Plant ID Help, Thriving Herbs and Gardening Tips

Gringo Gardeners in Costa Rica

By Helen Woodhouse

Hola from Gringo highlighting an with the group. This is Kaempferia rotunda, in Costa Rica. It’s often it blooms only once a year ginger family, Kaempferia medicinal properties.

Plant identification

One of the most common for plant ID. The plant need an expert gardener, some of the identifications

Gringo Gardeners on Facebook! This month we’re amazing plant that Ed, in Atenas, shared The flowers bloom right out of the ground! rotunda, native to China but naturalized often called the resurrection plant because year at Semana Santa. A member of the Kaempferia grows from a rhizome and has many identification common posts on our group page is a request apps don’t always work; sometimes you gardener, and we have plenty of those. Here are identifications made over the years.

The orange shrimp plant (Aphelandra Sinclairii) is native to Costa Rica, thriving in partial shade and attracting birds and butterflies. There’s also a yellow variety of shrimp plant which is more common.

Leaf cactus (Pereskia Bleo), is an unusual plant in that it’s a cactus with leaves. A native of the Costa Rican rainforest, leaf cactus does well in shady, moist areas.

For those of you who are orchid lovers, the unusual bat orchid species (Mormodes) grows well in coconut shells. If you’re interested in learning more, we have some very knowledgeable orchid experts in the group. Nancy (group moderator) in Orosi has close to 400 different species!

Can you identify these plants?

Costa Rican skullcap (Scutellaria Costaricana) is native to Costa Rica, where it grows in humid rainforests. In “captivity” it requires well drained soil and does well in a container. Skullcap grows into a 2 to 5-foot shrub. Its red blooms, which are rare in the mint family, attract hummingbirds.

Among the 19 types of canna lily (Canna Indica) is one that might look like an orchid. It prefers moist, sunny conditions.

Blue flowered teddy-bear (Episcia Lilacina) is a low-growing plant with fuzzy, vibrantly coloured leaves and flowers. They’ve been seen in La Fortuna, and near Parrita and Manuel Antonio. Native to central South America, the blooms are usually red, making this blue variety quite unique. It prefers a damp, shady spot.

Mexican petunia (Ruellia Brittoniana) is considered invasive. Be careful where you plant them because they spread like weeds and it's hard to get rid of them. They grow wild and tolerate poor growing conditions. You can propagate Mexican petunias simply by rooting stems or letting them self-seed.

Banana passion fruit, or banano maracuyá, is prolific and has gorgeous pink flowers. The inside seedy area is delicious and dense, with fewer seeds than passion fruit. More than one group member has commented that it’s their favorite Costa Rican fruit.

In response to a photo post requesting an ID, quite the debate was stirred in our group: “Is it anona, guanabana, or soursop? Is soursop the same as guanabana? It’s either anona or soursop, depending on which Tico you ask. Either way, the inside white flesh makes a great drink — mix with water in a blender and then strain through a sieve ... it’s very good. Wait! It’s not guanabana — they grow on tree trunks, not branches ... do they? All guanabanas are anonas, but not all anonas are guanabanas!”

Shannon (group expert) would like to add that if this is indeed guanabana, be sure to remove the seeds before making juice, as they’re actually toxic. Good to know, Shannon!