Gunnera insignis, gunnera talamancana, Lupinus

[Jose Maria]

These are not 100% tropícal species, I never saw them grow under 2000 meters above sea level, but tropical looking. Interesting that the Gunneras live together with some cyanobacteria that fix nitrogen in the stems...

The first one(Gunnera insignis) lives from 2000 meters and up.

Then around 2500 meters the Gunnera talamancana takes over all the way up to 3000 metres and more.

The other picture is from some Lupinus that trive at 3000 meters above sea level...tropical or not???

[Roaringwater]

Great pics Jose, thanks for posting them. I really like the trunk-forming Gunneras. How tall do the trunks of these two species get? Gunnera tinctoria (from Chile) is a weed in Ireland, but it develops only short trunks.

[Jose Maria]

Roaringater,

These Gunneras have no trunks to speak of... Maybe because they are in the right of way of the highway they get cut down now and then.

Next time I come by these plants I will take a picture..... if I can find one with anything like a trunk.

I guess these could grow in Ireland too, they like it cool and humid.

[Jeff Searle]

Jose,

Tropical? Not exactly, more like montane cloud forest. I remember seeing these on my first trip to CR back in the mid 90's. I fell in love with this plant, but quickly learned that South Florida would not make them happy. I think their a very cool looking plant though.

Jeff

[Jose Maria]

Yes Jeff, montane cloud forest only. I never saw them growing lower than 2000 meters . Maybe they would do fine in a place like Oregon...

These cool montane forests in the tropics have a lot of species adapted to low temperatures, theory is these plants "traveled" from north america ,all the way here during the ice ages, and then got stuck in the mountains when the climate warmed up.