Chile: From the Atacama Desert to Patagonia with Paul Mills of Lotusland

After devastating fast-moving wildfires, two of Vina Del Mar Botanic Garden’s three zones were completely destroyed. But hope is blooming as help pours in from around the world to aid in its regrowth. If you’d like to contribute and help support Chile’s National Botanic Garden in Vina del Mar, visit the link below:
jbn.cl/
About this presentation:
Armchair travel to Chile via Zoom with Paul Mills, Director of Conservation and Curator of the Living Collections at Lotusland. He has spent much of his lifetime working with and studying plants worldwide, and has made trips to Chile fairly regularly since 1996. Mills is fascinated by the country’s dramatic geography and interesting flora, and his presentation will introduce us to several different habitats and vegetation types.
Much of Chile’s flora has developed in isolation due to its geographically-extreme landscapes that are situated between the Atacama Desert in the north, the Pacific Ocean to the west, the Andes Mountains to the east and Antarctica to the south. This diversity has given rise to many endemic plants, and made the country a popular destination for intrepid plant seekers.
Mills will take us from the Atacama, where some areas have never received measurable rainfall, through central Chile, which has a Mediterranean climate similar to California, and down to the southern reaches of the country that receive increased rainfall and feature towering temperate rain forests.
In addition to exploring Chile’s plant life, Mills will share insights about how some of its natural landscape has been drastically altered by agriculture and the massive plantations of pine and eucalyptus that are mostly used to make pulp for foreign paper industries. However, he will also touch on the patches of native vegetation and national parks where regional flora can still be found and appreciated.

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what is the name of the architect turned landscaper you met in the north?