Plants and Rainforest of Manuel Antonio
Manuel Antonio’s forest sits in the transition between tropical moist and tropical wet forest, edged by mangroves, wetlands and a narrow strip of beach trees. SINAC records about 346 plant species in the national park, and they are the reason the animals are here: leaves for sloths and howlers, fruit for monkeys and toucans, flowers for bats and bees. One tree on the beach deserves real caution, the manzanillo: SINAC asks visitors not to sit in its shade, touch it or eat its fruit.
Manuel Antonio's forest in brief
| In short | |
|---|---|
| Forest type | Transition between tropical moist and tropical wet forest, with mangroves, wetlands and beach forest (SINAC). |
| Plant species | More than 350 recorded in the park, around 19 of them endemic to Costa Rica (INBio, cited by SINAC). |
| Trees to spot first | Guarumo (sloth tree), ceiba, strangler figs, beach almond (macaw tree), royal palms. |
| Flowers | Heliconias, orchids, bromeliads and flor blanca (frangipani) in the wild; red ginger and many more in gardens. |
| One tree to avoid | The manzanillo on the beach: no touching, no shade, no fruit (SINAC). |
| Mangroves | A small mangrove inside the park and a large estuary at Damas Island, north of Quepos, best seen by boat or kayak. |
| At ECOTICA | A 10-acre private rainforest reserve where the same trees feed monkeys, sloths, toucans and nesting scarlet macaws. |
The habitats of Manuel Antonio
Travel Guide › Plants and rainforest
This isn’t a complete botanical inventory. It’s a visitor’s introduction to the kinds of plant life you will walk through, drawn mainly from SINAC and the national park’s 2013–2018 management plan.
Humid forest
The management plan explains that the park was created partly to protect a piece of forest in the transition between tropical moist and tropical wet forest, a type that has almost disappeared from the region. Forest covers about 621 hectares, around a third of the park’s land area. Only a small part still looks like the original forest (about 105 hectares in a 2005 assessment), mostly on the steepest ground around Puerto Escondido and Punta Catedral, where trees such as guácimo colorado, guapinol, lechoso and ceiba dominate. Other areas are old regrowth, and some former cattle pastures from the 1970s are now young forest with guanacaste, laurel, peine de mico, guarumo and guaba trees.
Records from INBio cited in the plan put the park’s land flora above 354 species. Around 19 are endemic to Costa Rica, and a few, such as the bromeliad Pitcairnia halophila (a piñuela) and the orchid Epidendrum congestum, are known only from the park.
Beaches and coastal forest
Behind the sand grows a narrow fringe of trees that can tolerate salt, wind and drought, including the manzanillo, the beach jicarillo (Amphitecna latifolia) and the chaperno. The Indian almond (Terminalia catappa), with its big leaves that turn red before they fall, is also common on beaches here, but it is an introduced tree originally from India that shades out native plants (crtrees.org).
Mangroves and wetlands
SINAC describes a mangrove of about 18 hectares, a mix of fresh and salt water, that you can see from the trails behind Playa Manuel Antonio and Playa Espadilla Sur, with red, piñuela and caballero mangroves. Across the park’s estuaries the management plan lists red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle), the tea mangrove or piñuela (Pelliciera rhizophorae), black and white mangroves, buttonwood and the mangrove fern. There is also a small lagoon between Espadilla and Manuel Antonio beaches, and a herbaceous swamp near the Naranjo River that fills with platanillos (heliconias) in the rainy season.
The layers of the rainforest
A tropical forest is easier to read once you see it as a building with floors. Each level has its own light, its own plants and its own residents, and learning them tells you where to point your binoculars.
Emergents: the giants
A few trees push their crowns above everyone else, 30 to 40 m up, where sun and wind are strongest. In Manuel Antonio the ceiba and the guapinol are the classic emergents, and you will recognize them on the skyline of Punta Catedral. Scarlet macaws and hawks like these lookout posts, and in the dry season the leafless ceibas stand out like gray candelabras.
Canopy: the roof
Below them, the crowns of most trees knit together into a continuous green roof that catches most of the sunlight. This is where the action is: fruit, flowers and new leaves, and therefore monkeys, sloths, toucans and iguanas. The canopy is also a garden in the air, with orchids, bromeliads, ferns, mosses and climbing aroids growing on branches. These epiphytes take nothing from the tree; they simply use it as a place to live and collect water and nutrients from rain and falling debris.
