Flora of Nicaragua

English Summary | Contenido

The Flora of Nicaragua is the first modern flora of that country and the first complete flora of a Latin American country published in Spanish.

Nicaragua occupies the middle of Mesoamerica and has an area of about 130,000 km². The north-central part of the country is dominated by mountains reaching about 2,000 m, while the rest is generally low with occasional emergent volcanos. Nicaragua is phytogeographically interesting because many North American floristic elements reach their southern limits in its mountains and many Amazonian elements reach their northern limits in the southeastern part of the country.

The Flora of Nicaragua describes 5,796 species in 1,699 genera in 225 families of seed plants. There were 175 contributors from 16 countries. The Flora occupies 2,666 pages in three volumes and took about 23 years to complete. The largest family is the Orchidaceae with 601 species.

The Flora of Nicaragua is divided into Gymnosperms and Angiosperms, and within those groups taxa are alphabetical. Families and genera have identification keys. Species treatments include the place of original publication, general synonymy, a brief description, habitat and distribution within the country, vouchers, phenology, general distribution, and some well-established local names.