iNaturalist Plant Observations - Costa Rica (iNaturalist:Plants-Costa Rica)
Costus laevis Ruiz & Pav.
Costaceae
selvadero
2016-07-12
Costa Rica, Limón, Siquirres, Finca Guayacan
10.04 -83.54398
This plant is Costus maximus K. Schum. which was originally collected near Tucurrique, Cartago, Costa Rica in 1898 by A. Tonduz and described by Schumann. In his 1972 monograph, Paul Maas placed this in synonymy with Costus laevis, but it is a distinctively different form that I have seen several places on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica. It is characterized by a light green globular shaped inflorescence with open flowers with red striped labellum and red corolla. The upper leaves usually sheath the inflorescence (cover it) as is found in the South American forms from the eastern side of the Andes. It is a giant plant growing much taller than the Pacific side forms of C. laevis, and characteristically has inflated ligules. The species C. laevis as currently circumscribed is very wide ranging and polymorphic - will likely be split back out into several varieties, subspecies or possibly new species.