From Jacarandas to Living Walls: Plants of Mexico City

Inner garden of the Palacio Nationale, Mexico City, with cats

As you all know by now, I'm in love with plants. One of the things I was looking forward to the most about being in Mexico was seeing palm trees, and finding out more about what plants grow in that particular climate.

Unlike some parts of Mexico, the capital city is neither tropical nor desert. There is a rainy season (not now) and my impression was that in general it's quite dry there. But it's also high - over 6,000 feet, in a region of high mountains -- the major volcanoes to the southeast rise to over 17,000 feet!

Mass planting of clivias, at the zoo

I haven't read anything yet about the ecology or botany of the area. Basically, what I saw were succulents and cactus growing to enormous sizes; small houseplants that we're used to having indoors growing as small trees and lush hedges (crotons, rubber plants); banana trees, clivias and agapanthus used as mass-plantings under trees in parks; bougainvillas trailing over trellises and balconies and clambering up trees; and everywhere, breathtaking violet jacaranda trees -- an icon of Mexico City -- in full bloom.

Jacarandas

The Palacio Nationale, where we saw the Rivera murals, has a large inner garden (top picture), open to the public. Part of it is filled with trees, and inhabited by cats who are given food and water and, in return, stay there safely, though some of them they looked pretty scruffy.

The other side is a botanical garden (above), full of succulents and cactus growing on black volcanic rocks. We spent quite a while there, taking pictures and enjoying the atmosphere of an entirely different sort of garden.

I hope the photographs manage to convey the scale, and show you just how huge these plants really were.

An old cactus with new leaves. In the streets and the markets, people are preparing leaves like these to eat, cutting the spines of with sharp machete-like knives, and cooking the leaves on a hot griddle. I didn't try them but I was curious!

It was a shock to me to see that people had carved their initials in some of these magnificent plants! First, because it seems like such an unnecessary thing to do, and second because of the longevity it implied for the plants themselves, which stoically continued to grow, slowly, year after year.

But the most extraordinary thing we saw was this living wall. I could hardly believe it. The substrate is a thick landscape fabric that feels like felt. The plants are all growing in pockets in that fabric, and there must be some sort of internal irrigation system. Isn't it fantastic?

Comments

[Jan]

Absolutely gorgeous, Beth. You did a marvelous job of capturing the beauty.

[Marja-Leena]

Yes, gorgeous! I wish I could see those jacarandas for I've never met one. The living wall design in the bottom photo is amazing. That has become popular in some of the new "green" buildings around Vancouver but I'm not sure if any have this kind of design. I must go find some for I've only seen them in print and online.

[Rachel Barenblat]

Oh, wow; that living wall looks amazing!

Many years ago, when Geekcorps was still operating in Ghana, they had a house they called Geekhalla, where the geeks who were doing a tour of service in Accra lived, and in the garden of that house was an enormous cactus in which generations of children had carved their names. That's what I thought of when I read that part of this post...

[Leslee]

I love jacaranda! I first saw them in Hawaii in the 80s, then in Mexico in 2004 and 2005. The jacaranda and bougainvillea (buganvilla in Spanish) blooming along the colorful walls paint in San Miguel de Allende fill the photos I brought back those years.

[Judy Wise]

Ah, Beth, your photographs of Mexico City are simply stunning. The jacaranda was blooming in Oaxaca too. Mexico City. Maybe next year. xo

[sir john kraus]

How nice to travel with that perspective. Very grounded. Allows your vision to branch out. Cool, and fun to look at- thanks for sharing.