Understory: life in the shade
Young trees waiting for a gap, palms, shrubs and big-leaved plants grow in the dim light beneath the canopy. Many have broad, dark green leaves with pointed “drip tips” that shed rainwater fast. Look here for hummingbirds working heliconia flowers, manakins and smaller birds, frogs on leaves and, at night, sleeping insects.
Forest floor: the recycling center
Only a small share of sunlight reaches the ground, so the floor is surprisingly open. Fallen leaves and fruit disappear quickly thanks to fungi, termites, leaf-cutter ants and other decomposers, which is why tropical soils hold few nutrients and so much of the forest’s wealth sits in the living plants. Buttress roots, like those of the ceiba, spread wide to hold tall trunks upright in shallow soil. Coatis, agoutis and land crabs patrol this level, and a tree that has just fallen opens a sunny gap where guarumos race to fill the space.
You can see all four layers on a single morning in the national park, and also from the paths of ECOTICA’s private rainforest reserve, where a sloth in the canopy and a coati on the ground can be in view at the same time. Our wildlife guide explains which animals use each level.
How plants support the wildlife
Every animal in our wildlife guide depends on these plants. A few examples:
- Leaves for sloths and howlers. Brown-throated three-fingered sloths feed mainly on Cecropia trees (Animal Diversity Web); in Manuel Antonio that means the guarumo. Mantled howlers prefer young leaves, which carry more protein and fewer bitter tannins.
- Fruit for monkeys and birds. Capuchins eat mostly fruit and help spread seeds through the forest, and toucans live largely on fruit (Animal Diversity Web). Scarlet macaws go further and crack open hard seeds and nuts.
- Night flowers for bats. The ceiba opens its pink flowers at dusk, and they are pollinated by bats (crtrees.org).
- Homes for ants. Guarumo trees house Azteca ants in their hollow stems and feed them; the ants in return defend the tree against leaf-eaters (Marting et al. 2018, Scientific Reports).
- Even the poisonous manzanillo feeds someone. Garrobos (black spiny-tailed iguanas) swallow its fruit whole on the beach (crtrees.org).
- Nurseries in the mangroves. The management plan records crabs, snails, fish, herons and the endangered mangrove hummingbird in the park’s mangroves.
The seasons change the forest too. On the Pacific slope the dry season runs roughly December to March (IMN), and trees such as the ceiba, the jobo and the peine de mico drop their leaves for part of it, while the manzanillo puts out fresh green leaves just before the rains (crtrees.org).
Plants you will notice in Manuel Antonio
You don’t need to be a botanist to enjoy the forest, but putting a name to a few plants makes every walk richer. These are the ones visitors notice most, in the park, along the roads and around the hotels.
| Plant | How to recognize it | Where you will see it |
|---|---|---|
| Guarumo (Cecropia peltata) | Thin, ringed trunk; huge round leaves, silvery underneath. | Forest edges and gaps; a favorite of sloths. |
| Ceiba (Ceiba pentandra) | Giant gray trunk with rounded buttresses, umbrella crown. | Old forest of the park; leafless around December (crtrees.org). |
| Higuerón, strangler fig (Ficus spp.) | Netted roots wrapped around another trunk, or a hollow lattice where the host once stood. | Throughout the forest; around ten fig species are listed for the park (SINAC). |
| Beach almond (Terminalia catappa) | Big leaves in tiers that turn red before falling; flat, almond-shaped fruits. | Beaches and towns; scarlet macaws feed in it. |
| Manzanillo (Hippomane mancinella) | Glossy oval leaves with a yellow midrib; little green “apples”. Admire from a distance. | Beach edge inside the park; see the safety section above. |
| Palms: coconut, palma real (Attalea butyracea), royal palm | Feather leaves; the ornamental royal palm has a smooth gray column of a trunk. | Beaches, gardens, and the park list (SINAC). Macaws nest in palms at ECOTICA. |
| Indio desnudo (Bursera simaruba) | Red-brown bark peeling in thin sheets over a green layer. | Cliffs at Punta Catedral and Puerto Escondido (crtrees.org); living fences. |
| Platanillo, heliconia (Heliconia latispatha and others) | Banana-like leaves; stiff red, orange or yellow flower bracts. | Wet spots, the Naranjo River swamp, gardens. |
| Flor blanca, frangipani (Plumeria rubra) | Fragrant five-petaled flowers on thick, stubby branches. | Listed among the park’s best-known plants (SINAC); common in gardens. |
| Red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle) | Arching stilt roots standing in water. | Park lagoon and Damas Island estuary. |
| African oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) | Neat rows of stout palms with heavy fruit bunches. | Plantations along the coastal highway around Quepos. |
The manzanillo tree: do not touch
SINAC’s official guidance for Manuel Antonio National Park reads: “Manzanillo tree located on the beach is toxic, please do not sit at its shadow, do not touch or eat its fruit.” You can read it under “Recommendations” on SINAC’s official Manuel Antonio National Park page.
