Alfredo M. Cascante Marín

University of Costa Rica | UCR · Escuela de Biología

There are a number of rather anecdotal reports of plant growth on power cables in the Americas, but until now there has been no systematic attempt to gauge the geographical extension of this phenomenon nor a documentation of the diversity of species found there. Using observations from the participatory science data platform iNaturalist and the sci...

Plants with specialized pollination systems frequently exhibit adaptations for self-pollination, and this contradictory situation has been explained in terms of the reproductive assurance function of selfing. In the Neotropics, several plant lineages rely on specialized vertebrate pollinators for sexual reproduction, including the highly diverse Br...

Many plant species in high montane ecosystems rely on animal pollination for sexual reproduction, however, our understanding of plant-pollinator interactions in tropical montane habitats is still limited. We compared species diversity and composition of blooming plants and floral visitors, and the structure of plant-floral visitor networks between...

Breeding systems play an essential role in plant sexual reproduction and influence speciation and extinction processes. However, our understanding of the breeding systems for particular neotropical angiosperm families is inadequate. The Pineapple family (Bromeliaceae) is one of the few indigenous and highly diverse plant lineages native to the Amer...

Werauhia oenophylla Cascante & J. F. Morales (Bromeliaceae), a new species of Tillandsioid epiphytic bromeliad, is described from the montane forests of Costa Rica. The new species is related to W. umbrosa (L. B. Sm.) J. R. Grant by its compound inflorescence with several flowers in short (< 10 cm) lateral branches and coriaceous floral bracts that...

The Costa Rican Paramo is a unique ecosystem with high levels of endemism that is geographically isolated from the Andean Paramos. Paramo ecosystems occur above Montane Forests, below the permanent snow level, and their vegetation differs notably from that of adjacent Montane Forests. We compared the composition and beta diversity of blooming plant...

Gene flow connects populations and is necessary to sustain effective population sizes, and genetic diversity. In the Lower Central American (LCA) region, the complex topographic and climatic history have produced a wide variety of habitats resulting in high biodiversity. Phylogeographic studies of plants from this area are scarce, and to date none...

The authors describe and illustrate a new species of Tillandsioid epiphytic bromeliad, Werauhia talamancana, from the mountains of southern Central America. This new species is related to W. brunei by its smooth, lustrous and distichous floral bracts (not secund) at anthesis but differs from the latter by its larger flowers and brown-maroon floral...

Palms are important components of tropical and subtropical ecosystems and have even been considered keystone plant resources that can support a large array of pollinators and frugivores. Palms are also economically important. Chamaedorea tepejilote Liebm. is a widely distributed palm with important bioeconomic potential for food, traditional medici...

Se presenta información para 101 géneros botánicos de plantas epífitas. Para cada género se incluye una descripción e imágenes de especies representativas, información sobre el origen del nombre, notas de su historia natural y distribución geográfica. Se proveen claves dicotómicas para facilitar la identificación en el campo y un glosario de términ...

Ecological traits and pollination mode associated with dioecious sexual expression in plants are likely to influence their reproductive success and levels of genetic diversity. Dioecy is an uncommon condition in Bromeliaceae. Currently, there is limited information on the reproductive ecology and genetics of dioecious and epiphytic bromeliads. Ther...

Chamaedorea vanninii Cascante & Muller (Arecaceae, Chamaedoreeae) from the Central Pacific region of Costa Rica, Southern Central America, is described and illustrated. This new species is characterized by its orange ripe fruits with a conspicuous echinulate-medusoid epicarp. It is related to C. robertii which possesses black and smooth fruits. In...

Conspecific negative density dependence (CNDD) is one of the main mechanisms influencing diversity maintenance in tropical forests. Tropical highland forests, in contrast to most lowland forests, are commonly dominated by a few tree species, and testing the importance of density dependence effects on seedling establishment of dominant trees may pro...

Los Cerros de La Carpintera son una formación montañosa en el Valle Central de Costa Rica que alberga remanentes de bosque nuboso en sus partes altas y están rodeados por áreas urbanas y agrícolas. Con el interés de promover su conservación, este trabajo documenta la diversidad de su flora orquideológica e identifica especies vulnerables a la extin...

Ecological traits and pollination mode associated with dioecious sexual expression in plants are likely to influence their reproductive success and levels of genetic diversity. Dioecy is an uncommon condition in Bromeliaceae. Currently, there is limited information on the reproductive ecology and genetics of dioecious and epiphytic bromeliads. Ther...

