I like to start a report like this with a sense of where we are. Here’s a Google Earth snapshot of Panama with the two sites nearly overlapping. If you can barely make this out, click on the image for a larger view.

Once it’s clear that we’re in Panama, the second most important piece of information is that we’re on the side of a mountain, Volcan Baru.

The dark green and brown area in the upper left portion of the image is Volcan Barú. Site 1 (BioBlitz Panama 1) is a wooded area at an elevation of 1128 meters, and Site 2 (BioBlitz Panama 2) is an abandoned pasture, now mowed, at an elevation of 737 meters.

Site 1 (20m x 20m) is above the village of Potrerillos Arriba and is reached by way of an uncertain road. No pictures were taken at the site. To give a sense of the trees and shrubs that grow there, here’s a collection of images from the web and my own that represent the species (in most cases) and genera (in some cases) found at the site. Scrolling over the thumbnails will reveal the common name and the Genus of the plant.

Site 2 (20m x 20m) is below the village of Potrerillos Arriba and is an abandoned pasture. No trees or shrubs more than 1 m in height were removed from this area (or any of the surrounding area) when the property was purchased. Smaller shrubs were cleared by machete. Site 2 and the surrounding area are maintained by mowing and, where too rocky to mow, by weed-eater or machete.

Here are the trees and shrubs found at site 2. One small tree, the monkey pod or vaina de mono (Samana saman), was planted. All the rest are trees or shrubs that were growing here at the time the property was purchased.

Similarities and Differences in Plants at the Two Sites

A total of 33 plants were recognized by common name at both sites, 21 at Site 1 and 14 at Site 2. The sites had only two plants in common: the macano (“billy club” or “truncheon” – a tree with sturdy wood, often used for fence posts – the one pictured is between 1 and 2 years old)

and mangle de montaña (“mountain mangrove” – a member of the tea family native to southeast Asia and North America – note the slender aerial roots, reminiscent of mangroves, extending from a branch on the left side of the trunk to the ground).

That these were the only two plants in common is, I’m sure, by chance. For instance, the guarumo (Cecropia peltata) found at Site 1 also grows in the area around Site 2. It simply wasn’t in the 20m x 20m grid.

The complete list is here:

Only one plant was unidentified with respect to its scientific name at Site 1 – and for that one the family was known. Four plants were unidentified with respect to scientific names at Site 2. Until the identification process is complete, which may take some time, it is not possible to know how the sites differed regarding number of plant families represented. At present, 14 families were represented at Site 1 and 7 at Site 2. Even if each of the remaining plants at Site 2 represented a different family, the maximum possible number of families at Site 2 would be 11 families.

So, in comparing the two sites, the wooded area had more kinds of plants, and more plant families represented, in a 20m x 20m plot than did the abandoned pasture. Considering that the sample sizes are small, and that there is just one sample from each area, it’s no doubt stretching a great deal to try to draw conclusions from these comparisons. Nevertheless, both elevation and soil type are likely factors that could influence these differences: elevation because there’s generally a higher annual rainfall and cooler average temperatures at the higher elevations (there’s nearly a 400 m difference in elevation between the two sites) and soil type because of the history of the abandoned pastureland. Previous to being grazed, the land was used for raising sugar cane for a number of years, which would have ferociously depleted the existing nutrients.

Data Unique to Each Site

Site 1. Checklists of insects (9), birds (11), and reptiles (6) were compiled at Site 1. For those to whom the Spanish common name means something, here’s the list. I’ll provide English translations later.

Site 2. We laid out a 20m x 20m grid, sectioned in 5m x 5m quadrats.

We measured the distance between each tree or shrub and two perpendicular sides of the quadrat. We recorded the quadrat number, the local common name, and the distance (in centimeters) to the two closest perpendicular sides of the quadrat. We ignored the small shoots of assorted small plants at the base of each tree or shrub.

We then plotted the data on graph paper.

The most numerous trees were the nance (Byrsonima crassifolia) (11),

one of the canillo trees (Miconia rubiginosa) (7),

the other canillo tree (Miconia sp.) (5),

and the palo blanco (unidentified scientific name) (4).

All other species were represented by only one or two plants.

Here’s the map of all data from this site (South is at the top of the map, North at the bottom):

The palo blancos were in the upper two rows of quadrats, the canillos were in the two right columns plus one canillo in quadrat V, and the nances were scattered throughout. I doubt that anything can be made of this, but I found it interesting that the distribution of the canillos had a diagonal trend (NE-SW – remember that South is a the top of the map) and the palo blancos had an East-West trend.

The data from this grid will be saved and the study repeated next year. Meantime, those very interesting “unidentified” plants will be worked up. Worth a separate study, I believe, would be a close look at the shoots that grow up around the bases of the trees.

So that’s it. A simple baseline of trees and shrubs from two sites on Volcan Barú in Chiriqui, Panama. I’m already thinking about how to build on this information next year. If it weren’t for the snakes, it would be great to lay out the grid at Site 1 as well. We’ll see. Until later, then, hasta luego!

I found this plant growing in the understory of a planted pine forest. I don’t know whether it strictly fits in the “neotropical savanna” category, but I found it so curious that I wanted to identify it. The red parts reminded me of the wax lips we used to be able to buy as children.

