The Costa Rican páramo, also known as the Talamanca páramo, is a

natural region A natural region (landscape unit) is a basic geographic unit. Usually, it is a region which is distinguished by its common natural features of geography, geology, and climate. From the ecological point of view, the naturally occurring flora and ...

montane grassland and shrubland Montane grasslands and shrublands are a biome defined by the World Wildlife Fund. The biome includes high elevation grasslands and shrublands around the world. The term "montane" in the name of the biome refers to "high elevation", rather than t ...

Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...

and western

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

Setting

The Costa Rican páramo includes several enclaves on the highest peaks of the

Cordillera de Talamanca The Cordillera de Talamanca is a mountain range that lies in the southeast half of Costa Rica and the far west of Panama. Much of the range and the area around it is included in La Amistad International Park, which also is shared between the two ...

in eastern Costa Rica and western Panama, with a total area of 31 km.Dinerstein, Eric; David Olson; Douglas J. Graham; et al. (1995). ''A Conservation Assessment of the Terrestrial Ecoregions of Latin America and the Caribbean.'' World Bank, Washington DC. The páramo is found above 3000–3100 meters elevation on the summits of Cerro de la Muerte, Cerro Chirripó, and Cerro Kamuk in Costa Rica, Cerro Echandi on the Costa Rica-Panama border, Cerro Fábrega, and Cerro Itamut in Panama. It is surrounded at lower elevations by the Talamancan montane forests. The

World Wide Fund for Nature The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is a Swiss-based international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named th ...

includes the Costa Rican páramo within the montane forests ecoregion, although the páramo has a distinct flora with affinities to the

páramo Páramo () may refer to a variety of alpine tundra ecosystems located in the Andes Mountain Range, South America. Some ecologists describe the páramo broadly as "all high, tropical, montane vegetation above the continuous timberline". A narrower ...

of the Northern Andes.

Flora

The Costa Rican páramo can be divided into two zones. The subpáramo is a

dwarf forest file:Hamiguitan bonsai tree.JPG, A "natural bonsai" in the Mount Hamiguitan List of national parks of the Philippines, National Park in the Philippines, a UNESCO World Heritage Site file:Mount Kemiri (8187817161).jpg, An elfin forest in Sumatra ...

, dominated by the dwarf

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of mostly evergreen perennial plant, perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily (biology), subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family, in th ...

'' Chusquea subtessellata'', together with short shrubs. The páramo proper lies above the subpáramo, and is dominated by grasses, rushes, herbs, and low shrubs of the families

Gramineae Poaceae ( ), also called Gramineae ( ), is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos, the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated i ...

Asteraceae Asteraceae () is a large family (biology), family of flowering plants that consists of over 32,000 known species in over 1,900 genera within the Order (biology), order Asterales. The number of species in Asteraceae is rivaled only by the Orchi ...

Cyperaceae The Cyperaceae () are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as wikt:sedge, sedges. The family (biology), family is large; botanists have species description, described some 5,500 known species in about 90 ...

Rosaceae Rosaceae (), the rose family, is a family of flowering plants that includes 4,828 known species in 91 genera. The name is derived from the type genus '' Rosa''. The family includes herbs, shrubs, and trees. Most species are deciduous, but som ...

and

Ericaceae The Ericaceae () are a Family (biology), family of flowering plants, commonly known as the heath or heather family, found most commonly in acidic and infertile growing conditions. The family is large, with about 4,250 known species spread acros ...

. The páramo is home to 416 flowering plant species, from 216 genera and 72 families. Fifty species are

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to the Talamancan páramos. Asteraceae is the most species-rich, with 73 species, including five endemic genera – '' Iltisia, Jessea, Laestadia, Talamancalia'', and '' Westoniella''. Twenty species are restricted to the highest páramo elevations (3,500 to 3,819 m) – ''Azorella biloba, Castilleja quirosii, Draba jorullensis, Lewisia megarhiza, Lysipomia acaulis, Poa chirripoensis, Ranunculus crassirostratus, Senecio kuhbieri, Stevia westonii, Uncinia koyamae, Westoniella chirripoensis'', and ''Westoniella eriocephala''.

