Sunday, November 22, 2009

Snapshot of Puerto Rico Part 2: Unknown Red Flowers

One of my goals while in Puerto Rico was to learn some of the flora.

I have never felt so over my head. I have never been botanizing in the tropics. I did mess up by forgetting important field equipment . . . oh how I longed for my hand lens. The books available to me left a lot to be desired. Sure I had the 5 volume Flora of Puerto Rico to key out plants. This book, however, did not have a family key. No family key????? I was completely lost, and felt completely spoiled by "Flora of Missouri". The families you find in the tropics are completely different than what you commonly find in Missouri. Very few mints, roses, scrophs, milkweeds, asters, or buttercups. Lots of Melastomaceae and Lauraceae (which we do have here, but not a family I am overly familiar with). I have been able to work through some of the plants that I found, but there are still a lot that I have no clue.

So here are some of those plants that I took photo of, but still don't know what they are.






No comments: