Costa Rica (continued)

COSTA RICAN TREES

This tree is called a walking palm. The were very common in the La Selva forest that we visited. Notice that the roots extend from high on the trunk. These trees can actually relocate themselves when they find sunlight. The canopy is so thick in the rainforest, that these trees have adapted to seek out sunlight. They will grow new roots in that direction, while the roots "behind" will die off, thus allowing the tree to move over time. Fascinating, huh?

Roots that grow from higher on the trunk like this are called aerial roots.

The roots on this tree are called butress roots because of their shape. We say a tree that was about 400 years old (seen below), called the mother tree, near the Areal volcano area. It's hard to even get the scale for this tree, since it is so huge, but you can see my classmate in front of the enormous butress roots.

So why is this tree called the mother tree you ask? It's not because it is so old, but because it is home to many creatures and other plants that grow on it called epiphytes.

It's hard to appreciate in this picture, but epiphytes are plants that grow on a host tree. They do not send their roots into the tree, rather they use the dirt and detrius from the forest that lands in the tree for its nutrition.

Another type of tree is called a strangler fig and they do just what their name says. They strangle a host tree until it is covered and slowly kills the host tree. In the end you can see sort of a hollow tube with holes in it. This was demonstrated to us one night in Monteverde when our guide crawled inside one of these well developed "tubes" and shined his flashlight through the openings. It looked like nature's cathedral. I've rarely seen anything as beautiful!

So the trees of Costa Rica were not only beautiful, but there was much to learn about them!