Recently, a visiting botanist reminded me of the value of learning plant families well. If you can get at the family, then you have a much better chance of learning the genus and species. This is a viewpoint I learned in my very first botany book, Botany in a Day, by Thomas Elpel, but I had drifted away from that approach, mostly because I was finding a habitat-organized book quite useful. If it didn’t serve me, though, I was basically stumbling around with each new plant, trying to find pictures in books or images on the web to steer me in the right direction.

So, this time, I’m taking the family point of view to work through the features of this plant. Psychotria poeppigiana, commonly known as “Hot Lips,” is a member of Rubiaceae, the coffee family.

Before I start on the plant, I always like to look at the name. Rubia, the root of the family name, comes from the Latin “ruber,” referring to the red dye that comes from the root of plants in the genus Rubia. After I’ve spent a little time with the Family, I’ll look at the genus and species names.

The Rubiaceae (13,000 species) are the fourth largest family of flowering plants after the Asteraceae (Aster Family – 21,000 species), Orchidaceae (Orchid Family-17,500 species) and Fabaceae (Bean and Pea Family – 16,500 species). The 13,000 or so Rubiaceae species are grouped into about 650 genera.

The features that nearly all 13,000 Rubiceae species have in common are these: opposite leaves with no teeth or lobes on the edges and…here it becomes really botanical and I’ll break this down…interpetiolar stipules. (A Field Guide to the Families and Genera of Woody Plants of Northwest South America, by Alwyn H. Gentry)

First, here are the opposite leaves with entire margins (no teeth or lobes on the edges):

Second – the stipules. These are small appendages or outgrowths found near the base of the leaf stalk, or petiole. Stipules may be between the petiole bases (interpetiolar) or between the petiole and the stem (intrapetiolar). Make sense? Not all plants have stipules, but the ones found in Rubiaceae are found between the petiole bases, which, remember, are on opposite sides of the stem.

Since this is such an important characteristic of the family, I went back to the plant to shoot a picture of the stipules.

Another feature of Rubiceae is that the flowers are radially symmetrical, as in a daisy or in a starfish. In animals, we’re used to bilateral symmetry – the left side is a mirror image of the right side. But in some animals such as jellyfish and starfish we see radial symmetry, in which pie-shaped wedges are like each other. In plants, we see radial symmetry more often than we see bilateral symmetry. A tulip is an example of radial symmetry. A pea flower is an example of bilateral symmetry.

In this plant, the flowers are so small and numerous that I could not document their symmetry. Remembering that the coffee plant is a Rubiceae, I went here for an illustration of the flowers. They’re small and a little hard to see, but they have 5 petals, an odd number, which itself shows the flowers could not be bilaterally symmetrical.

Once we’ve shown the plant is a member of Rubiceae, we need to figure out what makes it a Psychotria.

First, about the name, Psychotria. According to Dave’s Botanary, it means “Life, referring to medicinal qualities of some species.” Perhaps the best known species of Psychotria used for medicinal purposes is Psychotria ipecacuanha, which has been used to treat amoebic dysentery. Psychotria poeppigiana itself has been said to have medicinal properties in Belize and in the Guianas.

Regarding the species name, poeppigiana, Dave’s Botany did not have an entry, but it did suggest one for “poeppigii,” which is named for Eduard Friedrich Poeppig, 19th century German explorer and botanist. Knowing the meaning of Psychotria will probably help me remember it, but since I had never heard of Poeppig and the references to him in a google search are scanty, I can imagine that I’ll have a harder time remembering that name. I may just think of it as Poppy Guiana. Having no idea of the proper pronunciation lets me call it what I want!

Now about the plant itself. A useful introduction to the Rubiceae is from the National Botanic Garden of Belgium. Here’s where I learned that the flowers in one particular group of Rubiceae are protected by a set of bracts, an involucre. “The involucre is coloured a brilliant red and helps the plant to attract pollinators. In fruit stage, the red involucre contrasts strongly with the blue berries, attracting dispersers.” So those Hot Lips are an involucre, eh, bracts that attract pollinators and later, dispersers. I’m sure there’s a comment to be made here, but I won’t.

A New South Wales site has a key to the Rubiceae family, which allows one to get down to the genus level. From that key, I picked the characteristics of Psychotria that are useful to me in the field:

1. Woody plant, usually more than 1 m high

2. Flowers terminal or terminal and axillary in upper leaf axils, usually united into terminal inflorescences; ovules attached at base of ovary

No mention in this key of those conspicuous bracts, nor even of the other feature that struck me when first looking closely at the plant – the “hairy” nature of every visible part of the plant – stems, leaves, bracts. I guess plants with hairs occur in too many families to be an identifying characteristic.

So, without the hot lips bloom, all I’d be able to say about this plant is that it is a member of the Rubiceae family. I’m learning to be happy going that far, though. Knowing that the plant is in the coffee family offers a good deal of satisfaction. Discovering that the gardenia, the ixora, and the medicinal plant noni (the last is new to me since coming to Panama) all are members of this family pleases me no end. Just today I was in a plant nursery in San Pablo and saw rows of young ixora plants. I ran over and looked:

opposite leaves with no teeth or lobes (check!)

interpetiolar stipules (check!)

For a while, I’m sure, I’ll be running over to plants with those two characteristics in mind and asking the plant, “Are you related to Hot Lips of the Coffee Family?”