Jardín Etnobotánico de Oaxaca

The Jardín Etnobotánico de Oaxaca fills the 2.3 hectares behind the church and former convent of Santo Domingo, in the north of the city's historic centre. The land was the Dominican friars' orchard. From the mid-19th century until 1994 the army used it, covering it with dormitories, parking lots and sports courts; a federal decree of November 1994 passed it to the state government, and the garden project, pushed from 1993 by the painter Francisco Toledo and the civic group PRO-Oaxaca, replaced the barracks with plantings. Since 2009 it has been run by the state's culture department.

Everything growing here is native to Oaxaca, one of the most biologically diverse states in Mexico, and the beds are arranged to show plants from its dry valleys, humid lowlands and cold mountains, along with the plants Oaxacans have long used for food, medicine, dyes, fibre and ritual. The garden counts about 1,300 cultivated species, a seed bank and a herbarium. One section recalls Guilá Naquitz, a cave near Mitla where archaeologists found squash seeds about 10,000 years old and early maize. A giant barrel cactus said to weigh more than five tonnes, possibly around 1,000 years old, is one of the stars.

The best-known view is of the tall organ-pipe cacti planted in tight rows and doubled in a long reflecting pool, with the convent's walls and the hills north of the city behind. Visits are only by guided tour, which keeps groups small and the garden quiet: Spanish tours run several times a day and an English tour runs once a day, Monday to Saturday. The guides explain how each group of plants has been used.