While life may be bursting out of Corcovado and the Osa peninsula as a whole, the rest of the country doesn’t do too badly either. In fact, around one quarter of the country is now protected¹.

But none of its hugely diverse range of fauna could survive without its equally impressive range of flora. After all, only a few species have truly adapted to living in today’s concrete jungles.

This collection is dedicated to all of the things that grow out of the earth – and even out of each other.

All of this is thanks to the very nature of the country’s ecosystem itself. Each new plant must strive to establish itself amongst dozens, if not hundreds, of others vying to do the same thing in the same spaces.

This leads to the most extraordinary evolutions, with plants learning how to adapt and even how to attract their own niche army of pollinators. Truly mind boggling.

There are over 10,000 different species of flora, 9,000 of which produce flowers – of which Orchids make up 1,300 all by themselves – supported by 800 species of ferns and 2,000 species of trees² ³.

Leafcutter ants carry cuttings back to the nest, not to eat, but to chew and place in special chambers of the nest in order to cultivate fungus. The fungus is then fed to the larvae, and the adults feed off of leaf sap⁴.

The fungus can’t survive without being cultivated by the ants, and the larvae can’t survive without feeding off the fungus. And so goes the circle of life.

Just within the Tenorio Volcanic National Park lies a river bestowed with a beautiful celestial colour. Locals say that God dipped his brush in the river as he was painting the sky.

The actual explanation is that two streams merge at a point called Los Teñideros, one carrying sulphur, the other calcium carbonate. As they mix they create a colour of such bright blue that the river was aptly named Rio Celeste.