Podocarpus: A remnant from Gondwana
Anna:
While in Costa Rica, I
became obsessed with old plants, specifically Podocarpus. I spent days hunting
through the cloud forest for a Podocarpus
tree that my
botanist friends promised me was present along a specific trail, but I
never found so much as a needle. To understand why the tree was
so intriguing, we'll have to step back in time about 250 million years.
I've written before
about plants
that date back to Pangaea, when all of the present
continents were lumped together into one land mass. These ancient
connections result in genera with widespread distributions, often found
throughout tropical parts of the world (pantropical). But I was just as
interested in the next stage in earth's geologic history, when Pangaea
split in half.
The northern half of
Pangaea was known as Laurasia, a supercontinent that later broke
further into North America, Europe and Asia. Since these three
continents remained stuck together for some time after Pangaea
splintered, their plants and animals show striking similarities.
That's why when I reached England at the beginning of my year of
travel, I was shocked to see nearly familiar oaks and maples around me.
Similarly, all of the
continents currently in the southern hemisphere --- South America,
Africa, Australia, and Antarctica --- were part of the southern
supercontinent, Gondwana. I had already explored one Gondwana
continent in great depth, but Australia has been separated from the
other continents for so long that many of the plants I saw there were
endemic and grew nowhere else. In particular, the ancient
Antarctic flora was only barely visible in Australia since the
continent had turned hot and dry, unlike the cool, temperate conditions
that had once dominanted in the southern tip of Gondwana. Costa
Rica was my chance to fill in the gaps and see some Gondwana species,
and Podocarpus was one of the most
distinctive examples of the Antarctic flora. I was also
interested in finding Podocarpus since the tree is one of the
few native conifers found in Costa Rica. (A pine plantation can
be seen by the side of the road, but pines are an import from the
north.)
So I beat the bushes in
search of a conifer --- surely a conifer wouldn't be that hard to
find? Finally, as my time in Costa Rica wound to an end, my
botanist buddies took pity on me and joined me for a field foray,
leading me straight to the Podocarpus...which looked nothing like
the conifer I was expecting. The leaves were long and broad, only
barely pine-like and the tree itself had none of the regularity I
expect from conifers. Good thing I had botanists along on the
hike!
3-21-01
We're
supposed to go tomorrow at 4 to look at the house, but we left
the reserve at noon and sought it out. It's big and bare, but
it's a house and is
on the most lovely side road. I decided that
I'm going to call and see if we can move in
tomorrow. I've already started packing up our room, so we'd better
get it. I'm just terrified 
someone
else will snap it up!
Maggie:
3-21-01
Today on the way
home from the Preserve, we snooped around what we imagine is our
house. It is a squarish yellow house on top of a hill with a woods
but not too exciting architecture. We saw the kitchen and living
room by peeking, but the curtains blocked us from the bedrooms. We
are very eager and our belongings are all spread over the floor for
packing.
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