The origin of the Los Charcos logo was an antique botanical print showing the ventral view of a fruit of the palm Raphia taedigera (Arecaceae), known locally as "tagua". Once digitally manipulated, the original design took on something of a floral motif and, thus, seemed eminently suitable to serve as our logo.
The one-seeded fruit of R. taedigera are ellipsoid to oblong, 5-7 cm long, green when fresh and reddish-brown when dried, smooth, and with attractive imbricate scales. Occassionally they are used in artesania in Costa Rica.
The genus Raphia contains 28 spp. (Otedoh, 1982) distributed throughout wet areas of Africa and Madagascar with the exception of R. taedigera, which is the only member of the genus present in the Americas (although another African species, R. farinifera, is naturalized in the Lesser Antilles Islands of Martinque and Guadeloupe). Some authors consider that the presence of R. taedigera in the Americas is most likely due to the introduction of seeds by African slaves. For example, Anderson and Mori (1967) believed some Central American populations were pioneer communities, possibley as a result of recent introduction.
This is a plant species that is rapidly vanishing from our regional landscape as a direct result of habitat loss. It would normally be encountered growing in dense stands in swampy areas, and these are now frequently drained to make way for cattle grazing or, ironically perhaps, plantations of the African palm Elaeis guianensis, which is fast becoming the choice economic crop on the Osa Peninsula and from which palm oil is extracted. Notably, E. guianensis is an aggresively invasive "exotic" species.
A few remanant stands of R. taedigera exist locally, and can be viewed from the slopes of Los Charcos.
Literature cited:
- Otedoh, M. 1977. The African origin of Raphia taedigera - Palmae. Nigerian Field 42:11-16.
- Anderson, R., and S. Mori. 1967. A preliminary investigation of Raphia palm swamps, Purto Viejo, Costa RIca. Turrialba 17:221-224.