Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica 125 
longa, Holcus lanatus, Holodiscus argenteus, Jungia ferruginea, Leandra subseriata, 
Lippia myriocephala, Lupinus costaricensis, L. valerioi, Macleania rupestris, Magno- 
lia poasana, M. sororum, Mahonia paniculata, Maytenus woodsonii, Miconia dolich- 
opoda, M. schnellii, M. tonduzii, Monnina evonymoides, Monochaetum amabile, Mo- 
rella cerifera, Muehlenbeckia tamnifolia, Myrsine coriacea, M. pellucidopunctata, 
Nasa speciosa, Ocotea calophylla, Oreopanax xalapensis, Orthrosanthus chimbora- 
censis, Persea vesticula, Phytolacca rugosa, Plantago australis, Prumnopitys stand- 
leyi, Prunus fortunensis, Pteridium arachnoideum, Rhamnus oreodendron, Rubus 
irasuensis, Sapium pachystachys, Satyria warscewiczil, Senecio costaricensis, S. multi- 
venius, Solanum storkii, Styrax argenteus, Symplocos serrulata, Trifolium repens, 
Ulmus mexicana, Vaccinium consanguineum, Viburnum costaricanum, Weinmannia fa- 
garoides, and Wigandia urens. 
Two habitats of great ecological, phytogeographical, taxonomic, and scenic im- 
portance that also confer a unique physiognomic character to the Talamanca range are 
bogs and paramos. The bogs, distributed from ca. 2100 to 3000 m and featuring 
swampy soils and ponds with high organic matter, harbor a number of species specific 
to this habitat, most conspicuously the endemic Puya dasylirioides (Bromeliaceae), as- 
sociated with the moss Sphagnum. Other species associated particularly with these 
bogs include Blechnum buchtienii, Laestadia costaricensis, Orthrosanthus chimbora- 
censis, Paepalanthus costaricensis, P. dendroides, P. pilosus, Senecio firmipes, Xyris 
nigrescens, and X. subulata. Standley (1937b) considered that the combination Puya- 
Blechnum gave this habitat an almost supernatural appearance. 
Paramos, the existence of which in Costa Rica was denied by Wercklé (1909), were 
first discussed by Standley (1937b), who proclaimed them as one of Costa Rica’s most 
interesting floristic regions. Subsequently, they were studied and documented in more de- 
tail by Weber (1958, 1959), G6mez P. (1986), and Cleef & Chaverri (1992), among oth- 
ers. In Costa Rica, paramo habitat is mostly found above 3300 m, and contains a number 
of species that are interesting for being more frequent there than elsewhere, such as Aba- 
tia parviflora, Buddleja nitida, Clethra gelida, Comarostaphylis arbutoides, Desfon- 
tainia splendens, Escallonia myrtilloides, Garrya laurifolia, Hesperomeles heterophylla, 
Holodiscus argenteus, Mahonia volcania, Morella cerifera, Myrrhidendron donnell- 
smithii, Myrsine dependens, Ugni myricoides, and Vaccinium consanguineum. The pa- 
ramo is dominated by the bamboo Chusquea subtessellata and other shrubby species 
(some endemic*), such as Arcytophyllum lavarum, A. muticum, Chaetolepis cufodon- 
tisii*, Diplostephium costaricense*, Hypericum cardonae, H. costaricense, H. irazuense, 
Pernettya prostrata, Senecio andicola, S. firmipes*, and Vaccinium consanguineum. 
Also, some genera with herbaceous species, such as Westoniella (Asteraceae), endemic 
to the paramos of Costa Rica (5 spp., 4 endemic) and Panama (2 spp.), and Jamesonia 
(Pteridaceae), most diverse in Andean South America, have their northern limit in the 
paramos of Costa Rica. Above 3500 m in Costa Rica, the paramo vegetation is domi- 
nated by mosses and lichens; this association is sometimes referred to as “superparamo.” 
