Travel Story--the Botanical Garden in Quito, Ecuador

Quito, the capital of Ecuador, is at 9,350' in elevation (the various neighborhoods a little higher and a little lower) and the town center is about 15 miles south of the Equator (latitude 0ᆼ,0', 0"). I live at about 5,000' elevation in Colorado. Where I live, winter lasts from October to May. In Quito, there is no winter. Despite the elevation, Quito does not have frosts and consequently, the Botanical Garden had amazing tropical plants. It boggled this temperate zone botanist's mind.

orchid (Epidendrum) growing outside in Quito

Frost and freezing are critical factors limiting plant distributions. When water freezes, it expands. Most plants have no defense against the water in their cells expanding, so the expansion breaks surrounding structures, killing the cell and so the plant. The tropics sre defined as places that are frost-free. The subtropics, such as Miami, Florida, get a frost every few years, which is enough to prevent the survival of most tropical trees. 

Here I was at  high elevation. When I climbed briskly up a flight of stairs, I gasped, the air at 9,000' is thin.  But everywhere the vegetation said "never have had frost." 

For example, they grew big banana plants (Helpful, knowledgeable guide for scale)

Here were big tropical aquatics in the pond

and Brugmansia sanguinea (tomato family, Solanaceae) which is also killed by frost. We usually call it angel's trumpet, but the sign at the garden said la flor del Inca, the Inca's flower. It has been planted all over the world for its gorgeous flowers and strong fragrance, but it is native to the Andes and as far as anyone knows, extinct in nature.  

Brugmansia sanguinea, Inca's flower

The garden had huge horsetails (Equisetum). People always told me, when pointing out horsetails along roadsides in the Midwest, that 300 million years ago, in the Carboniferous, they grew to over 100' in height. This plant I estimated at 12' high, the largest horsetail I ever remember seeing. It is probably Equisetum myriochaetum the largest living horsetail, reaching 15' commonly, and a record of about 24'. It is native to Ecuador, its range going north to Mexico. I'm sorry I didn't put in anything for scale, to show you how tall it is. The only genus in its family, the Equisetaceae, this is not a flowering plant but a much older lineage, reproducing by spores produced in specialized shoots (diagram, more information), My photo shows the very tall vegetative shoots. 

giant horsetail, Equisetum myriochaetum

The Botanical Garden had a nice collection of cacti and succulents, as Ecuador has many native plants in those groups. Because Quito gets 45-50" of rain a year, the roof keeps the cacti from being overwatered.

cacti and succulents in Quito Botanical Garden

Here is how that orchid, shown in the first photo was growing...on the outside of the buildings. 

Epidendrum orchid, outdoors year round in Quito

There were several greenhouses, for rainforest or cloudforest plants, for example, with collections of spectacular Ecuadorean plants, orchids, begonias, bromeliads, carnivorous plants.... Ecuador is one of the most biologically diverse countries on earth, not just because it goes from the Pacific Coast to the high Andes and down into the Amazon tropics, but because each of those habitats is particularly rich in different species. There is no way a single garden can do much showing the biological riches of Ecuador, the botanical garden at most hit a few wonderful plants, which it did. 

In the greenhouse: 

Masdevallia veitchiana, orchid

Here are some more views walking through the garden

The pond

Fuchsias 

Fuchsia, Quito Botanical Garden

Very attractive water lilies

I could have spent a lot more time there, looking at strange cacti and orchids and marvelling at the tropical diversity that grows at 9,000' elevation if you are on the Equator. 

I don't often reflect on "why travel?". But places like Quito are why: it changed the way I look at elevation, and showed me plants like the giant equisetum that had only been the source of stories before.  There's a grounding that seeing something for oneself creates that reading and videos do not. Been there, seen bananas prospering at 9,000' up in the mountains. Wow.

Comments and corrections welcome

Kathy Keeler, A Wandering Botanist
More at awanderingbotanist.com
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Please take a look at my books. For those who don't read the internet or prefer books, I gathered posts together into actual books, for example:

NoCo Notables, Stories of Common Plants of the Colorado Front Range, Plants have cool stories, about their interactions with other plants and animals and with humans. Go beyond just having a name for the plant, learn more about it. Available from Amazon link or from me. 

And

Look Twice, containing stories of plants from western Nebraska and eastern Colorado, available from Amazon  link or from me. 

New book coming this summer: Plants You Meet Everywhere. The stories of really cosmopolitan plants such as plantains, marigolds and bougainvillea.