PLANT LIST FINCA TANGARA 2017
psterlin@gmail.com
Trees
Laureacea family (avocado):
Aguacatillo – tiny avocado-like fruit; tanagers, etc love it.
Sigua (white and red) -- also small avocado-like fruit for birds; March-April
Bambito – larger avocado-like fruit; food of the quetzal; highlands
Croton niveus (colpachi) – fast growth; good windbreak; fruit beloved by parrots
Cypress (cipré) – evergreen, dense foliage; prune-able as hedge or shrub; good windbreak. fast growth
Eucalyptus deglupta (rainbow eucalyptus) – world’s fastest growing; pretty bark
Bignonacea family:
Tabebuia rosea (roble) candelabra-like arbor; white/rose trumpet blooms in March
Tecoma stans (yellow trumpet blooms); small tree/shrub; grows fast and flowers often)
Spathodea campanulata (African tulip; llama de bosque, flame of the forest) – fast growing; scarlet flowers
Nance amarillo – plum like yellow fruit; tall tree;
Inga (guabo; several species) mimosa like flowers; hummers, tanagers, orioles; fast growing
Erythrina poeppigana (poró) – beautiful orange flowers, tall, fast-growing; highlands; birds
Erythrina lanceolata (palo santo) fence-post tree; red machete flowers; pretty seeds
Diphysa Americana (macano) bright yellow pea-like flowers; pea-like foliage fence post
Enterolobium cyclocarpus (corotú, Guanacaste) – grows huge; spreading canopy; beautiful foliage; lowland
Quercus (oak; several species: mamecillo, black oak) important forest trees
Lonchocarpus minimiflorus – lovely purple flowers in Feb/March
Mimosa – pretty flowers for hummers
Trema micrantha -- Jamaican nettle; fast growth; seeds for grosbeaks and other birds.
Cecropia obtusifolia (guarumo) -- fast growing; fantastic for birds
Bahuinia variegate (orchid tree) – white orchid-like flowers
Anacardium exelsum – espavé; tall tree related to mango and cashew. good forest tree
Hymenaea courbaril (algarrobo) -- tall; best at lower altitudes good forest tree
Spondias purpurea (red mombin; jobo) -- red, sweetish, cherry-sized fruit; live fence-post
Caesalpinina pulcherrima (dwarf poinsianna; pride of Barbados)-- beautiful blooms; does well in Boquete.
Flowers
Asclepias curassavica (a milkweed); butterflies, including monarch
Lantana camera – orange, white, pink butterflies
Stachytarpheta franztii (porter weed, verbena)-- clustered purple flowers; hummers and butterflies
Allamanda – yellow trumpet blooms; sturdy vine; wind tolerant
Penta – red and white; hummers
Snakey succulent with red blossoms
Shrubs
Tres amores – blue,white, and purple flowers
Brugmansia -- trumpet flowers with perfume in early evening
Calliandra haematocephala (powderpuff) -- red blooms; hummers
Streptosolen jamesonii -- marmalade bush, chinese hat (hummers and butterflies)
Yellow daisy (as shrub or vine )
Hamelia patens (zorillo real, fire bush) -- tubular red flowers for hummers; berries for tanagers
Jatropha multiday (coral bush) -- scarlet flowers shaped like coral
Duranta erecta (golden dew drop) -- greem or variegated; small blue flowers for hummers; yellow berries
Melastomata shrub with purple spikey blossoms)
Grasses
Vetiver -- deep roots for holding soil on hillsides
Lemon grass -- cultivar from the Nasó tribe on the upper Rio Teribe
Agave (2 kinds)
Maguey
organ pipe “cactus” for tall fence, windbreak, etc
PLANT LIST FINCA TANGARA 2017 copy.docx