Abstract

BENAVIDES MEZA, Héctor Mario. Historical-dendrological analysis of the tree cover of Bosque de Chapultepec (1 ^st section): Part I. Rev. mex. de cienc. forestales [online]. 2023, vol.14, n.80, pp.4-29.  Epub Feb 05, 2024. ISSN 2007-1132.  https://doi.org/10.29298/rmcf.v14i80.1333.

Bosque de Chapultepec is the main component of the urban forest of Mexico City and its importance goes back for more than seven centuries. In the beginning, the forest provided potable water to the pre-Hispanic city of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, and was the resting and recreational place for the tlatoanis (emperors) of the Mexica Empire. After the Spanish Conquest, Chapultepec continued as water provider to the capital of the viceroyalty of New Spain and also served as resting and recreational site for the viceroys; however, the place was declared property of the city in 1530 and opened for the citizens of Mexico City in 1550. Nowadays the value of this green urban space is remarkable, considering its location in a metropolitan area of 7 866 km2 and 22 million inhabitants, because of the social and ecosystemic services that provide. Notwithstanding the importance of Chapultepec to the city along the centuries, the information about the characteristics and conditions of the tree cover is limited and any analytical compilation effort of the scarce information was never done before. This attempt tries to explain the changes of the tree cover of Chapultepec over the centuries, in response to the environmental changes of the site but also the basin of the Valley of Mexico. The 1st part of this paper considers the pre-Hispanic period and continues chronologically to the XIX century, reporting as possible the tree species that were established and the conditions of the forest and the basin.

Keywords : Urban green areas; Mexico City; urban tree species; history of arboriculture in Mexico; New Spain; Taxodium mucronatum Ten.

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