Peter Sterling

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