Bogota Botanical Garden

The garden is named for Jose Celestino Mutis, who led the Royal Botanical Expedition of New Granada from 1783 and catalogued an enormous quantity of Andean plants. Its collections concentrate on Colombian high-altitude flora, and the paramo section matters more than it looks: frailejones, the woolly-leaved plants that dominate that ecosystem, grow roughly a centimetre a year, so a plant two metres tall has been there two centuries, and their leaves capture water from cloud that feeds the rivers Bogota drinks from. Orchid collections are substantial - Colombia has more orchid species than any other country. A tropical glasshouse holds lowland species that will not survive at 2,600 metres outdoors.

History

The garden honours José Celestino Mutis, born in Cádiz in 1732, who from 1783 led the Royal Botanical Expedition to New Granada, which described more than 6,600 new plant species, though most of his work was never published. In 1937 the botanist and priest Enrique Pérez Arbeláez tried to found a school of botany at the National University, but civil unrest held the plan back; on 6 August 1955 the Bogotá council lent him 43.34 acres, and he founded the garden and named it after Mutis (Wikipedia, Bogotá Botanical Garden).

Highlights

• Paramo frailejones - growing a centimetre a year, capturing cloud water.
• A large orchid collection - from the country with the most species.
• Andean high-altitude flora - the garden's main focus.
• A tropical glasshouse - for species that cannot live outside at altitude.

When to go

Year round; Bogota is cool and often wet. Two hours.

Good to know

Bogota's weather is changeable and often drizzling - bring a layer. Labelling is largely in Spanish. It is in the west of the city, away from the tourist centre. Weekend crowds are heavy.

Nearby

Parque Simon Bolivar is east; central Bogota is beyond.

Key facts