How to recognize it
- A beach-edge tree, usually 10 to 20 m tall, sometimes leaning or partly buried in sand, with gray, cracked bark and no buttresses.
- Glossy, waxy, oval leaves about 6 cm long, with a prominent yellow midrib and a long leaf stalk.
- Small, round, green to yellowish fruits about the size of a small apple (around 4 cm), which can carpet the sand in April and May.
- A white, milky sap that oozes from any broken leaf, twig or fruit.
(Description from crtrees.org and the University of Florida IFAS Extension.)
Why it matters
The University of Florida IFAS Extension states that all parts of the manzanillo (manchineel, Hippomane mancinella) are extremely poisonous, that its milky sap causes burn-like blisters on skin, and that eating any part of the tree can be lethal. Sap can drip from leaves and twigs onto people below, and crtrees.org notes it can cause swelling, blistering and, in the eyes, temporary blindness.
What to do
- Don’t sit, lie down, hang a towel or shelter from rain under a manzanillo.
- Don’t touch the tree, and don’t pick up the fruit, even from the sand. Keep a close eye on children, who may think the fruit is a little apple.
- If sap gets on skin or in the eyes, rinse with plenty of clean water and get medical help, especially for the eyes.
Useful plants: chocolate, vanilla, fruit and old remedies
People have lived from this forest for a very long time, and many plants here have a second life as food, medicine or building material. The rule for visitors is simple and kind to the forest: enjoy these stories with a guide, and taste only what a cook, a farmer or a guide hands you.
Chocolate, vanilla and coffee
Cacao (Theobroma cacao) grows its pods straight from the trunk, a habit botanists call cauliflory. A wild relative, Herrania purpurea, appears in the park’s plant list (SINAC). Vanilla is the cured seed pod of an orchid, Vanilla planifolia, a climbing vine that has to be pollinated by hand on farms. Coffee is grown higher up in Costa Rica’s hills. A farm tour near Quepos shows you each plant from flower to cup or bar, and tastings are part of the fun. Ask our concierge to book a chocolate, coffee or vanilla tour.
Fruit along the coast
Coconut palms line the beaches, and the park list also includes the cashew tree, called marañón in Costa Rica (Anacardium occidentale), whose juicy “fruit” is actually a swollen stalk carrying the true nut. The nut’s shell contains an irritating oil, which is why cashews are always roasted before eating. Jobo fruits, described in the trees section above, ripen around August and are loved by monkeys.
Traditional remedies, with care
The red sap of sangre de drago (Croton draco) has long been used in Costa Rican folk medicine on cuts and skin (ScienceDirect review, 2025). The peeling indio desnudo provides a sticky resin once used for varnish, glue and home remedies, and its cut branches sprout into living fence posts (crtrees.org). The park’s management plan also notes several species with medicinal potential. These are fascinating to hear about on a guided walk; please leave the tasting and treating to the experts, because some forest saps, like the manzanillo’s, are harmful.
From bananas to oil palm
The flat land around Quepos was planted first with bananas and, from 1955, with African oil palm (SINAC). The palm rows you drive through on the way to Manuel Antonio are part of the area’s history, told in our history and culture guide. For gentler local flavors, see our food and before-you-go tips.
Trees you can learn to recognize
These trees are documented in Manuel Antonio National Park and described in detail by crtrees.org, a guide to the trees of Costa Rica’s Pacific slope with many observations from the park. Enjoy them with your eyes: SINAC asks visitors not to touch plants, and nothing should be picked, tasted or taken home.
Guarumo (Cecropia peltata)
The only Cecropia in the park. A fast-growing pioneer tree of 10 to 15 m with a thin, hollow trunk ringed with leaf scars and a few long branches. The leaves are huge (30 cm or more across), round with nine deep, finger-like lobes, dark green above and strikingly whitish below, so a guarumo flashes silver in the wind. Its open crown makes it one of the easiest places to spot sloths. It lives only about 20 years, shading the ground so slower, longer-lived trees can grow beneath it.
