Gardens at the End of the Earth
Charlie Nurse & Jane Norwich look at the unusual plantlife in Chile’s National Parks
Stretching over 2,500 miles down the Pacific coast from the wastes of the Atacama desert in the north to Tierra del Fuego in the south, Chile is home to one of the most varied plant populations of Latin America. Despite, or perhaps because of, its wide ranges of rainfall, latitude and altitude, no country in South America has influenced the English garden so much as Chile.
Although this means that English visitors may find much that is familiar, fuschias, Berberis, Monkey Puzzle trees and Alstromerias for example, there is nothing like seeing plants in their natural habitat and the best place to find this is in Chile’s network of National Parks. Although there are 87 parks and other protected areas, stretching all the way from Lauca on the Bolivian border in the far north to the world-famous Torres del Paine in the south, the parks of the south and centre of the country are a botanist’s dream.
Torres del Paine with its famous granite towers’, 3 giant fingers rising over 2,600 metres, its glaciers which break off the giant southern Patagonian icecap and its unique microclimate is one of the great parks of the Americas.
While it is justly famous and attracts over 50,000 visitors a year, many of these lucky people fail to look closely at what they are treading on; a blanket of orchids, orange and yellow slipper plants (Calceolaria), Lathyrus (mauve sweet pea like flowers) and mauve Oxalis. In spring the hill slopes are a blaze of embothrium, with its brilliant red flowers, pernettya with its copious ruby-like fruits and calafate (Berberis buxifolia), a low shrub with bright yellow single flowers and delicious red/mauve berries.
In damper shady areas are clumps of tiny 3 cm. high Gunnera magellanica (the Brazilian Gunnera found in Britain rise to 3 metres by contrast) as well as the copihue (Lapageria rosea), justly Chile’s national flower and found from Santiago to the far south. Sadly many of the park’s trees have been victims of forest fires though some species of southern beeches, notably Nothofagus antarctica, are regenerating themselves, stumps left over frosts earlier disasters can be seen alongside the entry road.
The park’s fame and popularity has made managing the influx of visitors, most of whom arrive in January and February, into a major headache for CONAF, the Chilean National Park authority. Accommodation is limited, hotel beds in peak season are booked up well in advance and park wardens find it almost impossible to enforce rules on lighting fires and not leaving rubbish. Such is the strain that there are no plans to upgrade the rough gravel roads into and around the park or to provide more accommodation. None of this should deter you; everyone should see Torres del Paine before they die; but you will enjoy it more in spring (November) or autumn (March).
Another popular area in Chile for visitors is the Chilean lake district, further north, where there are a number of other parks, famous for their temperate rainforests, volcanoes and, of course, lakes. The main tree species in all of these are the southern beeches, Nothofagus, of which there are many varieties. These range from Nothofagus antarctica which can grow as low scrub and is mainly found further south, to the giant and elegant Nothofagus dombeyii. Where and how well each of these grows depends on altitude and temperature but, as the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda observed ‘anyone who hasn’t been in the Chilean forest, doesn’t know this planet.’
The Vicente Pérez Rosales National Park can best be seen on the ‘classic’ trip by boat and bus to the Argentine town of Bariloche from Puerto Montt via the beautiful Lago Todos Los Santos. The hillsides are covered in southern beeches, notably Nothofagus dombeyii, and in spring the air is full of the heady scent of Spanish broom with its luminous yellow flowers.
Further north, east of the busy market city of Osorno, is Puyehue, a national park on the slopes of the Casablanca volcano, one of the few in the world with a deciduous treeline. Around the dramatic Salto del Indio waterfalls are giant ferns, over 2 metres high and the Looma, a tree rising to 50 metres, notable for its two-tone orange-and-white bark. (Its botanical name is still disputed because of the many similar varieties). Some 120 miles north, near Pucón, a popular lakeside resort with black sand beaches beautifully set below the snow-capped Villarrica volcano, is another park, Huerquehue.
Difficult to reach in wet weather due to the steepness of the dirt road, it is covered by large stretches of temperate rainforest. Species include some fine 100 metre-tall examples of Nothofagus dombeyii, but, reaching above this to win the battle for sunlight, are monkey-puzzles. Between the trees you can see the Villarrica volcano; if you are lucky it might be smoking. If you want a closer look it can be climbed with a guide in a day from Pucon. The scene recalls the opening lines of Neruda’s autobiography:
"...under the volcanoes, beside the snow-capped mountains, among the huge lakes, the fragrant, the silent, the tangled Chilean forest. My feet sink down into the dead leaves, a fragile twig crackles, the. giant rauli trees rise in all their bristling height."
Further north, around Temuco, is Conguillo, another park situated on the slopes of a volcano, the still-active Llaima. Conguillo contains the best examples of the national tree, Araucaria auracana, known in this country as the monkey-puzzle. Grown individually as ornamentals in English gardens, they have to be seen in large numbers to be appreciated; somehow they manage to look much happier in a group.
Not all of Chile’s interesting flora nor its great parks are in the south. From Santiago the capital, it is an easy day trip to La Campana, a new park renowned for the visit of Darwin in 1834. Extensive areas of the park are covered by the Chilean wine-palm tree (Jubaea chilensis), which Darwin thought ugly because of its curious trunk, much thicker in the middle than at the base or top.
In his day its sweet sap was consumed as a delicacy; it was so widely grown that he recalls counting several hundred thousand on one estate before giving up Now an endangered species, it is only found in large numbers in this park. About half-way along the main path through the park is a deservedly famous view across to the coastal mountain range; with no sign of human habitation and with the stately palms standing above the lower vegetation, this view alone would make a trip to Chile worthwhile. In spring the path-sides are lined with bright orange and pink alstromerias, far better than any of the expensive specimens you might find in your high street florist. Care is needed: the green spikey sparsely-leaved colletia and the yellow scented flowered acacia can scratch you mercilessly.
By now plant aficionados will have realised that the main problems they face in Chile are of choosing between the delights on offer and of travelling long distances. Two things, though, should encourage you; the availability of cheap domestic air-travel and the climatic variety, which means that whatever time of year you go, there will be something in Chile’s 2,500 miles worth seeing.
Jane Norwich is a freelance garden designer who visited Chile in November l997. Charlie Nurse is editor of the Chile Handbook, (1997) and of the forthcoming Argentina Handbook (March 1998) both published by Footprint Handbooks and available from Journey Latin America.