Ancient Plants

With this post I give a shout out to mis amigos at Camellia Forest. The first amazing plant is the Tule tree, estimated to be 2000 years old and claimed to be the largest tree in the world. Taxodium mucronatum, common name, Ahuehuete or Sabino, I call it down right incredible.

Tough to get a picture of the whole thing its so huge, it towers over a precious little church in the center of the town of Tule, surrounded by meticulously manicured gardens and lawns complete with topiary squirrels, chickens and rabbits.

Many different animals are spotted in the gnarls and whorls of the massive trunk, in this one I see two different lions heads.

Next stop the Ethno-botanical Garden in the city, only 10 years old, it was created on the grounds of a former convent and contains only plants endemic to Oaxaca. Everything was moved here just 10 years ago and that in itself is kind of unbelievable. This cactus is called bisnaga and is 1000 years old, many of the plants including this one, were dug from an area where a highway was being built and were saved and brought to the garden. It‘s hard to image not being traumatized by being moved from your original home of 1990 years but it seems to be surviving.

I’m going to have to return to this fascinating garden as I went on the Spanish tour and it was getting dark, so I couldn’t take as many pictures as I wanted and missed too much of the explanation, you can only enter on a guided tour so I’ll be laying down another 100 pesos to absorb more of these native Oaxacan plants.

Until next time, I'll be getting back to my tequila.  Buenas Noches de Oaxaca