In May, 2003, a group of botanists from Marie Selby Botanical
Gardens, the University of Florida, and Lankester Botanical
Garden of the University of Costa Rica gathered in the Boracayán
Wildlife Refuge. This reserve is privately owned and lovingly
managed by Ann Patton and John Bender. It covers 5,000 acres of
original rainforest mixed with secondary forest and is situated
on a ledge of the Fila Costeña Norte in southern Costa Rica,
with a magnificent view of the Pacific beaches and coral reefs
three-thousand feet below. We were invited by the generous
owners of Boracayán to do an inventory survey of the epiphytic
plants in the reserve, including orchids, bromeliads and
gesneriads. This promised to be a very exciting project since
this area is well known for its biodiversity, but is also poorly
explored scientifically. After a week of strenuous fieldwork,
trudging up and down slippery trails, carrying large sacks
filled with plants, and carefully avoiding highly-venomous pit
vipers we assembled an impressive