From
the mangroves that line considerable sectors of the coast
and Caribbean islands
to the high endemism of the unique tabletop mountains,
Venezuela is a highly diversified country with many different
and distinctive botanical environments. The Flor de Mayo
(May’s Flower), one of the numberless species of orchids,
is the national flower, and the bright yellow when blossomed
Araguaney, known as “Trumpet Tree”, is the national tree.
The
highly specialized forests of mangrove provides protection
and food to a countless wealth of marine life, and are
distinctive of several portions of the Venezuelan coast
and islands,
especially in Morrocoy,
Mochima
and Los
Roques Archipelago National Parks and in the Orinoco
Delta, where they contour a complete maze of interrelated
water courses with a rich variety of vegetation, particularly
palms, many of which have ancestral medicinal uses.
The
Venezuelan rainforests encompass a multiplicity and abundance
of plants, and the cloud forests are even more specialized
with profuse epiphytes like mosses and ferns, lichens
and orchids. Cloudforests are found in the lower slopes
of the Andes
and in the upper elevations of the Coastal Range, particularly
around Choroni
in the Henri Pittier National Park.
Dry
and evergreen gallery forests in which water hyacinths
and ferns and reeds can be found distinguish the grasslands
of the Venezuelan Llanos.
A distinct and scenic feature of the flatlands are the
Mauritia palms, known in Spanish as “Moriche” and that
usually grow around small streams and ponds, forming beautiful
and life-packed “Morichales”.
The
Andes
Paramos feature characteristic and varied species of Frailejon
(espeletia), which blooms in the boreal autumn and reaches
up to 10 feet high. Mosses, fuschias, bromeliads and orchids
are frequent, along with giant groundsels and patches
of bamboo. Our three
and four
nights Scenic Andes Tours introduce the visitor to these
ecosystems.
The
incomparable plateaus of the table top mountains that
dot the scenic Gran
Sabana, known as Tepuis, present a high rate of endemic
species thanks to the million of years of seclusion from
the lowlands below and other tepuis. The distinctive flora
includes moor plants, tiny and big orchids, mosses, bonnetia
trees, lichens and shrubs, with the predominant stegolepis
guianensis and stegolepis ptaripuyensis and the insectivorous
droseras, heliamphoras and utricularias topping the assortment.
Dazzling chances to experience this remarkable wealth
of unrepeatable plant life abound in our Auyantepuy
and Roraima
Trekkings.
In
the Venezuelan Amazon,
lianas are copious, along with water lilies, lettuces
and hyacinths and epiphytes like bromeliads, orchids,
ferns, mosses and lichens.
Contact
us to include botanical
tours in a customized itinerary of travel to Venezuela.
