Soroa Orchid Botanical Garden

 botanical garden, UNESCO World Heritage Site

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Orchid Nursery Soroa Botanical Garden. With more than 25 000 orchid species from different parts of the world, including around 100 Cuban species. The garden also has 6 000 species of other ornamental plants, trees, and flowers that represent the national flora of several countries.

With around three hundred species, including a number of endemics, Cuban orchids form an important component of the broader Caribbean flora, and have connections both with those of Meso-America and North America.

90 kilometres west of Havana, el Jardín Botánico Orquideario Soroa (JBOS) nestles on the side of a valley in the mountains of Cuba’s Sierra del Rosario Biosphere Reserve.

Originally called ‘Rancho Pilila’, Orquideario Soroa was built by Don Tomás Felipe Camacho (1886-1961), a wealthy Spanish lawyer. The orchid nursery garden was founded in 1943 to honour his daughter. The beautiful house of the family (currently a museum), still keeps its original furniture and decoration.

In addition to the living collections, Camacho assembled a library specialising in orchids and other ornamental plants: still considered to be the richest, most varied and up-to-date in the country. Amongst more recent works are preserved old documents, volumes dating back to the 19th century and registers of cultivated orchids prepared by Camacho himself.

Under the guidance of Rolando Pérez Márquez, its current Scientific Director, the Garden has developed an interdisciplinary approach to study of Cuban native orchids. As just one example, the biology of Brassia caudata, is being studied with a view to possible re-introduction and augmentation of naturally occurring populations. The project involves the monitoring of populations in the wild; unravelling the individual phenology of the species; collection of seeds from mature fruits; raising seedlings under laboratory conditions; and learning about the process of adaptation of plantlets after they have been transplanted into the wild. Plants are illustrated by José Bocourt Vigil, the garden’s resident artist.

Unusually for a botanical garden, much emphasis is placed on the study of orchid pests and diseases, and their control. This has resulted in the publication of many papers both in Cuban and in international journals. The exchange of information, education in its broadest terms, is an important function of botanical gardens. In addition to hosting regular international orchid workshops aimed at the scientific community, Orquideario Soroa also generates income by running one week orchid courses for orchid aficionados in both Spanish and in English.

nybg.org/tos10/ Inspiration for this tag

www.cubaheadlines.com/2009/12/21/19222/new_area_soroa%E... Updated information February 2010.