The Albert Löfgren State Park (), commonly known as the São Paulo Forest Gardens () is a

state park State parks are parks or other protected areas managed at the sub-national level within those nations which use "Federated state, state" as a political subdivision. State parks are typically established by a state to preserve a location on accou ...

in the state of

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

, Brazil.

Location

The Albert Löfgren State Park is in the north of the city of

, adjoining the

Cantareira State Park The Cantareira State Park () is a state park in the Serra da Cantareira mountain range, in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. It protects an area of Atlantic Forest to the north of the city of São Paulo. In October 1994, UNESCO declared it part o ...

. It has an area of . About of the park are public space. It is open every day from 6am to 6pm. The park gets about 720,000 visitors each year.

History

The area was expropriated by the Engenho da Pedra Branca in 1896 to hold a botanical garden. The Swedish naturalist and botanist Albert Löfgren created the park and was the first director, from 1907 to 1909. The garden became the base for the Forest Service, today the Forest Institute of the São Paulo Secretariat of the Environment. Pines planted when the park was founded can still be seen in the Albert Löefgren Arboretum.

Facilities

The park has a stage for events, picnic area, playground, changing room, jogging track, sports court, soccer fields, exercise equipment, drinking water, lakes and toilets. It contains an environmental education center, the Summer Palace of the state government and the headquarters of the state military police and forest police. The Octavio Vecchi Museum, or Wood Museum, was inaugurated in 1931. It has the largest collection of different woods in Latin America. The wood samples have engravings of the leaves and fruit of the tree they came from. The floor and ceiling are also made of wood samples. There is a monument marking the

Tropic of Capricorn The Tropic of Capricorn (or the Southern Tropic) is the circle of latitude that contains the subsolar point at the December (or southern) solstice. It is thus the southernmost latitude where the Sun can be seen directly overhead. It also reach ...

, which passes through the park. There are no snack bars in the park, but there are places to eat around the main entrance. Vegetation includes exotic species such as

eucalyptus ''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of more than 700 species of flowering plants in the family Myrtaceae. Most species of ''Eucalyptus'' are trees, often Mallee (habit), mallees, and a few are shrubs. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalyp ...

, pinheiro-do-brejo (''

Taxodium distichum ''Taxodium distichum'' (baldcypress, bald-cypress, bald cypress, swamp cypress; ; ''cipre'' in Louisiana) is a deciduous conifer in the family Cupressaceae. It is native to the southeastern United States. Hardy and tough, this tree adapts to a ...

'') and

cryptomeria ''Cryptomeria'' (literally "hidden parts") is a monotypic genus of conifer in the cypress family Cupressaceae. It includes only one species, ''Cryptomeria japonica'' ( syn. ''Cupressus japonica'' L.f.). It is considered to be endemic to Japan, ...

, as well as native trees such as pau-brasil (''

Caesalpinia echinata ''Paubrasilia echinata'' is a species of flowering plant in the legume family, Fabaceae, that is endemic to the Atlantic Forest of Brazil. It is a Brazilian timber tree commonly known as Pernambuco wood or brazilwood (, ; Tupi language, Tupi: ) ...

''), carvalho-nacional ('' Quercus faginea''), pau-ferro ('' Libidibia ferrea'') and jatobá (''

Hymenaea courbaril ''Hymenaea courbaril'', the courbaril or West Indian locust, is a hardwood tree common in the Caribbean and Central and South America. As lumber it is frequently used to make furniture, flooring, and decoration. Its hard fruit pods have an edi ...

''). Fauna include robust capuchin monkeys, Brazilian squirrel (''Sciurus aestuans''), opossums (''

Didelphis ''Didelphis'' is a genus of New World marsupials. The six species in the genus ''Didelphis'', commonly known as Large American opossums, are members of the ''opossum'' order (biology), order, Didelphimorphia. The genus ''Didelphis'' is composed ...

''),

toucan Toucans (, ) are Neotropical birds in the family Ramphastidae. They are most closely related to the Semnornis, Toucan barbets. They are brightly marked and have large, often colorful Beak, bills. The family includes five genus, genera and over ...

stork Storks are large, long-legged, long-necked wading birds with long, stout bills. They belong to the family Ciconiidae, and make up the order Ciconiiformes . Ciconiiformes previously included a number of other families, such as herons and ibise ...

heron Herons are long-legged, long-necked, freshwater and coastal birds in the family Ardeidae, with 75 recognised species, some of which are referred to as egrets or bitterns rather than herons. Members of the genus ''Botaurus'' are referred to as bi ...

rufous-collared sparrow The rufous-collared sparrow or Andean sparrow (''Zonotrichia capensis'') is an American sparrow found in a wide range of habitats, often near humans, from the extreme south-east of Mexico to Tierra del Fuego, and the island of Hispaniola (split ...

(''Zonotrichia capensis'') and

kingfisher Kingfishers are a family, the Alcedinidae, of small to medium-sized, brightly coloured birds in the order Coraciiformes. They have a cosmopolitan distribution, with most species living in the tropical regions of Africa, Asia, and Oceania, ...

Notes

Sources

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Albert Lofgren State Park State parks of Brazil Protected areas established in 1896 1896 establishments in Brazil Protected areas of São Paulo (state) Parks in São Paulo