This book reveals how the 19th Century modernisation of Bogot-ed 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. Planting a City in the Tropical Andes takes a multidisciplinary approach to shed light on the cultural and ecological mechanisms that have transformed modern cities into what can be described as -floristic islands-. By drawing upon a wide array of historical sources, this book explains how the 19th-century modernization of Bogot-Colombia), led to the replacement of traditional botanical practices with technical knowledge, which in turn endowed the city with a unique florist
