Quebrada


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	Quebrada Anna: Disturbance is one of the key factors determining which plants grow where -- specifically, what kind of disturbance and how often the disturbance occurs. From my normal stomping grounds in the southern Appalachian mountains, I know that oak and pine forests here depend on fire to kill encroaching cove hardwood species. But fire is nearly absent in the tropics, so what keeps the forest shifting through various ages and states? You may remember that the annual rainfall in the Monteverde area ranges from 7.5 to 23 feet per year, and it is actually the excessive water that adds dynamism to the Costa Rican forest. Heavy rains result in mudslides, which in turn create ravines (known as quebradas in Spanish.) In the dry forest around Monteverde, you can see streams running between sheer rock cliffs twenty (or more) feet tall. The flower above (Begonia involucrata) is one of the many herbs that are often found colonizing disturbed ground around quebradas. Quebradas are also a great place to look for epiphytes since many of these plants are able to make the leap from growing on trees to growing on rocks. My favorite quebrada feature, though, was this strangler fig growing along the Hidden Valley Nature Trail. The words on the sketch are probably too small for you to read, but are worth repeating here: This fig began its life strangling a tree at the top of the cliff, then sent down its roots around the tree's trunk. But the roots only came in contact with rocks when they reached the bottom of the host tree. So they spread out and grew down the cliff face for about forty feet before finally reaching a tiny bit of soil at the creek's edge. Some roots ended up in the creek itself, where they were washed clean and show up now, bright red. Maggie: 3-3-01 The creek and the plants that we saw were beautiful. I did a lot of discovering while Anna did her first sketch of the creekbed. I walked across a rickety, small bridge, then read that it was closed for repairs! Fund your own adventure with Microbusiness Independence. Want to be notified when new comments are posted on this page? Click on the RSS button after you add a comment to subscribe to the comment feed. Add a comment