Francisco Javier Clavijero Botanical Garden

Mexico, Mexico

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The Francisco Javier Clavijero Botanical Garden is an important botanical garden located in Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico, approximately 500 kilometers east of Mexico City, founded in 1975 and inaugurated in February 1977, covering 38 hectares total with 30 hectares of preserved forest on an old coffee plantation and 8 hectares of botanical exhibitions.

The garden is dedicated to Francisco Javier Clavijero, a Novohispano Jesuit teacher, scholar, and historian who authored the "Historia antigua de México". Since 1989, it has been part of the Instituto de Ecología, A.C. (INECOL) and maintains a scientific collection of living plants exhibiting approximately 6,000 specimens from 700 plant species to study and conserve regional flora.

The garden's collection includes regional plants with sections dedicated to Mexican ornamental flowers, reconstructed mountain environments from Xalapa, ferns, pines, palms from different parts of the world in its Palmetum, and various gymnosperm species including Araucarias and oyameles in its Pinetum. The site features 8 hectares of mountain cloud forest (Bosque Mesófilo de Montaña), recognized as one of Mexico's richest and most diverse ecosystems where plants from North and South America mix, a pond with aquatic and subaquatic plants, and native and exotic ornamental flowers.