Trees of Panama and Costa Rica

This is the first field guide dedicated to the diverse tree species of Panama and Costa Rica. Featuring close to 500 tropical tree species, Trees of Panama and Costa Rica includes superb color photos, abundant color distribution maps, and concise descriptions of key characteristics, making this guide readily accessible to botanists, biologists, and casual nature lovers alike.


The invaluable introductory chapters discuss tree diversity in Central America and the basics of tree identification. Family and species accounts are treated alphabetically and describe family size, number of genera and species, floral characteristics, and relative abundance. Color distribution maps supplement the useful species descriptions, and facing-page photographic plates detail bark, leaf, flower, or fruit of the species featured. Helpful appendices contain a full glossary, a comprehensive guide to leaf forms, and a list of families not covered.

• The only tree guide to cover both Panama and Costa Rica together


• Covers almost 500 species


• 438 high-resolution color photos


• 480 color distribution maps and two general maps


• Concise and jargon-free descriptions of key characteristics for every species


• Full glossary and guide to leaf forms included

"This is a wonderful book for visitors to the region who want to try to know the trees that grow there. It is also a major, important work for biologists ecologists, and students working in these two beautiful countries."---Dan Kunkle, Wildlife Activist

"There are many floras that professional botanists can use to identify tropical trees, but few quality field guides for laypersons. The current work is a concise, user-friendly field guide in the tradition of the popular Peterson and Audubon guides. . . . This is a valuable addition to the limited popular literature on tropical botany."

"Replete with plentiful photographs as well as helpful textual descriptions and distribution maps, not to mention a superb introductory section explaining the essentials of the biology of tropical trees, Trees of Panama and Costa Rica is a book that should be in the backpack or field bag of anyone undertaking any manner of nature-oriented trip into the countryside of either of these two nations."

"Trees of Panama and Costa Rica includes superb color photos, abundant color distribution maps, and concise descriptions of key characteristics, making this guide readily accessible to botanists, biologists, and casual nature lovers alike."---Ian Paulsen, Birdbooker Report

"This is an impressive tour-de-force of tropical plant identification. The lively writing is accessible to nonspecialists, while the broad taxonomic coverage and authoritative species descriptions make this guide useful to professional botanists."—Brad Boyle, University of Arizona

"This book is exceptionally well organized and extremely user friendly, and the text is really good and succinct. The authors convey the excitement of learning tropical botany to successfully identify tree species, and the section on tree identification is exceptional—quite simply the best that I have ever read. This book fills a huge need and does so very well."—John Kricher, Wheaton College