk if they knew the name of this vine. At last, I think it was the young lady in the gift shop who told me, that in Costa Rica, they called this vine Pirotecnia which in English means Fireworks but she didn’t have a clue what the botanical name was. Armed with the local name of this vine, I was one step closer to making a proper identification, but my hunt for the botanical name on the Internet eluded me.

Well, just the other day, I was looking at Blossoms of Northern Thailand and lo and behold, I found some images of this mystery vine along with a description of the plant and it’s botanical name. Mystery was solved - the vine is commonly known as Flame Vine, botanical name Pyrostegia venusta; a member of the Begonia family (Bignoniaceae), Flame Vine is native to Southern Brazil and Paraguay and it is considered to be a very aggressive and prolific grower.

While walking thru La Paz Waterfall Gardens in the mountains just outside of San Jose, Costa Rica, I came across a colony of Spiral Ginger (Costus Pulverulentus). Native to Mexico, Central America and W. South America, spiral ginger is a very showy plant with iridescent floral bracts that range in color from bright red to orange-yellow to white. Notice the similiarity to another Costus species - Crepe Ginger (Costus Speciosus).

I first encountered Crepe Ginger (Costus speciosus), a very showy member of the ginger family, while walking through Welchman Hall Gulley, a popular nature reserve in Barbados. On both sides of the nature trail, there were colonies of this very unusual looking ginger with crinkled white flowers protruding out of cone shaped red bracts. The Crepe Ginger, native of Southeast Asia and the Malay Peninsula, is widespread throughout the tropics. In particular, this ginger is very abundant and is one of the favorite ornamentals in Hawaii. Also commonly known as Spiral Ginger.

While I was staying in San Gerardo de Dota, a small village in the mountains of Costa Rica at about 7.000 feet above sea level, I came across a very interesting but rather ungainly looking plant with small golden-yellow flowers that seemed very common in the area. This plant was seen hugging the banks of the river which flowed near Trogon Lodge; in addition, while driving on the steep and winding road which leads back to the Pan American highway, this mystery plant was quite abundant on the hillsides along the roadside. Funny, I don’t recall seeing this plant anywhere else in Costa Rica. Can someone help me identify this mystery plant?

By the way, San Gerardo de Dota is located near Cerro de la Muerte (Death Mountain), about 2 ½ hours southeast of San Jose and is a famous locale for the sighting of the resplendent quetzal.