Botanical garden of Portoviejo, Botanical garden in Portoviejo, Ecuador

The Botanical Garden of Portoviejo belongs to the Technical University of Manabí and covers 50 hectares on the city's north side, at Av. Urbina y Che Guevara. It holds a 37-hectare reserve, a 10-hectare botanical garden and a 3-hectare wildlife rescue centre, with a palmetum, an orchid house, a desert garden of cacti and succulents, a rainforest trail and a bonsai area.

The garden began in 1991 as an initiative of students of the agricultural faculty of the Technical University of Manabí; the faculty took it over in 1992 through engineer Jhonny Muente Mora. A 1993 project by engineer Jorge Vizcarra Torres, presented to rector Guido Álava Párrala, set up a research garden and germplasm bank for threatened plants. It later grew to 50 hectares through graduation projects.

The garden's name comes from the Technical University of Manabí, which owns it; students of the agriculture faculty proposed it in 1991 and engineer Jhonny Muente Mora took it up in 1992. Its jungle trail groups paja toquilla (Carludovica palmata), pambil palms, guadua cane and balsa, plants of the western Ecuadorian tropics.

The garden lies in northern Portoviejo at Avenida Urbina and Che Guevara, and is open every day from 9:00 to 16:30. The city's tropical rainy climate brings 3,000 to 4,000 mm of rain a year, so paths can be muddy; wear shoes suited to wet ground.

The wildlife rescue centre holds 34 species, including monkeys, macaws, loros and guatusos, all animals rescued from owners or donated; the site is a transit point, not a zoo, and each animal is eventually released back into its habitat.