Posts Tagged ‘better know a biome’
Better Know A Biome - 2009 Expo - The Glass House at Itchimbia
Posted by: The Lorax in: ● February 28, 2009
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This month’s biome isn’t strictly a biome - rather it’s the glass conservatory house in Parque Itchimbia, Quito, Pichincha Province. Germane to the ongoing series on the flowers of the 2009 Orchid Expo, the Glass House is a Victorian-style conservatory, purposely built in homage to the one at the Kew Royal Gardens in the UK. However, rather than housing a permanent collection, the Itchimbia Glass House is an exhibition hall primarily used by the botanical community in Ecuador. It was the site of the 2009 Orchid Expo, where three dozen growers and clubs filled the space with thousands of flowers.
The Glass House is set at the top of the extensive Parque Itchimbia, which was in turn a hacienda earlier in Quito’s history. It’s a very large park, some 54 hectares, and looks out over the historic center of the city from an altitude of about 2900 meters above sea level. The Glass House and the park itself are fairly recent additions - until 2003, the area was a dump and the haunt of delinquents. With grants from the city and country, the park was established and the glass house built, and it now serves as a recreation area and the point of exhibitions for the botanical community.
The hill itself has been inhabited in one form or another since pre-incan times, and there are a number of archaeological sites within the park, working to uncover the past of the city and learn more about these cultures by what they left behind. Itchimbia is considered to be one of the most important sites for the history of the Quitu people.
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Better Know A Biome - Lower Transitional Forest
Posted by: The Lorax in: ● January 31, 2009
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Better Know A Biome for January is the Lower Transitional Forest. This is the last boundary between the Andean forest types and the Amazon, and is one of the most biodiverse and orchid-rich biomes in Ecuador. This biome occurs in a strip from about 1000 meters of altitude to about 800 meters, on the eastern slopes of the Andes. It is partially protected by the following national parks: Cayamba-Coca, Llanganates, Sangay, and Podocarpus, although in most cases its protection is an afterthought, and a great deal of poaching still goes on. The Cordillera del Condor and Llanganates Bajo are part of this forest type, declared a Biodiversity Hotspot by the World Wildlife Foundation.
Lower Transitional Forest is characterised by Ahuano (tropical Mahogany), Pumamaqui, and Jacaranda, with a heavy population of Cedrella odorata (Cedro), three kinds of Canelo, Matapalo, and other valuable hardwoods. It is the middle of the range for Sangre de Drago (Croton eleuteria), and home to a wide variety of palm trees. The beginning of this forest type is distinguished by the appearance of Morete palms.
Typically of a diverse biome as this one, there is a healthy animal population ranging from howler monkeys through mountain tapir, ocelots, jaguar, and any number of small rodents and insects. It is the beginning of the range of the bullet ant, and has its own species of coral snake.
The photograph shows the Rio Pastaza valley above the town of Mera, Pastaza Province.
Tags: better know a biome
