Die Tropenstation La Gamba

Die „Tropenstation La Gamba“ in Costa Rica – Wissenschaftlicher Bericht
SCHEMBERA, E. The Legume Flora of the Golfo Dulce Rain Forests, Costa Rica.
Univ. Wien,
Diplomarbeit: Institut für Botanik
Abstract
So far, more than 65 genera with 165 species of the c. 670 genera and about 18.000 species
of Leguminosae (or Fabaceae s.1.) have been collected on the Peninsula de Osa and in the
region around the Golfo Dulce on the South Pacific coast of Costa Rica. Many of these are
endemic to either Costa Rica or this area only (see below).
Research on Leguminosae was performed in La Gamba, a village close to Piedras Blancas
National Park, the so-called Esquinas Rainforest, in order to list discovered species and
collect some basic data on habitats and ecology. A part of the time was spent investigating
the Leguminosae inside Corcovado National Park in southern Costa Rica, which Piedras
Blancas formerly was a sector of. The Bosque Esquinas stretches over 148 kM2 within a
range of altitude of 0-745 m. Its vegetation is composed mostly of tropical wet forest,
tropical moist forest, premontane wet and rain forests and includes marsh, mangrove and
swamp forests, dhosting approximately 5000 species, among which are more than 700 tree
species inside the park, a quarter of all the tree species found all over Costa Rica. During a
10 months' period of research about 190 species of Leguminosae were collected, including
the forest species as well as the most important cultivated trees and herbaceous plants.
Among those the following species were endemic to Corcovado National Park / Bosque
Esquinas or other parts of Costa Rica: Caesalpinioideae: Bauhinia bahiachalensis sp. nov.,
Copaifera camibar, Cynometra hemitomophylla (Costa Rica), Macrolobium costaricense
(Atlantic slope and Peninsula de Osa) Mimosoideae: Calliandra grandifolia (Esquinas),
Inga golfodulcensis, Acacia allenii, Cojoba sophorocarpa (Carara, Corcovado National
Park), Newtonia suaveolens, Zygia englesingii (La Selva, Provincia Heredia and Peninsula
de Osa). New species or new registrations at that time were Bauhinia bahiachalensis sp.
nov., Dalbergia frutescens sp. nov., Inga capitata. In order to identify those species
collected as sterile samples, a new key based on vegetative characters was developed,
following the example of both, A.H. Gentry and N. Zamora. The identification of species
growing and documented in the area should thereby be possible even without flowers or
fruits, species that occur outside the Golfo Dulce region are not included. Ecological
observations were made concerning habitats and strategies of Leguminosae inside the forest
and in gaps or open areas.
Anschrift der Autorin
Schembera Eva
Altmannsdorferstrasse 164/1/15
1230 Wien
a8604148@unet.univie.ac.at
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