Tropical Plants of Costa Rica: A Guide to Native and Exotic Flora (Zona Tropical Publications) Paperback – April 15, 2007

Okay, I've only just received this book and have not had time to test it "in the field". However, I know people who have, and they say it's a great book, and that is my impression from just looking it over, as well.It has tons of color photos and the pages aren't super thin, either. It looks like it will hold up well over time, and it is exactly what I was looking for!I'm sure as I use it I will probably find things that could be better (maybe not?), but all I can say is it's a really big book with tons of info and lots of photos and it looks like it is just what I was looking for.

I love this guide. I found it very useful when going to Costa Rica. The author was very thorough, adding interesting and sometimes humorous stories to the different plants listed. I thought the organization of the book was brilliant, unlike the animal book by the same publisher. I was able to see many of the plants in the guide, so she was smart about the ones she included. It really is a nice book, I have read it cover to cover many times.

Chapters are by habitat - trees, garden plants, fruits and crops, special places, living fences rather than plant families. This makes it easy to use for the non-botanist. It's very heavy, so hard to use in the field, and I saw some plants that were not in the book. On the whole, there's a lot of useful information to be perused at home.

Terrific book, with great photos, technical specs, and tidbits on habitat and use. We got before our trip to Caribbean and Pacific coasts, and used the book daily for trees, ornamentals, and wild plants. Book is heavy but well worth it! Not for the casual or gardens-only observer.

Very informative. We use this book as a reference often! I wish it had info on how to care for the plants since we have many of them at our house in Costa Rica, but it's still a good reference for identifying plants.

Beautifully organized, well-written, and nicely photographed. Congratulations to Ms. Zuchowski on her fine book on Costa Rica's remarkable plants. We looked at several field guides to the plants and chose this one as the best. Clear and easy to use. Fun to explore.

I live in Chiriqui, Panama which is very close to the border with Costa Rica. Considering the scarcity of information about this subject, the book is worth having along with The Field Guide to the Plants of Costa Rica by Gargiullo, Magnuson and Kimball. Both books lack keys and neither have the plants arranged in taxonomic order. Both have nice color photos but sometimes a good line drawing by a botanical artist is more useful in identifying an unknown species. In any case if you are interested in the flora of this area I would buy both of these books.

This book helped me identify some of the plants I saw in Costa Rica. I am still missing a couple, but I thought the photos in this book were good and it was easy to use.