Events: Mexico

Located a few minutes from San Miguel de Allende, El Charco del Ingenio is an extraordinary Botanical Garden and Nature Reserve. It has an extensive collection of cacti and other succulent plants from Mexico, many of them rare, threatened or in danger of extinction.

It is an in situ botanical garden; it develops at 11 hectares (27 acres). It´s one of the two botanical gardens in Mexico that protects the cloud forest.

It has 286 species of flora distributed in 86 families, 19 species are under protection according to NOM-059-SEMARNAT-2019, 30 species in the IUCN Red List and 22 species in CITES. In addition, 63% species has ethnobotanical uses.

The formation of INECOL arose around the interest in developing research on the use of natural resources, conservation and biodiversity in Mexico. In turn, this interest stemmed from the need to have basic studies and scientifically founded answers to solve ecological problems derived from the use of natural resources. This position has allowed us to gather an important accumulation of experiences and is still valid today. With this, it seeks to support with solid foundations the establishment of adequate policies and mechanisms to continue and promote the development of the country, avoiding as much as possible the affectation of the environment and the biological wealth of the ecosystems, which condition the quality of life and the well-being of the population.

The Ethnobotanical Garden displays hundreds of plant species live, all of them native to Oaxaca. We started planting them in July 1998. The plants come from different regions of the State, both from arid and humid climates, from lowland tropics and temperate and cold mountainous areas. The Garden thus represents the great diversity of climates, geological formations and types of vegetation that characterize Oaxaca.

The National University, in its effort to contribute to the scientific knowledge of the biodiversity of Mexico and the world, as well as to fulfill its social responsibility, carries out research, teaching and extension of culture. For this reason, part of our commitments is to make society aware of the work we do and the collection we have, as well as the national collections that are under our protection. So that you know more, have fun and commit to caring for biodiversity, we invite you to visit our beautiful living museum that is the Botanical Garden and the great National Biodiversity Pavilion, which is a research site with an exhibition area with specimens , which has information and organizes activities for you.