Podocarpus National Park

Podocarpus National Park is a national park located in the provinces of Zamora Chinchipe and Loja, in southeast Ecuador. It covers 146,300 ha (360,000 acres), from two spurs of the eastern range of the Andes to the basins of the Nangaritza, Numbala and Loyola rivers.

The area is categorized as a megadiverse zone and an area with a high level of endemic species because it is a meeting point between four ecological systems: Northern Andes, Southern Andes, Amazonian and Pacific.

The park is part of the Podocarpus - El Condor Biosphere Reserve and is made up of two primary areas: the upper premontane section with tropical cloud forests and the lower subtropical section. There are large areas of virgin forest containing three specific species of the genus Podocarpus.

Podocarpus National Park spans the lower montane rainforests at 1,000 m (3,300 ft) up to high elevation elfin forests at 3,000 m (9,800 ft). Páramo or subpáramo vegetation is found at elevations over 3,000 m (9,800 ft) where a complex of more than 100 lagoons exists, among the best known being the Lagunas del Compadre.

An estimated 3,000 vascular plant species are found here. Although considerable knowledge has been gathered about its biodiversity in parts of the area, only a minority of the species inhabiting the park has been discovered so far.

The park contains an exceptionally diverse flora, and has been considered the 'Botanical Garden of America'. Its high and low mountain-forest ecosystems, located in the Nudo de Sabanilla pass, and its very humid mountain and premontane forests in the basin of the Numbala River, have more than 4,000 species of plants including trees that can measure up to 40 meters, like the romerillo (Podocarpus glomeratus) which gives its name to the park, and many other valuable species like the Cinchona - the national tree of Ecuador - and a huge variety of orchids.

Among the main species found in the region are chilca (Baccharis sp.), laurel, San Pedro cactus, uvilla, black elder, pumamaqui (Oreopanax sp.), sappanwood, arrayán, cashoco, alder, acacia, sage, guato blanco, cedar, castor oil plant, walnut, yumbingue (Terminalia guyanensis) and canelón (Swartzia littlei).

Included in the enormous biodiversity here are speckled bears, pumas, the Andean fox, giant armadillo, jaguar, mountain tapirs, Pudú, the smallest deer in the world and a huge variety (as many as 500 registered species) of exotic birds.

Threatened species include the coppery-chested jacamar, the Equatorial graymail, Peruvian antpitta and the bearded guan.