Robert and Catherine Wilson Botanical Gardens (Day 8 - Page 3)
The gardens were run by a transplanted Texan who made this hill top retreat enjoyable... Great lunch and beautiful walkways through the forest. Our guide was super! Very well educated and knowledgeable in the details of the forest and it plants and wild life!
Located at 6 kms south of San Vito on the highway to Ciudad Neily. Bookings and tours by the Organization for Tropical Studies in San José.
The Robert and Catherine Wilson Botanical Gardens are located in the Brunqueña mountains at 1,200 meters above sea level, near the City of San Vito. They consist of a large collection of ferns, plants of the Aracae and the Marantacae families, palm trees, bromeliads, and heliconias in 10 hectares set aside for ornamental horticulture. There are over 10,000 genera belonging to 200 families of tropical and subtropical plants, which are the focus of attention of scientists, students and tourists. The gardens are surrounded by secondary forests in a hilly terrain in the River Java basin, frequently swept by clouds. The climate is mild with an average temperature of 19°C.
The gardens were created in 1962 by Robert and Catherine Wilson, former owners of the Fantastic Gardens of Miami, Florida. As of 1973, the gardens have been managed by the Organization of Tropical Studies, a conservation, research and educational centre.
Plants are grown for their value in ornamental horticulture, and endangered species are cultivated to be reintroduced among the local flora. The gardens, also known as Las Cruces, form part of the Amistad Biosphere Reserve.
A Color-Lovers Paradise!
Sue Was Prepared When The Rains And Clouds Came In
Check The Roots And Flowers Growing Into The Trees
Birds Everywhere
Amazing; Always Looks Fresh Even When It Is 97 Degrees And 99% Humidity
The Rain Forests Are Amazing
Rainforests, or rain forests, are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions setting minimum normal annual rainfall between 1750 mm and 2000 mm (68 inches to 78 inches).
Rainforests are home to two thirds of all the living animal and plant species on the planet.
It has been estimated that many hundreds of millions of new species of plants, insects and microorganisms are still undiscovered.
Tropical rain forests are called the "jewels of the earth", and the "world's largest pharmacy" because of the large number of natural medicines discovered there.
Tropical rain forests are also often called the "Earth's lungs", however there is no scientific basis for such a claim as tropical rainforests are known to be essentially oxygen neutral, with little or no net oxygen production.
The undergrowth in a rainforest is restricted in many areas by the lack of sunlight at ground level. This makes it possible for people and other animals to walk through the forest.
If the leaf canopy is destroyed or thinned for any reason, the ground beneath is soon colonized by a dense tangled growth of vines, shrubs and small trees called jungle.
The Jungle Floor Was Always On The Move... See The Leaves/Ants
