Plants

La Payunia is a 25,000 km2 volcanic area located southeast of the Argentinian province of Mendoza, at the foot of the Andes and between rivers Atuel and Colorado. It is one of the regions with more density of volcanoes in our planet, with more than 800 cones of different sizes and eruption styles. These quantity and density make La Payunia one of the most important volcanic districts on Earth. Its landscape, made by vast lava plains with many volcanic cones, basalt flows and pyroclastic fields looks like a different planet, making the visit to La Payunia a wonderful experience. The area is candidate...

Like every year by mid-May the Patagonian forest is bursting in autumn colors, as lengas, ñires and other Nothofagus trees are turning into yellow, orange and fire-red on the mountain slopes. Last year in San Martín de los Andes area we had the Calbuco volcano eruption, and the forest was partly covered in grey ashes, but this year the fall is being as spectacular as it used to be. As in the north hemisphere spring is starting to melt the ice and the snow, warming the weather and making the minds dream about the prospect of summer holidays, here down south days are turning shorter and shorter,...

The Andean-Patagonian forests, also known as Subantarctic forests, spreads over steep elevations along a thin strip on both sides of the Andes, on southern South America. These are the southernmost forests in the world, and have their origin 45 million years ago on the Gondwana supercontinent, where the forests of South America, Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania and South Africa have their ancestors. The Patagonian forests can be considered a “green island”, as they have been isolated from other forests for the last 10 million years, resulting on a high number of endemism.   The existence...

An ecoregion or ecological region is a relatively large biogeographical area characterized by the unique features of its ecology, climate, geomorphology, soils, flora and fauna. The Taiga, the African Savanna, the Mediterranean Forest or the Amazonian Jungle are good examples of ecoregions. The Patagonian Steppe is the ecoregion that covers most part of Patagonia, around 730.000 Km² in southwest Mendoza, centre of Neuquén, southwest of Río Negro and most of Chubut and Santa Cruz, except their west side. The steppe borders the Andean-Patagonian forest on the west, the Monte region on the north...

The Baker River in Chile, runs by the south of the Aysen Region, going from the Bertrand Lake to reach the Pacific Ocean in Caleta Tortel. It is the drainage of the huge bi-national Buenos Aires/General Carrera Lake, the second largest in South America, which is fed by the melting of the Northern Patagonian Ice Field. Along its course of 175 Km. the Baker River valley delivers unforgettable landscapes and an enormous environmental richness, being one of the main attractions of the Chilean part of Patagonia.     From its source in the Bertrand Lake the Baker River is wide, carrying...

HUMMINGBIRDS: ¿INSECTS OR BIRDS? Trochilidae family, known as hummingbirds, is endemic of the New World. For some authors they belong to the Apodiformes order, together with the swifts, while for some other authors hummingbirds constitute their own order, Trochiliformes. Despite theses academic discussions the most remarkable about hummingbirds is both their morphology, with some unique adaptations within the birds class, as well as their key ecologic role on their ecosystems, as we shall see later the Green-fired Firecrown. Some hummingbirds are among the smallest birds in the world,...

Araucaria araucana (Monkey Puzzle Tree) is a conifer of the genus Araucaria, which have 2 native species in South America and 13 more in New Caledonia, New Guinea and Australia.   Araucaria is endemic of Argentina (Neuquén province) and Chile (regions of Bío-Bío, La Araucanía y Los Lagos), and inhabits valleys and hillsides of the northern Andean-Patagonian forests, forming pure or mixed forests with Nothofagus species.   Its long cylindrical branches are arranged themselves in verticils and fall heavily covered with coriaceous sharp deep green colored leaves. The end of the cones,...

Los Alerces National Park, considered one of the most beautiful in Argentina, is located in Patagonia, on the Andean region of the Chubut province with the Chilean border by its west side. The park has a total surface of 236,000 has., comprising several different ecosystems: the Valdivian Temperate Rain Forest, the Andean-Patagonia Forest, the High-Andean Steppe and the Patagonian Steppe. The AlerceThe park was created in 1937 with a main goal: protecting the pure forests of one of the most emblematic species of the Andean-Patagonian forests: the Alerce (Fitzroya cupressoides), or lahuán,...

Perito Moreno National Park (do not confuse with Perito Moreno Glacier, which is 450 Km south, in Los Glaciares National Park) is a protected area on the center west of the Santa Cruz province, in the southernmost part of the Argentine Patagonia. Limiting with Chile on its west side it has a surface of 115,000 has., covering a representative mix of the Patagonian Steppe and the humid Subantarctic Forest. The area was declared national park in 1937, and due to its isolation and harsh weather it is one of the most unknown national park in Patagonia. It also the less visited, with less than 2,000...

The Pehuén Region or Pehuén Route is a touristic route that covers the mountain area in the center-west of the Neuquén province, north of the Argentine Patagonia. The central theme of the route is the presence in this region of the only Araucaria (or Pehuén for the native Mapuches) forests in Argentina. The route links the three main touristic centers of the region: Aluminé, Villa Pehuenia and Caviahue-Copahue. Other towns like Zapala, Las Lajas and Loncopué are the points of access or stopover along the route.   The Monkey Puzzle Tree The Pehuén or Araucaria Araucana (Monkey...