Planting a City in the Tropical Andes: Plants and People in Bogotá, 1880 to 1920

This book reveals how the 19th Century modernisation of Bogotá led to a transformation in the social role of plants – showing how this city located in the high altitudes of the tropical Andes turned into a ‘floristic island’ formed by native, introduce, wild and cultivated plants.

Urbanisation is one of the main forces behind biodiversity loss. Paradoxically, the expansion of cities has made urban environment spaces with a greater numbers of plant species compared to their surrounding areas....