Ceiba (Ceiba pentandra)
An emergent giant of 25 to 35 m or more, with a straight, branchless trunk, rounded buttress roots and an umbrella-shaped crown. The bark is gray and smooth, with stubby thorns on young trunks and thinner branches. Leaves are palmate, with seven narrow leaflets. On the Pacific slope it usually drops its leaves around December, flowers with pink, night-opening blossoms in January, and releases seeds wrapped in cottony kapok in March. IUCN status: Least Concern (assessed 2017).
Guapinol (Hymenaea courbaril)
One of the tallest trees in Manuel Antonio, up to 40 m, with a perfectly straight, columnar trunk and smooth gray bark, sometimes marked with clear yellow resin. The easy clue is the leaf: two leathery, asymmetrical leaflets that mirror each other, like a pair of hands. It sheds its leaves around September and October and grows a fresh set in November. Its big pods earn it the English nickname “stinking toe”.
Jobo (Spondias mombin)
A common canopy tree with thick, deeply fissured gray bark and large compound leaves of 11 to 17 leaflets. It drops its leaves in the dry season, fills the air with the scent of small white flowers from about mid-March to mid-May, and later bears plum-shaped yellow fruits that ripen and fall around August.
Peine de mico (Apeiba tibourbou)
“Monkey comb”. A small pioneer tree of trail edges and young forest, with smooth, pale green to silvery bark, thin wavy buttresses and large hairy leaves. Its round, 7 cm fruits are covered in flexible bristles, like a comb, and its yellow flowers smell of roses.
Guácimo colorado (Luehea seemannii)
A big tree of the old forest that stands out for the tawny, golden-brown fuzz on the underside of its leaves, which gives the whole crown a bronze color. In flower it shows balls of white stamens above the canopy.
Strangler figs, beach almonds and royal palms
The trees in the section above are the backbone of the park’s forest. These ones tell some of the best stories, and several are easy to see on the drive in or around the hotels.
Strangler figs (higuerones, Ficus spp.)
The park’s plant list includes around ten species of Ficus (SINAC). Many start life high in another tree, from a seed left by a bird or a monkey. The young fig sends roots down the host’s trunk; once they reach the soil, they thicken and fuse into a lattice, while the fig’s crown spreads above. Eventually the host may die and rot away, leaving a hollow tower of roots you can sometimes look up through. Every fig species is pollinated by its own tiny fig wasp, and because different fig trees fruit at different times through the year, they feed monkeys, toucans, bats and coatis when little else is ripe.
Beach almond: the macaws’ favorite
When people say macaws eat “almonds” in Manuel Antonio, they mean the beach almond, or almendro de playa (Terminalia catappa). It is not a true almond and not native: it comes from tropical Asia and grows only along the sandy beaches of the park, unable to compete in the deep forest (crtrees.org). Scarlet macaws feed heavily on its oily seeds, and researchers in the Central Pacific found that planting beach almonds along coastlines and in towns has encouraged macaws to feed there (Vaughan et al. 2006, Revista de Biología Tropical). Fruit peaks around March and April. Listen for the crunching and the shower of husks under the tree.
It is a different tree from the native almendro (Dipteryx) of the Caribbean lowlands, famous as the nesting and feeding tree of the great green macaw. In the forest, the same Central Pacific study found scarlet macaws relied most on the ceiba, the gallinazo (Schizolobium parahyba) and the javillo or sandbox tree (Hura crepitans), whose spiny trunk and exploding seed pods are a sight in themselves (crtrees.org).
Royal palms and palma real
Two different palms share the royal name. In Costa Rica, “palma real” usually means Attalea butyracea, a native palm with huge arching leaves that appears in the park’s plant list (SINAC); macaws eat palm fruit in the wet season (Vaughan et al. 2006). The tall, smooth, gray-trunked royal palms planted in gardens are Roystonea, native to the Caribbean region. At ECOTICA, a pair of scarlet macaws nests in our royal palms, which is why breakfast here sometimes comes with a red-and-blue flyover. Read the story in scarlet macaws nest at ECOTICA.
Mangroves: the forest at the water's edge
Mangroves are trees that can live with their roots in salty, tidal water. In Manuel Antonio they line the lagoon behind the beaches and the park’s estuaries. The management plan lists several species, including:
- Red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle, mangle colorado), one of the dominant species in the park’s better-preserved mangroves. IUCN: Least Concern (assessed 2015).