Fauna

32 species of mammals inhabit the páramo, including shrews ('' Cryptotis''), rabbits (''

Sylvilagus Cottontail rabbits are in the ''Sylvilagus'' genus, which is in the family Leporidae. They are found in the Americas. Most ''Sylvilagus'' species have stub tails with white undersides that show when they retreat, giving them their characteris ...

''),

ocelot The ocelot (''Leopardus pardalis'') is a medium-sized spotted Felidae, wild cat that reaches at the shoulders and weighs between on average. It is native to the southwestern United States, Mexico, Central America, Central and South America, ...

(''Leopardus pardalis''),

margay The margay (''Leopardus wiedii'') is a small wild cat native to Mexico, Central and South America. A solitary and nocturnal felid, it lives mainly in primary evergreen and deciduous forest. Until the 1990s, margays were hunted for the wildl ...

(''Leopardus wiedii''), puma (''Puma concolor'' ssp. ''costaricensis''), and

Baird's tapir The Baird's tapir (''Tapirus bairdii''), also known as the Central American tapir, is a species of tapir native to Mexico, Central America, and northwestern South America. It is the largest of the three species of tapir native to the Americas, a ...

(''Tapirus bairdii''). 70 bird species have been observed in the páramo. Twelve are considered true páramo residents, who live year-round in the páramo – the

red-tailed hawk The red-tailed hawk (''Buteo jamaicensis'') is a bird of prey that breeds throughout most of North America, from the interior of Alaska and northern Canada to as far south as Panama and the West Indies. It is one of the most common members of ...

(''Buteo jamaicensis''), black-cheeked warbler (''Basileuterus melanogenys''), wrenthrush (''Zeledonia coronata''), flame-throated warbler (''Oreothlypis gutturalis''), timberline wren (''Thryorchilus browni''), volcano hummingbird (''Selasphorus flammula''), black-billed nightingale-thrush (''Catharus gracilirostris''), sooty thrush (''Turdus nigrescens''), sooty-capped bush tanager (''Chlorospingus pileatus''), volcano junco (''Junco vulcani''), large-footed finch (''Pezopetes capitalis''), and

rufous-collared sparrow The rufous-collared sparrow or Andean sparrow (''Zonotrichia capensis'') is an American sparrow found in a wide range of habitats, often near humans, from the extreme south-east of Mexico to Tierra del Fuego, and the island of Hispaniola (split ...

(''Zonotrichia capensis''). Another 34 species are regular visitors to the sub-páramo from the adjacent cloud forests; the remainder are occasional visitors. The páramo is home to one amphibian, the mushroom-tongue salamander (''Bolitoglossa pesrubra''), and two reptiles, the montane alligator lizard (''Mesaspis monticola'') and green spiny lizard (''Sceloporus malachiticus''). Another 16 species of reptiles and amphibians inhabit the sub-páramo dwarf forests. 71 insect species are recorded in the páramo, with

Lepidoptera Lepidoptera ( ) or lepidopterans is an order (biology), order of winged insects which includes butterflies and moths. About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera have been described, representing 10% of the total described species of living organ ...

as the order with the most species. The most abundant species are the moth '' Gonodonta pyrgo'', the leafhopper '' Hortensia similis'', and the bumblebee '' Bombus ephippiatus''.

Protected areas

All of the Costa Rican páramo is in protected areas. Chirripó National Park, established in 1975, protects Costa Rica's largest area of páramo on Cerro Chirripó (3,819 m) and surrounding peaks. La Amistad International Park, established in 1982, protects the páramo on peaks extending southeastward from Cerro Chirripó, including as Eli, Dúrika, and Kamuk in Costa Rica and Fábrega, Itamut, and Echandi in Panama. Tapantí–Macizo Cerro de la Muerte National Park protects the páramos of Buenavista massif. Irazú and Turrialba national parks protect the páramo on the Irazú and Turrialba volcanoes in the Cordillera Central.

References

External links

*
Data Sheet on La Amistad Biosphere Reserve
{{DEFAULTSORT:Costa Rican paramo Páramos Montane grasslands and shrublands Ecoregions of Costa Rica Ecoregions of Panama Grasslands of Costa Rica Grasslands of Panama Natural regions Ecoregions of Central America Neotropical ecoregions IUCN Red List of Ecosystems