We describe and illustrate a new species of Quararibea Aubl. from Costa Rica. Quararibea reflex-ipetala Cascante, J. Sánchez-Gonz. & W. S. Alverson is distinguished by its pleated petals with strongly reflexed and coiled apices. Quararibea pendula W. S. Alverson also has pleated petals, which are spreading or somewhat reflexed, but its petal apices...

Conspecific negative density-dependence (CNDD) is one of the main mechanisms proposed to regulate species coexistence. Tropical highland forests, in contrast to diverse lowland forests, are commonly dominated by a few tree species. Testing the importance of density-dependence effects on seedling establishment of dominant trees may provide insights...

Some previous collections of Quararibea nigrescens have been misidentified, confused or tentatively assigned to Quararibea costaricensis. Both species, however, can be consistently distinguished because Q. nigrescens has always twigs, leaves and calyx conspicuously silvery or grayish lepidote or stellate-peltate pubescent, while in Q. costaricensis...

The association between the reproductive phenology of epiphytic communities with environmental and ecological factors remains largely unexplored. Because epiphytes depend on environmental moisture, seasonal changes in moisture conditions likely act as the primary determinants of their reproductive timing. We examined whether water limitation or pol...

The northern Neotropical region is characterized by a heterogeneous geological and climatic history. Recent studies have shown contrasting patterns regarding the role of geographic elements as barriers that could have determined phylogeographic structure in various species. Recently, the phylogeography and biogeography of Quercus species have been...

Among aroids (Araceae family) with bisexual flowers, the reproductive biology of the neotropical genus Monstera (Subfamily Monsteroideae) is misunderstood. Nothing is known about the reproductive phenology and the sparse evidence on its pollination system is equivocal, suggesting both bees and beetles as pollinators. In order to elucidate the polli...

Pitcairnioideae is the second most diverse subfamily of bromeliads (Bromeliaceae), a group exclusive to tropical regions of the New World. Pitcairnioid bromeliads have floral traits assumed to promote outcrossing through biotic pollination systems; however, the reproductive biology of most of the species of this group has not been documented. Pitca...

Most epiphytic bromeliads exhibit specialized pollination systems likely to promote out-crossing but, at the same time, possess floral traits that promote autonomous selfing. Adaptations that promote selfing in flowering plants with specialized pollination systems have been considered as a mechanism for reproductive assurance. In this paper, we ana...

In this paper, we compared epiphyte inventories from Honduras to recent published floristic inventories from other Central American countries including Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua and Belize. Previous estimates of vascular epiphytes have revealed that approximately 9 % of all global plants are epiphytes and that in some countries they contribute...

Information on genetic variation and its distribution in tropical plant populations relies mainly on studies of ground-rooted species, while genetic information of epiphytic plants is still limited. Particularly, the effect of forest successional condition on genetic diversity and structure of epiphytes is scanty in the literature. We evaluated the...

Worldwide, the highest diversity of vascular epiphytic plants resides in the Neotropics. The general pattern of taxonomic composition of the neotropical epiphytic flora has been described, but information regarding the magnitude and geographic distribution of species richness is lacking. In this paper, we carried out a regional scale analysis in or...

Pollination of Neotropical dioecious trees is commonly related to generalist insects. Similar data for non-tree species with separated genders are inconclusive. Recent studies on pollination of dioecious Chamaedorea palms (Arecaceae) suggest that species are either insect- or wind-pollinated. However, the wide variety of inflorescence and floral at...

Background/Question/Methods Vascular epiphytes establish obligate, commensalistic interactions with their host plants (phorophytes). The fact that epiphytes have long life cycles, limited dispersal and depend on phorophytes, makes them one of the most vulnerable plant growth forms. Anthropogenic disturbances such as deforestation for land use con...

A central issue in ecology is the understanding of the establishment of biotic interactions. We studied the factors that affect the assembly of the commensalistic interactions between vascular epiphytes and their host plants. We used an analytical approach that considers all individuals and species of epiphytic bromeliads and woody hosts and non-ho...

The floristic documentation of El Rodeo dates from the late XIX century and to date are known 1 034 species of vascular plants native or naturalized and 47 species introduced and cultivated (ornamental or agricultural interest). The first ones are distributed among 138 families and 581 genera, representing about 9% of the species present in the cou...

Tropical premontane forests between 700 and 1,400m.a.s.l. represent a particular component of the gamma diversity of neotropical ecosystems; however, the extent of information about their dynamics lags behind the more studied lowland rain forests. Data from three 1-ha permanent plots in a premontane forest in Costa Rica collected during an 11-year...

Background/Question/Methods The biodiversity and level of endemism of tropical dry forests (TDF) in Mexico is high for many taxa and have been affected dramatically by human activities. The Chamela-Cuixmala Biosphere Reserve is one of the few natural reserves that protect TDF in Mexico. Around the reserve, vegetation cover has been fragmented and...

