Mérida botanical garden center
The Mérida Botanical Garden Center has among its facilities the botanical garden founded in 1991 by the University of Los Andes for the preservation and research of regional flora and fauna, located in the city of Mérida in Venezuela. The garden occupies an area of 44 hectares divided into zones depending on the type of flora existing in the place. It is a member of the BGCI, its code of international recognition as a botanical institution, as well as the acronym of its herbarium is MERC.
The botanical garden is located at the northern end of the city of Mérida, bordering a natural forest on the banks of the Albarregas River and neighboring the Chorros de Milla Zoological Park.
Due to its geographical location in 1850 m s. n. m. in the Venezuelan Andes, the botanical garden of Mérida has an annual temperature between 12-20 °C and a monthly relative humidity between 74-81%. The botanical garden offers guided tours, themed gardens and rock climbing. trees, among a dozen other activities.
History
In 1991 the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Los Andes created the Botanical Garden Center with the aim of providing the city and the university with a site for the study and dissemination of biodiversity. The university provided a 44-hectare plot of land for the project within the areas surrounding the aforementioned faculty in the northern end of the city for its development.
On December 8, 2002, the botanical garden was opened to the general public, remaining open throughout the year.
Physical characteristics
The Botanical Garden Center of Mérida is located on the southeastern side of the mountainous region of the Venezuelan Sierra Nevada, in a rugged region that varies between areas with steep slopes, areas of relief formations with little slope and a large plateau of approximately three hectares.
The altitude of the botanical garden ranges around 1800 meters above sea level and an average annual rainfall of 1400 mm. The type of soil is gray in color, acidic in character, with low contents of organic matter but high in exchangeable aluminum, influenced by alluvial contributions from the ravine that crosses the park and depositions of colluvial origin that come from the highest parts of the paramo. The surface layer is covered by a sequence of thick, quartzose sandstones, with intercalations of siltstones and reddish sandstones.
The delineations of the soil are defined with five cartographic units of which the units Gea (48.8%) and Ga (34.5%) occupy 78.3% of the botanical garden area.
Location
The botanical garden is located at the northern end of La Hechicera. Access to the botanical garden is via Alberto Carnevali Avenue. It borders on the northeast with private land and the road that goes to the Chorros de Milla Zoological Park; to the south, Alberto Carnevali Avenue and the Albarregas River; to the east, the Faculty of Forestry Sciences of the ULA, the La Milagrosa neighborhood and the urban area of Los Chorros de Milla; to the West, with the University Stadium and the 'La Hechicera' University complex; from the University of Los Andes.
Collections
This botanical garden houses about 12,000 accessions of live plants in cultivation.
Its special collections include:
- Charcas with a series of water and wetland plants
- Fog forest, with representatives of the Flora biotope of the neotropics of high areas where the fog forests originate.
- Collection of medicinal plants, with the plant species that have used for hundreds of years the natives of the area.
- Zingiberetum, with a collection of plant species belonging to the Zingiberaceae family,
- Orchid, with orchids of various origins;
- Garden of the lianas that allows us to look at the unattainable canopy of the high trees of the jungles;
- Palmeral, with a collection of palms of different origins
- The geometric garden, where you can observe the plant diversity ordered according to scientific criteria;
Bromelario
| Species (binomial) | Common name | Image |
| Aechmea here | Bromelia |  |
| Aechmea spectabilis | Bromelia |  |
| Bromelia pinguin | Chigüichigugüe |  |
| Billbergia rosea | Flower of June |  |
| Ananas comosus | Pineapple |  |
Order: Poales Family: Bromeliaceae
El Bromeliario is made up of a scientific collection of bromeliads with about 20 genera, about 120 species and more than 500 individuals, being the most important at the national level and one of the most complete collections of bromeliads in South America.
The bromeliary of the botanical garden of Mérida was initially established in 2000 through an educational program dictated to the National Institute of Educational Cooperation (INCE). A second stage was developed in 2001 with the participation of a group of workers from the Tourist Information Centers of the Merideña Tourism Corporation (CORMETUR), through a training program in gardening and horticulture. These activities made it possible to consolidate the bromeliad, where the Tillandsia genus turns out to be the most numerous of the entire family, adding more than 14 new records since 1998, which correspond to more than 25% of the existing species in Venezuela.
Xerophytic garden
The xerophyte garden is a space for educational and research purposes, with specimens from the various arid regions of Venezuela.
| Species (binomial) | Common name | Image |
| Plumeria rubra | White poppy |  |
| American bird | Maguey |  |
| Opuntia elatior | Tuna brava |  |
| Agave cocui | Cotice | |
Garden of useful plants
| Species (binomial) | Common name | Image |
| Ocimum basilicum | Albahaca |  |
| Melia azedarach | Ali |  |
| Origanum vulgare | Oregano |  |
The garden of useful plants contains species used by humans for different purposes and includes a fruit field, ornamental and medicinal plants, aromatic, edible or magical herbs, for example there is Chinese ginseng.
Deciduous Garden
| Species (binomial) | Common name | Image |
| Tabebuia rosea | Take it easy. |  |
| Swietenia macrophylla | Caobo |  |
| Ceiba pentandra | Ceiba |  |
| Cedrela odorata | Cedro |  |
| Pithecellobium saman | Samana |  |
The deciduous forest of the botanical garden is located in border areas between the thorny bush and the semi-deciduous mountain forest, at an altitude between 600 to 1500 m s. n. m., with an average annual temperature between 18 and 23 °C. The forest presents very variable water conditions from one year to the next, with annual precipitation that coincides with that of the rest of the garden. It has an elevation of approximately 20 m, dominated by deciduous trees such as the "Indio Desnudo", abundant lianas and epiphytes and the Araguaney, the national tree of Venezuela.
Activities
- Conducts conservation programmes for endangered species.
- It carries out a program of study and cataloguing medicinal plants.
- Conservation program "Ex Situ".
- Re-introduction programme in its natural habitat of threatened species.
- Biotechnology Studies
- Conservation - Biology
- Conservation - Genetic
- Ecology
- Ecosystem Conservation
- Education
- Exploration
- Florist
- Horticulture
- Study of plant pollination
- Ecological restoration
- Systematics and Taxonomy
- Sustainability
- Restoration of land.
- Urban environment.