Abstract

LESLIE DOWE, John  and  HILJE QUIROS, Luko. Hermann Wendland’s Botanical Explorations in Central America (1856-1857): II. In the Sarapiquí region, Costa Rica. Comunicación [online]. 2023, vol.32, n.1, pp.76-111. ISSN 1659-3820.  http://dx.doi.org/10.18845/rc.v32i44.6794.

This paper corresponds to the second part of the account entitled Travel notes of the court gardener Hermann Wendland, published in 1857 in the magazine Hamburger Garten- und Blumenzeitung, of which the first part was recently translated for the journal Comunicación. In 1856, the German botanist Hermann Wendland was sent to Central America by the King of Hannover, to collect plants for the Royal Gardens of Herrenhausen. The current paper focuses on Sarapiquí, in the northeast of Costa Rica, a region very rich in biodiversity, but then botanically unexplored. During three weeks of intensive work, Wendland collected some 200 plant species, belonging to 45 families, of which 90 were new to science. Orchids (Orchidaceae), palms (Arecaceae), gesnerids (Gesneriaceae), aroids (Araceae), melastomas (Melastomataceae), and madders (Rubiaceae) predominated in his collections, which represented 60% of all his collections, and 82% of all new species. Most of his collections are held in the herbarium of the University of Göttingen (GOET). This made Sarapiquí the best botanically known region of Costa Rica for several decades. Fortunately, in the last half of a century, the establishment of the La Selva Biological Station, of the Organization for Tropical Studies (OET), has allowed researchers who frequently settle there, to greatly increase knowledge about taxonomy, ecology, genetics and evolutionary relationships of the flora and fauna that inhabit the tropical wet forest, making it one of the best studied tropical environments on the planet.

Keywords : Hermann Wendland; Herrenhausen Gardens; University of Göttingen; Sarapiquí; Costa Rica; Orchidaceae; Arecaceae; Gesneriaceae; Araceae.

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