- Tea mangrove or piñuela (Pelliciera rhizophorae), also dominant in parts of the park’s estuaries. IUCN: Vulnerable (assessed 2024).
- Caballero mangrove (Rhizophora racemosa), black mangroves (Avicennia), white mangrove (Laguncularia racemosa) and buttonwood (Conocarpus erectus).
The management plan notes that the Lagunas de Manuel Antonio estuary receives the Quebrada Camaronera, a stream that drains an area of heavy tourist development, and considers it one of the most polluted estuaries on Costa Rica’s Pacific coast. It’s a reminder that what happens outside the park, including in hotels and homes, reaches the park’s water.
You can see the mangrove from the beach trails in the park. For guided walks with a naturalist, see our wildlife and nature tours.
Exploring the mangroves of Damas Island
The mangrove inside the national park is small and lovely. For the full mangrove experience, head to the estuary of Damas Island, northwest of Quepos, where channels wind through a forest that grows with its feet in the sea.
How a mangrove works
Mangroves live where few trees can: in salty, oxygen-poor mud that the tide floods twice a day. Red mangroves stand on arching stilt roots that brace them against the tide. Black and white mangroves send up pencil-like breathing roots through the mud. Red mangrove seedlings even start growing while still on the parent tree, then drop off as long green spears ready to root wherever the water carries them. The tangle of roots slows the water, traps sediment and shelters young fish, shrimp and crabs, which makes mangroves nurseries for the whole coast.
What you may see
Guided boat and kayak trips through the Damas estuary often find herons and egrets, kingfishers, crocodiles resting on the banks, iguanas, crabs on the roots, and white-faced capuchins that come down to the mangrove edge. With sharp eyes, a guide may point out a boa or a sleeping silky anteater. In the park’s own mangroves, the management plan records the endangered mangrove hummingbird, found only in the mangroves of Costa Rica’s Pacific coast (see our birds guide).
Tips for the trip
- Departure times follow the tide, because many channels are only navigable at higher water. Your guide will choose the best hour.
- Kayaks are quieter and get you deeper into narrow channels; boats are more relaxed and better for families.
- Bring a hat, sunscreen, binoculars and insect repellent.
Planning ahead? Book a mangrove boat or kayak tour with our concierge, or browse our ocean and boat tours.
Garden plants and forest plants
Many of the brightest flowers you see around Manuel Antonio, such as the red ginger that grows around ECOTICA‘s bungalows, are garden plants. They are lovely, and insects such as bees visit them, but they aren’t the native forest plants described above.
ECOTICA sits on about ten acres of rainforest a few minutes from the national park, and the same rules apply here as on the trail: look closely, but don’t pick, taste or take plants home. SINAC asks the same in the park, and it also asks visitors not to collect shells or snails from the beaches.
Want to see the forest from the inside? Read our Manuel Antonio National Park guide, browse experiences at ECOTICA, or read about what a rainforest stay is like.
Heliconias, orchids and bromeliads
The forest is mostly green, so its flowers feel like small celebrations. Here are the ones worth looking for, in the wild and in the gardens around Manuel Antonio.
Heliconias (platanillos)
Those stiff, lobster-claw clusters in red, orange and yellow are not petals but bracts, leaf-like cups that hold the small true flowers inside. Heliconias are native to the tropical Americas and are pollinated mainly by hummingbirds, whose bills match the curve of the flowers. Heliconia latispatha is on the park’s plant list (SINAC), and platanillos fill the swamp near the Naranjo River in the rainy season. Sit near a flowering clump at ECOTICA and you will likely see hummingbirds making their rounds.
Orchids
Costa Rica is home to well over a thousand orchid species, and its national flower is an orchid, the purple guaria morada (Guarianthe skinneri). Most local orchids are epiphytes, perched on branches, and many are small enough to miss. The park list includes several Epidendrum orchids, among them Epidendrum nocturnum, whose pale flowers release their scent at night for moths (SINAC). A guide with a scope is the best way to find them up in the canopy.
Bromeliads
Relatives of the pineapple, bromeliads grow in rosettes on branches and rocks. Many form a central “tank” that holds rainwater, a tiny pond in the treetops where insect larvae, spiders and sometimes frogs live (Smithsonian Gardens). The park even has its own endemic bromeliad, the piñuela Pitcairnia halophila, which grows on the coastal rocks (SINAC).
