XVI International Botanical Congess

Tropical dry forests in Nicaragua generally occupy about 30,000 km2, although some of the area is lakes and cloud forest on emergent volcanoes and much has been converted to agriculture Between 1960 and 1980, the principal source of income of many rural families was derived from these dry forests. Now there is little remaining dry forest and most of this is in the hands of large landholders and in one important biological reserve, Chococente. Tropical dry forest is characterized by being deciduous during the long dry season. In these forests, there are about 300 species of trees with known uses. Although generally deciduous, there are a number of species, which are evergreen or remain leafless for only about a week. Many of these evergreen or nearly evergreen species are important sources of wood, animal fodder, medicines, wildlife food and even human food sources. The main emphasis of this study is to find the species little known for their uses and even unknown in the Nicaraguan flora and to use evergreen species in reforestation projects.