Santo Domingo Ethnobotanical Gardens

In the churchyard behind Santo Domingo Church in Oaxaca City, the friars had created a garden.  This was turned into a waste dump and recreation area when the church building was occupied by the military.  In 1998, the city successfully petitioned the federal government to restore the place to a botanical garden to showcase and preserve Oaxacan indigenous plants, especially those under threat of extinction. 

This garden also has a series of cisterns and canals through which the water is collected from the roof of the church during the rainy season, aerated in the canals, and then used to water plants which require it during the dry season.

Among the plants we saw were palm look-alike plants that originate in the age of dinosaurs.  There are male and female plants, but the gender cannot be determined until the plant is around 40 or 50 years old and they bloom for the first time.  This plant is extremely poisonous, and it was used to poison arrow tips.  It was intended to paralyze its pray.  If it killed the prey, it would be too poisonous to eat and could also kill the consumer of the pray.

We saw a "shy" herb, whose leaves pull together and contract when touched.  This was favorite for the kids.

We also saw a tree that is called "Flor de Mayo" (May flower), which now grows worldwide and whose flowers are used in Hawaiian lays.  The plant is quite toxic but the flowers are very beautiful.

We also saw a lot of a cacti, which originated in the Americas.  The barrel cactus is also nicknamed "the mother-in-law seat".  This one is hundreds of years old.

 

The kids marveled at the size of the organ pipe cacti.

 

These succulents grow up a wall and bloom only at night.  They have a white flower that is pollinated by bats and then provide a fruit.

 

 

 

This is a Huaje tree, a legume, whose seeds grow in pods and are edible.  You can buy the pods at many local markets.  We ate the seeds roasted with onion and lime and salsa, and they were quite good.  The state of Oaxaca gets its name from the Huaje tree.

 

 

This tree grows near the former laundry station of the friars.  It is a tree who's berries contain natural saponines and which were used by the friars during the colonial period to work up a lather when washing their clothes, bodies, and hair.

 

The plants in the agave family can live for many decades, but when they are ready to die (due to age or weather conditions) they send up a long stalk and bloom before expiring.



 

The kapok tree has a significants in indigenous beliefs where they say that God created first woman and then first man from the kapok tree.  The kapok tree - fluffy stuff on the ends is very light and non-absorbant and was originally used for stuffing life vests and insulating flight jackets and airplanes.

 

 

Another tree we saw shows the evolution between trees becoming cacti as they adapted to their climate.  This tree still has the shape of a tree and some leaves which drop as it gets dry.  It also has the spines of a cactus.

 

 

This tree makes homage to "sunburned gringos" since it's red bark peels naturally, leaving fresh green bark visible underneath. 

The botanical gardens also showed the plants that were domesticated by the ancient peoples of the region, including corn, squash, beans, amaranth, peppers, and marigolds.  In caves inhabited 9000 years ago in Oaxaca, U of M researchers recently discovered ancient squash seeds, which they are currently studying.

In this garden, it is said that for every malady there is a remedy nearby from the trees and plants within the garden.