Gingersrus Database Taxon ID 7844Costus sp. TapantiCURRENT NAME: Costus possible sp. nov. unnamed PROPOSED NAME: Costus sp. Tapanti NAME CHANGE NOTES: Possible sp. nov., as yet undescribed and unnamed, found in the region of the Tapanti National Park in Costa Rica FULL SCIENTIFIC NAME: Costus L. STATUS : sp. nov. unnamed CONTINENT: Neotropical FIELD OBSERVATIONS:(If field observations are available, you can click on the link to open in a new window.) SEE MY FIELD OBSERVATION PHOTOS:(If photos are available, you can click on the link to open in a new window.) GOOGLE PHOTO ALBUM SYNONYMS: BOTANICAL NOTES: This phenotype is proposed for future publication, but has not yet been described or given a proposed species name. I have been twice to the Tapantà National Park in Cartago, Costa Rica and have seen a form of Costus that I believe to be an undescribed new species. These plants fit best in the species Costus sinningiiflorus as it is being newly described as a proposed replacement for Costus guanaiensis var. guanaiensis. There are several definable forms of C. sinningiiflorus, but they are all from Amazonian regions of South America. This form seems to be endemic to central Costa Rica, found at middle elevations around 1200 meters in the province Cartago. The entire plant is densely covered with villose brown hairs and the inflorescence is globular in shape with tight crenulate bract appendages and yellow open-labellum flowers with red stripes. It is much taller than the Amazonian plants in C. sinningiiflorus, ranging from 4 to 5 meters tall! The photos to the left are from my observations at P. N. TapantÃ. I have identified five specimens in herbaria that I believe belong to this proposed new species, images also to the left. It has not been sampled for DNA.
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