Fragrant and colorful
Flor blanca, or frangipani (Plumeria rubra), is one of the park’s best-known plants (SINAC), with a sweet scent that carries on warm evenings. In the dry season, the flowering of trees such as the ceiba, the jobo and the guácimo colorado brings bats, bees and birds to the canopy. In the gardens, you will also see red ginger, hibiscus and other ornamental favorites, beautiful and well loved by butterflies.
For a slow afternoon among flowers, enjoy the gardens and pool at ECOTICA, or book a treatment at the Jungle Spa, where the rainforest is just beyond the window.
Plants and rainforest of Manuel Antonio: questions and answers
Is Manuel Antonio a real rainforest?
Yes. The park protects forest in the transition between tropical moist and tropical wet forest, with mangroves, wetlands and beach forest around it (SINAC). Some of the oldest forest survives on the steep slopes around Punta Catedral and Puerto Escondido.
How many plant species are there in Manuel Antonio National Park?
SINAC records about 346 plant species, and INBio records cited in the management plan put the park’s land flora above 354, with around 19 endemic to Costa Rica.
Which tree is poisonous on the beach in Manuel Antonio?
The manzanillo (manchineel). SINAC asks visitors not to sit in its shade, touch it or eat its fruit. Choose another tree for your towel and keep an eye on children.
What almond tree do the scarlet macaws eat from?
The beach almond, Terminalia catappa, an introduced tree that lines Pacific beaches. Macaws crack its oily seeds, especially around March and April (crtrees.org; Vaughan et al. 2006).
Why do sloths like the guarumo tree?
Three-fingered sloths feed mainly on Cecropia leaves (Animal Diversity Web), and the guarumo’s open crown makes them easy to spot. Look for them in guarumos at forest edges, including around ECOTICA.
What is a strangler fig?
A fig (Ficus) that starts high on another tree and sends roots down to the ground, slowly surrounding its host. The park lists around ten fig species, and their fruit feeds monkeys, birds and bats.
Where can I see mangroves near Manuel Antonio?
From the trails behind Playa Manuel Antonio and Playa Espadilla Sur inside the park, and on a boat or kayak tour of the Damas Island estuary northwest of Quepos. Our concierge can book it.
Can I pick flowers or take seeds home?
Please leave them for the next visitor. SINAC asks visitors not to touch or take plants in the park, and most countries restrict bringing plants and seeds home. Photos make the best souvenirs.
Can I take a chocolate or vanilla tour near Manuel Antonio?
Yes. Farm tours near Quepos show cacao, vanilla and other crops from plant to tasting. Ask our concierge to book one.
Keep exploring
Keep exploring: see which animals live in each layer of the forest in our wildlife guide, meet the sloths of the guarumo trees and the birds that feed on fruit and nectar, walk the trails with our Manuel Antonio National Park guide, and find waterfalls and forest further afield in waterfalls and day trips. When you are ready, book a guided nature walk.
Arrive with everything ready
Come for the green cathedral of the rainforest and let us plan everything around it before you arrive:
- Book your tours: wander the park’s forest trails with a naturalist guide who can name what grows there, then see the canopy from above on zip lines, or choose rafting or a boat trip
- Reserve Jungle Spa: a massage, couples treatment, facial or body ritual to soften the day after a humid morning among the trees
- Airport transportation: a private transfer from San José, US$195 each way for up to 5 people, so your first glimpse of the forest comes from a comfortable back seat
- Concierge requests: a candlelit dinner, a celebration or a quiet personal touch after a day in the green
- Stay at ECOTICA: check dates and rates for our bungalows and suites for your rainforest escape
Sources for our rainforest and plants guide
- SINAC – Manuel Antonio National Park (official English page: background on the protected forest)
- SINAC – Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio (official Spanish page: visitor rules for walking the forest trails)
- SINAC – Plan General de Manejo, Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio 2013–2018 (PDF; the plant species and forest habitats of the park)
- University of Florida IFAS Extension – Hippomane mancinella, Manchineel (Andreu & Friedman): why this toxic beach tree is best admired from a distance
- Trees of Costa Rica’s Pacific Slope (crtrees.org) – Hippomane mancinella (manzanillo): how to recognise it along Pacific beaches
Photos: Andreas Ebner, Veronika Andrews, Zaid Ahmed, K S ARAVINDA Kashyap, Kevyn Costa, Lloyd Douglas / Pexels.
