Panama Update #2

Yesterday I spent some time on an island where I haven't been working much recently, Isla Solarte.  The island is small and very charming.  There's a number of houses of varying sizes surrounding the coast, and the interior still has some nice forest.  

The name of this location is hospital point, a reminder of the past use of the land.  

The forest here is very wet with a small stream and some marshy area.  Large trees still remain and bright orange frogs are abundant.  

As I've mentioned before, I'm very fond of Marcgravia species.  I really love how they grow flat, hugging the tree.  They also have a nice textured leaf, and look great combined with moss.  Here's a fantastic example of how they look in the wild when grown in thick.

I also saw some very interesting beetles that I haven't seen in some time.  These are giant harlequin beetles, Acrocinus longimanus, that I saw on a tree.  

Enjoy.

Native plants of Panama and why terraria 'aren't natural'

Greetings from Panama.  We've been busy setting up new projects and finding new field sites.  Long days and early morning of work have kept us busy, but along with this comes new places and new sights.  It's refreshing to be back working in the forests as it constantly provides new inspiration for future designs.  I have very little time, so this will have to be a quick update. 

One thing I mention often is that my terrarium designs are not 'natural' but rather a stylized representation of what nature looks like.  In nature, plants do not grow as clumped and diverse as how we make terraria.  The dimensions are different and the scope is much larger.  We also typically only grow juvenile growth of many plants such as aroids.  

This is not to say there's anything wrong with scaping and designing these planted glass boxes, it's just a point I wanted to make and illustrate with some images of forests.

For the past year I've also been developing an affinity for Calathea, and this summer I've found two types that I really like so far.

These images are all from lowland forests, in the coming months I'll also take a trip to higher elevations and photograph the impressive diversity there as well, in places where mosses dominate.

From time to time, we also run into some wildlife.

And for any marine lovers, my affinity for zoanthids continues to grow year after year.  These two images were taken just off the dock at the Smithsonian.