Our logo is a mature nectandra fruit attached to its red supporting stem. Nectandras are trees in the Lauraceae family which bear small oily fruits related to the avocado that we are familiar with, but much smaller—more like olives in size and appearance. The fruits are either green or black, with red or green calyx.
These fruits are highly nutritious and attractive to many species of fruit-eating birds, such as the resplendent quetzal and the three-wattled bell bird, two well-known inhabitants of the cloud forest. Not all of the 114 species of the Nectandra genus are found in cloud forests, but several species, such as Nectandra salicina and many from the closely related genus Ocotea are found in our forest.
We have adopted the Nectandra name as a reminder of the importance of the cloud forest in sustaining many forms of life, including the much sought after spectacular birds by visitors to Costa Rica. Both the quetzals and bell birds are declining in numbers and this decline is believed to be due to the loss of suitable habitat containing fruit to support their migrant populations.