Flower predation or florivory may alter the sexual expression, floral display, and reduce the reproductive success in plants. In this article, we estimated the effect of florivory on the reproductive success of the epiphytic bromeliad Werauhiagladioliflora during 2001–2003 in a premontane area in Costa Rica. Floral buds of W.gladioliflora are attac...

Transformation of tropical forests is likely to affect seed-dispersal patterns and influence the composition of epiphytic plant communities in human-altered habitats. We tested this hypothesis by carrying out a comparative study of seed influx, survival and growth of transplanted seedlings of epiphytic bromeliads among isolated trees in six pasture...

Plant community composition is the combined result of species-specific competitive abilities and the availability of propagules. For epiphytic plants, current hypotheses consider that dispersal-related factors are most important. By controlling seed dispersal constraints, we experimentally examined whether the community composition of epiphytic bro...

Plant diversity of a region or country can be interpreted from an ecological perspective by means of a classification of “life forms”. This work (1) describes the flowering plant diversity of Costa Rica using life forms and (2) presents a classification system which comprises morphological (i.e. form) and ecological (i.e. habitat, nutrition) traits...

We analyzed the differences in species richness, community composition, population structure and within-tree location of epiphytic bromeliads in contiguous secondary and mature forests in a premontane area in Costa Rica. Diversity in the mature forest was highest, and the communities differed in their composition as well as in the recruitment rates...

Predispersal characteristics that affect the reproductive success in plants may influence their colonizing ability. We evaluated this hypothesis in two sympatric epiphytic bromeliads in Costa Rica, Guzmania monostacbia and Tillandsia fasciculata, that show contrasting levels of local seedling recruitment. Genets of G. monostachia, the species with...

The floral phenology, fruit and seed production, and self-compatibility of Werauhia gladioliflora, an epiphytic bromeliad with a wide distribution, were studied in a premontane forest in the Monteverde area in Costa Rica. The species presents the pollination syndrome of chiropterophily, and it is visited by the small bats Hylonycteris underwoodi an...

Eurytoma werauhia Gates, new species, is described and illustrated. This species was reared from the floral buds of Werauhia gladioliflora (Wendl.) (Bromeliales: Bromeliaceae), in Costa Rica. This plant represents a new host record for the genus. Eurytoma werauhia is compared with other known species of Eurytoma, primarily due to its host and metas...

Gates, Michael W., Cascante-Marin, And Alfredo (2004): A new phytophagous species of Eurytoma (Hymenoptera: Eurytomidae) attacking Werauhia gladioliflora (Bromeliales: Bromeliaceae). Zootaxa 512: 1-10, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.157303

Tropical trees are particularly vulnerable to forest fragmentation because of their low densities, self-incompatibilty system, and high rates of outbreeding. Forest fragmentation is likely to decrease gene flow, increase endogamy, and eventually produce a high differentiation among remnant populations. Our objectives were to evaluate the effect of...

The floristic composition and structure of a premontane moist forest remnant were studied in the El Rodeo Protected Zone, Central Valley of Costa Rica. Three one-hectare plots were established in the non-disturbed forest, and all trees with a diameter at breast height (dbh) of 10 cm or greater were marked, measured and identified. The plots were lo...

The floristic composition and structure of a premontane moist forest remnant were studied in the El Rodeo Protected Zone, Central Valley of Costa Rica. Three one-hectare plots were established in the non-disturbed forest, and all trees with a diameter at breast height (dbh) of 10 cm or greater were marked, measured and identified. The plots were lo...

A new Licaria (Lauraceae) from the Caribbean lowlands of Costa Rica is described and illustrated here. /// Una Licaria (Lauraceae) de las tierras bajas del Caribe costarricense se describe y se ilustra en este artículo.

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Key words: Bombacaceae. Matisia linamastiana. Costa Rica, (Recibido 8 de setiembre de 1998) El conocimiento de la Flora de Costa Rica ha sido, en gran parte, producto de la investigación y exploración botánica realizada principalmente dentro de las áreas protegidas estatales o privadas. Las áreas fuera de los parques o reservas nacionales, por lo g...

General descriptions and taxonomic keys to the nine genera (Bernoullia, Ceiba, Huberodendron, Matisia, Ochroma, Pachira, Pseudobombax, Quararibea, and Spirotheca) and twenty-four species of Bombacaceae species known to occurr in Costa Rica are presented here. Three species are endemic to the country (Huberodendron allenii, Quararibea costaricensis,...