Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica 239 
flora: 50% are from Panama, ca. 28% from Colombia or further south, and ca. 21% 
from Mexico to Nicaragua. A close relationship with the Panamanian flora is clearly in- 
dicated, and if we consider the Panamanian elements as essentially South American, 
the affinity of Costa Rica with South America is by far the strongest. 
In spite of a veritable explosion of activity during the last 30 years, aimed at an in- 
ventory of plant species from Costa Rica (and Mesoamerica), many areas are still 
poorly explored. Only a few sites—such as the La Selva Biological Station, the Mon- 
teverde Reserve, and Palo Verde, Carara, Piedras Blancas, and Guanacaste National 
Parks—have been relatively well explored (the last only partially), in some cases in- 
tensively, systematically, and with the idea of producing a local florula. Anytime this 
sort of program is initiated in almost any part of the country, many new additions to the 
flora will inevitably result. 
Many localities can be pinpointed that, even with only the usual, sporadic excur- 
sionary studies, will surely reveal many novelties. A few such sites are: the mid-eleva- 
tion strip all along the Caribbean slope; the highest peaks of the volcanoes in Guana- 
caste; the Llanura de Los Guatusos (La Curefia Forest Reserve, Los Chiles, etc.); the 
Lomas de Sierpe, in Tortuguero National Park; the forested peaks of the Nicoya Penin- 
sula; the mid-elevation strip of the Pacific slope, from the Cordillera Central to Panama; 
the high part of the Talamanca range, on the Caribbean slope; and Fila Anguciana, as 
well as other portions of the Fila Costefia. Although the valley of the Rio Coto Colorado 
and the Burica Peninsula have been practically deforested, we have almost no collec- 
tions from these two places. 
