Contribution to the floristic study of the Patía river basin

Abstract

Taking into account the needs of soil recovery, conservation of river basins, streams and creeks, and crop diversification, we present a first list of the plant species found in the so-called Patía Trench and in part of its surrounding municipalities: El Tambo, Mercaderes, Bolívar and Balboa, at altitudes between 500 and 200 meters above sea level, with an approximate area of 563,000 hectares, according to the map of the Corporación Autónoma Regional del Cauca (CRC), 1992. Subsequently, we will record the vegetation of the moorlands, where most of the hydrographic system of the Patía River and others are found.

The total number of plants in the list is 410 distributed in 93 families and 276 genera. The number of species is low in relation to the surface of the basin because there are many botanically unexplored sites. It was also not possible to review all the abundant but scattered bibliography on the flora of the department of Cauca. We estimate that the number of higher (flowering) species, for the area noted above, including about 300 orchids, may range between 1,000 and 1,500.ranslated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version).