Jardín Mapulemu

This guide to Jardín Mapulemu in Santiago starts with the spring-fed waterfall that greeted visitors when the garden opened on Cerro San Cristóbal in 1983, and the more than seventy Chile-only species foresters planted region by region under a founding mission of rescate, rescue. It turns to the copiapoa cacti in the northern zone, desert plants found only along Chile's coast, and the trade that has made them some of the most trafficked plants on earth. Look for the labeled beds in the northern zone, where the spiny, ribbed cacti crown themselves with bright spring flowers.