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be used by Rio's colonial high society, it was eventually opened to the public. Like Campo de Santana, the history of the park was evident in its oldest trees. The Passeio Publico contains the only baobob (Adansonia grandidieri) in the city and one of only 21 in all of Brazil. In the heart of Centro, or downtown, the park is heavily used by city residents and workers. After an incredible lunch, we were off to yet another city park, although this one was closer to the Rio de Janeiro that we see in the travel brochures. Flamingo Park flanks Flamingo Beach for a distance of approximately 1.24 miles (2 km). Designed by world-famous landscape architect Burle Marx, the park's 296 acres (120 hectares) of land sits across from the famed Sugarloaf Mountain and holds 11,000 trees and 4,000 palms of approximately 150 differ- ent species. Of particular interest here were several exam- ples of brazilwood (Caesalpinia echinata), after which the country is named. Once a common tree of coastal Brazil, it was brought close to extinction by the early traders who shipped the wood to the European continent to extract a highly valued red dye. Fruit trees such as jambu (Syzygium samarangense) and pitanga (Eugenia uniflora) were also abundant in Flamingo Park. My third day held a special surprise. Rio de Janeiro is home to Floresta da Tijuca, a mountainous hand-planted rainforest and the world's largest urban forest, cover- ing some 7,907 acres (3,200 hectares). The Atlantic Rainforest is home to hundreds of species of plants, many threatened by extinction, found only in that eco- system. After the original forest had been destroyed to make way for coffee farms, it was replanted by hand in 1861 in a successful effort to preserve Rio's water sup- ply. Now a national park, the forest includes some of the most famous attractions of Rio, including the Christ the Redeemer statue on Corcovado Mountain. With 79 inches (200 cm) of rain a year, the forest is dense and bromeli- ads, epiphytes, and ferns cling to ipê (Tabebuia), jequitiba (Coriniana legalis), painera (Chorisia speciosa), embauba (Cecropia sp.), and a host of other species. Researchers from the New York Botanical Garden catalogued 458 spe- cies of plants on one hectare of Atlantic Rainforest alone. Unfortunately, this incredible forest is in rapid decline as a result of human activity. On my fourth day I had the opportunity to learn about the restinga, a distinct ecosystem within the Atlantic Rainforest. Restingas are coastal lowland plant com- munities and form on sandy and saline soils. Tree cover tends to be compact and mixed with bromeliads, ferns, shrubs, vines, cacti, palms and epiphytes, including some interesting orchids. Though occasionally punctuated by exotics such as beefwood (Casuarina stricta), canopy www.urban-forestry.com 13