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Within the vast green expanse of Chapultepec park in Mexico City, the botanical garden gathers a wide variety of Mexican and tropical plants into a tranquil enclave devoted to the country's extraordinary botanical wealth. Mexico is one of the most biologically diverse nations on earth, home to an enormous range of plant species, and the garden sets out to display and conserve a representative selection, with particular attention to the cacti and other succulents for which the country is famous, gathered in collections that show the remarkable forms these desert plants take. Laid out with shaded paths winding among the beds, the garden includes greenhouses sheltering orchids and tropical species, areas devoted to medicinal and useful plants long employed in Mexican tradition, ponds with aquatic plants, and displays explaining the ecology and importance of the nation's flora. Free to enter and easily reached within the most visited section of the park, close to the great anthropology museum, the castle and the lake, the garden offers a quiet, educational retreat from the bustle of the surrounding city, valued by families, students and anyone seeking a peaceful green corner amid the trees of Chapultepec. Mexico ranks among a handful of countries described as megadiverse, harbouring a vast share of the world's plant species, and the garden serves both to celebrate that richness and to play a part in conserving and studying it, gathering native species alongside tropical plants from elsewhere in collections arranged for both display and education. The cacti and succulents are a particular strength, fitting for a country that is a global centre of diversity for these plants, and the beds show the astonishing range of forms they take, from squat barrels and tall columns to sprawling and spined oddities, many of them endemic to Mexico's deserts and threatened in the wild. Greenhouses shelter orchids and other delicate tropical species that could not survive the open air of the high valley, while sections devoted to medicinal and useful plants recall the deep traditional knowledge of Mexican herbal medicine, and ponds hold water lilies and other aquatic plants. Interpretive signs explain the ecology, uses and conservation of the flora, making the garden a place of learning as much as of leisure. Free to enter and set within the busiest section of Chapultepec, close to the renowned anthropology museum, the castle on its hill and the boating lake, the garden gives families, students and weary sightseers a calm, shaded refuge and a reminder of the natural wealth of the land beyond the city.