In late June, 2000, prior to the start of the ethnobiology class, Luis Diego Gómez led an orientation walk in the Wilson Botanical Garden, for students in the graduate course OTS-9, a class in tropical systematic botany. Knowing that several people in the course had interests in economic and ethnobotany, he kindly included information on the use of several of the plants included on the tour. The following plant list is from that walk. All the plants listed here are tropical, though not all are native Costa Rican species. As Director, Luis Diego Gómez hopes to remove all hybrids from the Garden and increase the number of Costa Rican endemic plants in keeping with his dedication to native plant preservation. Spelling of plant names on the list follows that of the INBIO Herbarium Database in San Jóse, Costa Rica.
Economic Botany Plant Chart from Wilson Botanical Garden, Costa Rica
For a description of Plantains, Iguanas and Shamans, the OTS field ethnobiology course, go to http://www.ots.duke.edu/~abarbee/academic/ethno.htm. For more information on OTS Educational programs check http://www.ots.duke.edu/~abarbee/academic/.