Las Cruces is one of three biological stations owned and operated by the Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS) in Costa Rica. The station was acquired by OTS in 1973 and is located at 1200 m (3940 ft) along a spur of the Zapote coastal range, about 300 km southeast of the capital San José in Coto Brus County (8° 47' N, 82° 57' W). The nearest town, San Vito, is 6 km away and is the principal commercial center for the region.

The station is home to the Wilson Botanical Garden featuring beautifully diverse plantings of tropical and subtropical ornamentals, representatives of unusual plant families and rare and endangered plants from Costa Rica and elsewhere. Particularly well represented are ferns, aroids, bromeliads, gingers, heliconias, marantas, and palms. More than 1,000 genera in 212 plants families can be seen along the many trails that wind through the garden grounds that total some 12 hectares.

Las Cruces receives roughly 4 m of rainfall annually and harbors a distinct dry season from January – March. Afternoon mist and nightly fog characterize the wet season, but they also occur during the dry season and are thus important for maintaining the abundant epiphytic flora. Las Cruces protects a total of 266 hectares, of which a little over 200 are primary and some 50 hectares are secondary forest. The forest is classified as a Tropical Premontane Rainforest according to the Holdridge system and the topography is very rugged with elevation ranging from 1000 – 1350 m. This wide range in elevation allows for very high diversity and the forest is home to over 2,000 plant species. There are over 100 species of mammals at LCBS, of which 43 are bats and an impressive diversity of birds with both montane and lowland species represented. Over 400 bird species have been recorded at Las Cruces and a number of them are endemic to the region. Due to the altitude, reptiles are less diverse but an estimated 70 species have been reported. The station also has high invertebrate diversity and 1000s of insect species have been recorded.

Las Cruces forms part of the La Amistad Biosphere Reserve that encompasses 472,000 hectares of parkland and buffer zones centered in the southern Talamanca mountain range. Though La Amistad is only 40 kilometers from the Station, it is the largest and least-explored park in Central America, and for this reason Las Cruces offers excellent base-station facilities for researchers and visitors wishing to explore the park.

Despite the high diversity of the region, Coto Brus County is one of the most deforested in Costa Rica; it is also one of the most recently deforested. The area is highly fragmented and the regional landscape is made up of a mosaic of mixed-use agricultural fields. Originally this was principally a coffee growing region, however, most agricultural land has been converted to pasture in the last decade due to the global drop in coffee prices. Given the steepness of land and high annual rainfall, conversion to pasture has resulted in many environmental problems including soil erosion, water contamination, and flooding. Courses and researchers working out of the station can take advantage of these ready-made experimental sites for studies in conservation biology and restoration ecology.

Las Cruces serves as the principal center in the region for teaching, research, and on-site public education. The Wilson Hall comfortably accommodates course groups with sleeping and study quarters, and the dining room serves three meals a day with seating capacity for more than 80 guests. Duplex cabins are available to long-term researchers and families with children, and 12 double-occupancy cabins with private baths and balconies provide extremely attractive space for birding groups and natural history visitors of all types. A spacious non-air-conditioned lab space is outfitted with dissecting and compound microscopes, balances, centrifuges, leaf-area meter, drying ovens and a number of other supplies to meet researcher needs. Wireless internet access is available at most of the buildings at Las Cruces.

A biannual publication, the Amigos Newsletter communicates the research, botanical, and horticultural news of Las Cruces and the Wilson Botanical Garden to its friends and supporters. Research write-ups, course activities, station updates, and human-interest stories about life in southern Costa Rica, as well as occasional forays into other regions of the tropical world, help bring people in touch with this magical part of Costa Rica. For more information on the newsletter please contact us at lcruces@ots.ac.cr.