The Ethnobotanical Garden of Oaxaca

Over 900 distinct flora species native to Oaxaca enclosed within the walls of a 16th century monastery. A region’s history told through plants.

The Mexican military occupied it for 100 years. When they left, the government considered selling to real estate developers before deciding to leave it to a team of arts, anthropologists, and botanists. Francisco Toledo was instrumental amongst that group in ensuring that they reserved the space the garden.

To protect the plants and the exquisite grounds, you can only visit by small group guided tours. Double check but the Spanish tours happen Monday to Saturday at 10am, and the English tours happen twice weekly at 11am on Tuesdays and Saturdays. We stood in line with coffees in hand at 9am and joined the Spanish tour because the English tour was cancelled for some reason. It did not matter that we understood little from the tour. The grounds are magnificent.