São Paulo Botanical Garden

This guide to the São Paulo Botanical Garden follows Frederico Carlos Hoehne, the self-taught gardener who arrived in the city in 1917 and broke ground here in 1928 at the springs of the Ipiranga River, one of at least four disputed birthdates for this place. His orchid obsession, formed while surveying Mato Grosso with the Rondon Commission, filled the twin greenhouses ahead of you, each holding a different slice of forest under glass.